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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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"I don't really climb hard, I just like having fun."
I can identify with that!
I think that's why it gets ingrained and we keep coming back....
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mazamarick
Trad climber
WA
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Worked at REI in '72 with a guy who ran a climbing school, Al Givler was one of his instructors who taught a rock climbing segment. Didn't think I'd like it(vs. mountaineering), ended up being my passion for the next 30+ years. RIP Al, I can't thank you enough for making an impression on an impressionable kid..
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bergbryce
Mountain climber
Berkeley, CA
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MCA ice climbing festival in Alaska was actually the first time I tied in... then a few months later I was living in Heidelberg, Germany and went by the German Alpine Club to talk to them about doing some ski tours. The woman behind the counter suggested I try the new climbing wall that had just been built. She introduced me to the guy who did most of the instructing. I started going every Tuesday and the rest is history. I had one maybe 3 month period when I only climbed a few times, other than that it's been solid at least twice a week :-)
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LuckyPink
climber
the last bivy
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.. the infamous Harrison Hood sparked my climbing in 2001.
Like bluie my lifestyle from childhood on developed out of wilderness exploration in the alpine and forest environments. I had used ropes in alpine scrambles, sailing, ski mountaineering, and one day found myself high off the deck on a fingertip ledge in hiking boots. It occurred to me I should know something about protection and rope systems, just so I could get into more interesting terrain and my little school age kids could go along. Hence the call to H for some classes and guide service. I've climbed all over the world, rock and mountaineering
Now those little kids are big and my 20 year old has just caught the bug, so I'm taking him and his buddy on their first climbing adventures this summer. Motherhood..the best.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Had already reserved/paid a deposit on a ski cabin only for there not to be enough snow to ski (but went to hang out/party). Some friends of friends, also staying in the cabin, asked in the morning if anyone wanted to go out climbing with them.
I was like, "well, umm, sure, why not..." Had no idea it was about to take over my life...
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pc
climber
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Met Laurie Skreslet at a talk he gave on his Everest Summit. (as the first Canadian) He told me about some frozen waterfalls he and some pals were doing in eastern BC.
Got the bug, bought some shoes and a rope, and headed out to Buffalo Crag, Niagara Escarpment.
pc
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Fletcher
Trad climber
Looking for love in all the right places...
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In the early 90's I was doing a lot of solo backpacking in the Sierra. I was gravitating toward non-trail hiking and peak bagging. Some of that peak bagging was starting to get a little "airy" for me (probably was 3rd class mostly). So I decided I needed to get some more skill so I'd feel more confident and be able to decide what I was getting myself into.
My pal and I played hooky from work a few times and took a bunch of classes at YMS over a spring and summer. On a lightly rainy April day Doug Nidever showed us how to boulder on these invisible (to me at the time) "rugosities and nubbins". What the heck, it worked! Next day, Dave Bengston showed us different kinds of crack techniques and some very basic anchoring. Then took us up Oak Tree and Bay Tree Flakes.
I was hooked and have been an avid n00b ever since. Thanks guys!
Eric
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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My folks thought getting rid of the kids for the summer was a great idea, so we went to summer camp. My counselors were avid Adirondack hikers, so that's what we did. Most of the kids hated it, but I really enjoyed it.
Then my folks sent me on a trip out west in 1958 and, after a day of climbing school at hidden falls, I did the Grand Teton via the Owen-Spaulding route with the Exum guides (in fact, with Glenn Exum).
That did it; I was totally hooked, and 52 years later I am still at it.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
climber
from the Leastside
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"I don't really climb hard, I just like having fun."
I can identify with that! ~ Jaybro
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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i was under my car one day, and i said to myself,
"wow, i feel just like scuffy!"
and that was that.
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Maysho
climber
Soda Springs, CA
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My adopted parents were really sedentary, but they got it that I was hungry for adventure even as a little kid, so they sent me out with some friends of theirs who were into skiing. I was blown away by my first experience skiing at Homewood as a 6 year old (1969), the next year got to join a ski club and went every weekend for a few years. The ski club promoted a summer outing program called Wilderness Experience which was run by some ski patrol folks from Alpine Meadows. They took us rock climbing on some crags above the 5 lakes area, between Alpine and Squaw, I was 9 years old, and totally loved it. I remember the fear, the thrill and the pain of a vertical body rappel on gold line rope, a rite of passage that few get to experience these days. The next year I went to Yosemite Valley with a YMCA trip, one of the counselors climbed and I told him I had belayed before, we went and did the first pitch of Monday Morning Slab right side. My parents divorced and a year later my father moved to a house in the Berkeley Hills, first weekend visit I wondered a few blocks and ran into the Sierra Club Rock Climbing Section at Pinnacle Rock. They invited me to tie-in. Toward the end of 6th grade, I moved in with my dad, and became a regular RCS kid. In 7th grade I started hanging at Indian Rock and was heavily influenced by Mike and Amy Loughman, Fred Cook, Scott Frye, Steve Moyles, Chris Vandiver and many others. I had the best of both worlds, learning rope craft and anchoring from some old Sierra Club masters, and technique and footwork from some of the smoothest climbers of the day.
Peter
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Fletcher
Trad climber
Looking for love in all the right places...
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These are some great stories... it's very interesting to see where you all started out.
eric
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ron gomez
Trad climber
fallbrook,ca
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As a kid I wanted to climb everything around. At 17 a friend asked me to go with him down to Corona del Mar and I saw Bachar bouldering. Didn't know who he was then but when I went back I saw him again and he danced on the rock. Decided then and there, this was cool! Went to Ski Mart in Newport and bought some shoes, EB's(John told me what shoes he was wearing) and went damn near EVERYDAY after that. Met Dan Leichtfuss, Maria Cranor, Randy Vogel, the regular crew there in those days, then it was off to Josh and Yosemite...the rest is history. Still love it as much 35 years later as I did the first time I flailed up the lay back on the beach!
Peace
Edit: Funny x15...all the streams I crossed years ago on approaches in the Sierra, I now go back to fly fish them...opposite of you, but tons of fun just the same.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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ours relationship is one-sided, me and those mounts.
you see, i'm just rambling along minding my own secrets, and those mountains keep puttin' themselves beneath me.
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MisterE
Social climber
Bouncy Tiggerville
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 5, 2010 - 07:46pm PT
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Thank you all - beginnings are such an amazing period, I hope more folks will weigh in!
Erik
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Captain...or Skully
Big Wall climber
Transporter Room 2
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A really good friend that I was in the Navy with turned me on to it.
He just suggested it & showed me a couple pics.
I'd just been laid off from a job, so I gave away my furniture & headed for The Valley. I figured the Center would be a good place to learn.
He's gone now(miss you Quinn), but I still thank him every day.
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jstan
climber
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Little did the parental RGolds realize they had given their only begotten son into the hands of degenerates.
Just as I did not realize when I started climbing with him
he was but a kid.
No one that strong and confident could possibly be a kid.
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wbw
climber
'cross the great divide
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I had climbed a couple of times, so two weeks after finishing school, and having moved to Wyoming, I tell my buddy Wes I wanted to be a climber. Wes, 18 years old at the time, with a bunch of attitude and experience from previously living in Mammoth, tells me "if you're going to be a climber then we're going to Yosemite in the spring." So we built a crack machine, leaned it up against the place I was living in Teton Village, and I learned to jam cracks outside during a Jackson Hole winter.
In April, we bought a bag of potatoes and a case of Milwaukee's Best and went to the Valley. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by the scale, and totally impressed that The Kid and his buds were always smokin' up in their van earlier in the day than we were.
After that trip in '84, I bought Yosemite Climber, and that sealed the deal. The skillz and time-spent are not always constant, but I've been a climber ever since.
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Porkchop_express
Trad climber
Springdale UT
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I went to high school in AK for a year where rappelling and climbing were part of the PE curriculum. As a young lad in upstate New York I was always into climbing trees and the rocks that were in my back yard--my father was a structural steel worker so I suppose thats where much of the initial desire came from...
Anyhow, after discovering "real" climbing in HS, I was very interested but I always thought it was far beyond me. I wound up getting into soccer and baseball but I still thought of learning to climb. I tried pricing out some guides but I didnt have disposable cash to blow. In college, I came across the Nat Geo magazine about Alex Lowe and his expedition to Baffin Island and I made a commitment to learn if it killed me. I shredded that magazine and posted every piece of readily available climbing literature within my personal space to remind me of what I was working towards.
In the mean time I honed my outdoor skills by backpacking for a few months after college on the Appalachian Trail and when I got back, I bought some shoes and chalk and headed for the local gym. I soon realized that this scene would not provide lasting entertainment, but I did manage to make friends with some good climbers who also taught me a lot about leading and placing gear.
Once I knew how to lead and place gear, I hit the road and now I have taken a bit of a side path into the realm of canyoneering, but my commitment lies in climbing and someday I will go to Baffin Island, even if only to trek around and take pictures.
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zeta
Trad climber
Berkeley
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i was living in northern new mexico working as a ski instructor, in my early 20s...two of my roommates were climbing partners and they built a short climbing wall in our backyard. They started taking me out on day trips, where they would lead or set up a top rope. I loved it immediately but thought it was a crazy hard sport, because neither of them thought to give me any tips (like straight-arming, learning how to rest, etc.). So I would hang and flail, struggling to inch my way upward.
I had thought sandstone was fantastic, but then I moved to Colorado and started climbing on granite and limestone. I started climbing with people in Colorado who gave me tips on technique, learned how to read a topo, and started learning how to build anchors and lead. Suddenly climbing became a huge part of my life.
Here's what I remember though...
After every climbing roadtrip my old New Mexico roommates went on, they would carefully organize their gear, hanging cams a certain way, making sure the gates of the biners were facing the same way, etc. At the time, I thought it was ridiculous how particular they were with their gear, saying to myself, "i would never be like that!" And of course, now I am exactly like them! Now it's me who is always planning the next climbing roadtrip, fixated on how I organize my gear, and maybe a bit too attached to my rack.
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