Practicing rock climbing indoors with secure handles is pointless. Individuals who do this will never be ready to handle real rock climbing, if they ever decide to. They are placed inside a recreation center that always remains at room temperature with a padded landing in case they slip.
Whoever thinks this would have to eat their own words after completing a class of rock climbing at the Old Dominion Recreation Center.
Strapping and tying more knots than any Boy Scout ever will, I stepped up to the two-story high rock climbing wall. Hands sweating more than Shaquille O’Neal at the free throw line, I died a couple times that day, or so I thought. Falling off the wall seemed almost as life-like as dying.
Forgetting I was safely strapped around the waist like a baby in a diaper, I saw my life flash before my eyes. Gaining my bachelor’s degree, giving up journalism for professional rock climbing, setting the world record for climbing the Grand Canyon from the bottom-up all slipped away when I slipped from the secure hand and foot handles in rainbow colors.
Like a cat having nine lives, I decided to give it another shot. Knowing that I couldn’t die with all the rope I had wrapped around my body and the trampoline like floor below me, I stepped up to what seemed like the four-story rock climbing wall.
Fellow colleagues of mine were ignored purposely as I concentrated on making it to the promise land, or what an outsider
would see as the top of the rock climbing wall. Strength building up within me, I made it to the top.
Forgetting that I was in a student recreational center, I was expecting to see birds fly out of the top of trees, humans the size of ants, and buildings the size of simple LEGO pieces. Instead, I saw two of my roommates waving to me from their table at Einstein bagels. I turn my head to the right and look down to see random people walking around the different weight lifting machines. I look up to see that there are three light bulbs that need replacing.
Letting go from the top was the easiest part for me; I was disappointed with the view from above. The moment my feet hit the ground, I was back to regularity. It was back to my friends asking me to borrow some flex points while I checked out every single girl on the elliptical machines and treadmills.
It was back to playing basketball in the gymnasium, just like everyone else checking out an occasional girl through the glass windows as if
she can’t see you looking. Although the outcome of my imagined promise land was a failure, rock climbing was a rush; inside or not. I felt as if I was literally hanging off a cliff with only pure body strength keeping me alive. Refusing to look down at how high you are or look up at the missing light bulbs, all you see is your knuckles changing colors based off of how hard you are squeezing the next handle. For those 30 seconds, I was a rock climber. I may not have had the most technologically advanced equipment, but in spirit, I was a rock climber.
Most people just look at the wall at the Old Dominion gym as a decorative sort of thing. As one who is more into sports on the ground such as basketball and football, I encourage you to give rock climbing a try. Rock climbing is a full body workout that you must be mentally prepared for, but a feeling that is unattainable without doing.
