Students scale rock wall for unique workout at UREC
Posted on November 29, 2007
“Got me?”
“On belay.”
“Climbing.”
Thant Thein, a junior health science major, prepared to climb the UREC rock wall for the third time. The wall stands a towering 33 feet high in the middle of the UREC atrium, making Thein’s 6-foot frame seem small in comparison. Wearing a harness of straps around his waist and legs, he reached up to grab a red rubber knob with his right hand. His left hand found a tan-colored knob and he hoisted himself up onto the wall. Both of his feet rested atop other knobs and he began his ascent. The veins in his hands bulged as he struggled to lift himself higher.
“Stop lifting yourself up. Use your legs,” said senior UREC employee Emily Dubois Hollander.
It is Hollander’s job, as Thein’s belayer, to control the rope and make sure that if he slips off the wall, he doesn’t fall to the floor. She also acts as his coach, guiding and giving words of encouragement as he scales the wall. Since this is only Thein’s third time climbing, he is making a common beginner’s mistake, according to Leigh-Ann Johnson, an operational supervisor at UREC.
“Climbers really need to keep in mind that they should be using their legs,” she said. “If they use their arms, they will get tired out faster.”
Back on the wall, Thein pulled against the rope.
“I need more slack,” he shouted from halfway up the wall.
Hollander feeds about 1 or 2 feet of royal purple rope through her harness to Thein, who was attached to the other end. He paused to catch his breath and swung upward. His hand missed his target by a few inches and he swung back to his original position.
Thein said that climbing the rock wall is a great workout.
UREC provides black-and-tan booties and a harness that wraps around each leg and the waist. Jake Padgett, a frequent climber, warns that the harness can look awkward at times.
“[It causes] bulging in areas you don’t want to be accentuated,” he said. “But it goes away once you start to climb.”
Once the harness is on, the UREC employee will walk through the ABCs of the safety check: anchor, belay and climber. Making sure the ropes are properly threaded through the loop at the top of the rock and not threaded through the loop at the top of the rock and not crossed or frayed in any way is checking the anchor. Hollander said that once she is done checking the anchor she checks her own harness if she is going to be belaying. The harness is attached to a buckle that the rope is fed through; the belayer uses this buckle to control how much slack is given to the climber.
“After I check my own harness I check the climber’s to see if he did it right.” Hollander said. “Technically, the belayer should check the climber’s and the climber should check the belayer’s harness.”
After the safety situation is secured, it is time to conquer the rock. But first climbers need to pick which section to climb. The wall’s rocky face has five levels of difficulty. To the right of the wall is a section called “the cave,” where one can find the hard-core climbers. The cave is below the stairs, giving it an arch that puts the climber upside down.
Each person tackles the wall a different way.
“I just jump onto it and monkey climb my way up,” Padgett said.
Thein’s approach is more calculated.
“I concentrate on where I am going and take it one step at a time,” he said.
Despite safety precautions, people still get hurt occasionally. One of the biggest mistakes climbers make is not putting their feet up the wall when rappelling down.
“They kind of flail around and end up hitting the wall pretty hard,” Johnson said.
Johnson said most climbers walk away with just a bruised ego. One person was injured a little more seriously while bouldering (rock climbing without the anchored rope). He fell to the floor and broke his knee.
“We had an ambulance come and bring him to the hospital,” Hollander said. “It was bad.”
Anyone can try bouldering, but the climb is restricted to 10 feet up, which is marked by a red strip of duct tape. This is the type of rock climbing used in the cave.
More advanced climbers can try sport climbing, in which climbers are not anchored to the top of the wall. Instead, they clip themselves into bolted-in carabineers as they climb the wall. Carabineers are big, strong clips used hook onto a secured loop. This is different from the traditional lead climbing also know as “trad” because the carabineers are already attached to the wall.
“We skip a step and make it easier on the climber,” said Kevin Kaczmarski, a UREC employee who is certified to sport climb on the wall.
Anyone who takes the sport climbing class and participates in a few mock climbs can be certified.
“A mock climb is when the person is anchored in at the top while they are trying to clip into the carabineers.” Hollander said.
Once climbers are comfortable with the mock climbs, they can take on the wall without the anchor. A helmet is required when sport climbing. If anyone were to slip and fall off of the wall, they wouldn’t be held there by the rope. They would fall to where they clipped in last. It is a risky sport but well worth it, according to Kaczmarski.
New climber Thein agreed that the risk pays off.
“Oh my God, that was awesome!” he said after finishing his climb.
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