Story and photograph by Michael Hasson
Rock climbing is a niche sport. Of the population of people who say they rock climb, I would venture to guess that the majority spend most of their time in gyms. Therefore, climbing on bolted outdoor routes is a smaller subset of an already small community.
However, there exists an even smaller subset of climbers who, instead of using bolts that are pre-drilled into the wall, place their own pieces of metal protection as they climb. This type of climbing, called traditional (or “trad”), is a fairly exclusive subset of the sport, and somehow I’ve already managed to get into it, only three months into school.
Over second block break I went to Indian Creek in Utah to explore why it is one of the most renowned climbing locations in the world. The climbing there is virtually all difficult crack climbing. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t have the friendliest reputation for beginners. As someone who has only really started climbing this year, it looked like I was in for a big challenge.
After several warm-up climbs in the morning, I found an easy climb that I wanted to lead. When leading sport routes, climbers typically climb on bolts that they trust. They are drilled into the wall at an angle so that they will catch a big fall. Falls may be long and there is always the potential for injury, but at least climbers only have to clip the rope to a bolt, not worry about installing the protection itself.
Trad leading is very different. However often the climber feels is needed (typically every 6-8 feet), the climber will insert the correct size cam, nut, or hex into a crack in the wall, making sure to choose the correct type of protection for the crack.
Then, depending on where the route goes, he or she must decide whether to attach a loop of webbing to the piece of protection in order prevent it from “walking” out of the spot where it has been placed. Obviously, this all takes some time. And, if you’re like me and are still learning to pick the right size piece on the first try, you can be hanging on the wall fumbling for a minute or two before coming up with something that will catch you if you fall.
So, after top-roping (where a rope runs through an anchor at the top of the climb making it virtually impossible to fall more than a foot or two) the climb to make sure that it was easy enough for me to spend some time hanging out on, I racked up my gear and started up the route.
Even with a bit of fumbling, the route felt great. With no falls, I successfully led Twin Cracks, 5.9, on trad gear. This delicate technique that is trad climbing left me riding a high for the next week. Granted, the climbing was easy and gear placements were straightforward, but I had done it all the same.
On that trip I got three more trad leads in. All I could think was that I had been climbing outside for two months—how had I already broken into trad? It seemed absurd and incredible at the same time.
However, I’m sitting here writing this after leading all three pitches of New Era, 5.7, at the Garden of the Gods. This makes nine trad pitches that I’ve led in the last two weeks. Like the view from the top, it still feels too good to be true.
Colorado College seems to be known for an inviting student body. Inclusion is one of the four or five key concepts that we discussed during NSO. However, the word inclusive doesn’t seem to do the climbing community here justice.
Between people lending other people gear, tips, rides, etc., climbers here seem to accept people into the community like no other that I’ve ever felt a part of before. Already I’ve been helped to push myself, learn a plethora of new skills, and start to scare myself (but just the right amount).
Climbing has become my favorite way to push myself and it just so happens that I get to do it with many of my favorite people. So, if you never make it onto the walls of the Ritt Gym or the outside ones that will inevitably follow if you show up there enough, you will have missed an incredible part of the CC community. I’m so fortunate to have discovered it this early in my career here, and I hope that anyone reading this will be inspired to come see what the buzz is about.
Guest Writer