Hi all!  I love it when people do unique activities for fitness.  I have really enjoyed getting to know Miss ‘Drea through her blog, Eye of the ‘Drea.   She’s a true friend and I love her adventures.  I asked her to do a guest post because I thought you might become inspired to take up climbing yourself.    Take it away ‘Drea!

I heard that one of coworkers, Jessica, was a rock climber and she was open to taking people with her so I emailed to see if I could tag along. In retrospect, I don’t know how I got the idea in my head that I wanted to rock climb but I distinctly remember the feeling I had when I walked into the gym. It looked like some torture chamber and the holds on the wall looked sadistic. I remember thinking that one couldn’t possible use those holds to climb anywhere; they looked so small.

As I was standing at the mouth of the cave that is now my rock climbing gym, I didn’t see Jessica and I was thinking that If I didn’t see her soon, I would have the perfect excuse to walk out but Jessica emerged from the back and stood by me as I filled out a waiver with scary stuff about rock climbing being a dangerous sport.

I told Jessica, not knowing anything about climbing, that I didn’t want to use the ropes. "Oh, you want to use the ropes," Jessica insisted. I later learned that climbing without ropes is bouldering and Jessica could not have been more right.

I didn’t like climbing the first time. Or the second. I made it to the top on my second route but, on the first one, I became terrified when I lost my grip because I thought I was going to plunge. I had forgotten the whole belayer-harness-rope-thing.

To this day, I’m not sure why I went back to climb. I was having a challenging time at everything, really, including belaying which I couldn’t believe that children were able to master but I couldn’t. I was edgy a lot during my initial outings but I went from fear to pleasure with rock climbing.

There is no feeling like making it to the top of a route, especially one that you thought you’d never be able to climb or hoisting yourself over an arête. I love contorting and repositioning my body, putting the front of my feet on one rock, leaning sideways, getting myself out of corners, jumping for holds as if I’m on a basketball court.

Rock climbing is about pacing one’s self. I loved it when a climber said his strategy is to climb smart at the bottom and quick at the top or when one belayer said to the climber: that’s a mental crux.

As an introvert, climbing has helped since communication is crucial and I’ve also found that the mind body connection is not a myth after all.

My hands are full of calluses and I have a pre-climbing ritual of clipping my fingernails.

When I put on my harness and my climbing shoes then attach my ATC device and carabiner to my harness loop, I often feel like I’m going to work and I am going to work — on strength, confidence and relationships.

In the rock climbing gym, I’ve found the place where I get over physical and mental cruxes.

Thanks Miss ‘Drea!!  Does anyone have any questions for ‘Drea?  If so, please leave them in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Guest post: Jennifer’s Journey
2. Guest Post: Emily and the Paleo Diet
3. Guest Post: Andrea and Ohio’s Bounty
4. Special Guest Post
5. Linking it all together