7 thoughts you have when you start climbing

The first few times you climb, you may experience a plethora of emotions. Here's what it's like to start climbing, according to most climbers.

1. All of the holds are so far away! How will I ever reach them?

2. My forearms hurt.

3. That was so easy! How come I couldn't do that before?

4. AHHH MY ARMS! I can't even open a jar of peanut butter with my useless hands. Why do I like climbing again?


5. Oh yeah, because I could definitely escape if my evil Uncle Scar was holding me at the edge of Pride Rock.

6. MY ARMS!

7. My forearms are killing me, but I like it. I can't wait to climb again!

In case you couldn't sleep because you were wondering: the jar guy DID open the jar eventually.

Any other thoughts to add to this list?

Climbers: Alyssa Colosi (me), Danae Polsin, Russ Follet, Nate Lyzemberger

How to walk along the wall

Do you ever fall because your hips are pulling you away from the wall? There are techniques to combat this and keep your hips closer to the wall. Here's one, "walking along the wall."

Climbers: Stan Park, Jeff Bradway, Ryan Nora

Top two tips to rock climb better on overhangs

"You climb on the ceiling?!?"

Climbing on "the ceiling" (overhangs) can be scary and difficult, but also fun and impressive. It's also necessary as you start climbing more and more difficult routes. Welcome to overhangs.

So how to do it? The first tip is to turn your hips. Try to push the hip on the same side you are grabbing with towards the ceiling. So if you are reaching with your left hand (as in the video below), your left hip should be pushing towards the ceiling

You're probably thinking, I get that I'm supposed to push my hip towards the ceiling, but when I try it I can't do it. Sometimes your feet have to rotate too. The video also covers edging.

Climbers: Brittany Detlef, Michelle Gregor

When you need to stop thinking and go in

Women only accept challenges that they already know how to do, whereas men take more of a "let's try it to see if I know how to do it" approach.

"One reason women avoid new challenges is that they worry too much about whether they currently have the skills they need for a new role... Women need to shift from thinking "I’m not ready to do that" to thinking "I want to do that—and I’ll learn by doing it." 

-Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In

As you may know, I am a woman. So I'm a little ashamed to admit that the friend that told me me that "it's time to stop deliberating about this blog and start doing it" is a man. In the months before tonight, I put off publishing posts on this blog. I didn't accept the challenge since I didn't already know how to do it. I was worried you would read my posts and say:

• That post wasn't helpful.
• I wish she would post videos about this instead.
• I already knew that technique.

But I want you to say these things. Otherwise I'll never know how to make this blog better. And, somebody needs to give me constructive criticism so I'm not so dang happy all the time. ;-)

 

Just like I'm learning to rock climb better, I'm learning to blog better. And I've got to learn by doing it. One can't learn to blog better just by thinking about it. One also can't learn to rock climb better just by thinking about it. There comes a point when you have to just do it. So, I leave you with this my friends: please don't just read these posts and watch these videos. Do something about them.

• Try new techniques
• Try telling me what you hated about the posts
• Try new routes

"If you never try you'll never know." -Coldplay

What this blog is not about

Typical blogs have an "About" page. But this blog is not typical. So, it's going to have a "Not About" post.

Here is what this blog is not about:

1. This blog is not a travel log or guide book. Don't let me explain the details of my trip and the routes I climbed on [insert date] in [insert random location]. You're probably not going to go there, and plenty of climbing blogs like that already exist.
2. This blog does not have grammy-award-winning videos. The purpose of the videos is to learn, not to show-off any exceptional cinematography. I'm more interested in climbing techniques than filming techniques.
3. This blog is not an end-all-be-all. I don't know everything. There is plenty to learn from other sites too. And I'll link to them when I find particularly helpful climbing advice or insight. There is also plenty to learn from other climbers, and from trying out different advice to see what works for you. Learn with me.

Shout Outs

Just wanted to thank some people that will make this possible:

• All the climbers that willingly or unwillingly let me video tape them. (Listed at the bottom of each video)
• Caitie Schwasman for the ukelele introduction.
• The friends that encouraged me.
• The friends that thought this idea was stupid (this also encourages me).

Test Post

Learn how to rock climb better with me. Hello! My name is Alyssa. I will be using this site to blog about climbing.