On Wednesday,  the SFA Rec Center hosted the Rock Climbing Competition as part of its Spring Intramural Events. It took place until 8 p.m. at the Rec Center’s indoor, 34-foot-tall rock wall.

This wall, or “The Rock,” as people call it, is complete with a “natural crack” on one side, and a 13-foot bouldering cave on another, in addition to three sport lead routes and 11 top rope climbs, which means there is something for climbers of every experience level to approach and exceed their “highest” expectations.

Since the Recreation Center opened in September of 2007, the only Intramural competition that has taken place was a year later in 2008. This day was very basically an experimental event as to determine whether it should be continued in the future. The turn-out was reasonable with about 10 participants climbing. The rules were simple: Unlimited tries; If you fall, start over; and each route is a certain amount of points, so the climber with the most points and the least falls by the end wins. The winners of each division win a T-shirt. Almost annually, the Rock Wall portion of the Rec Center hosts a Fall Competition, which is statewide, in which climbers compete in three separate divisions at what they love to do. Last year, $1,200 in door prizes were given out among nearly 80 participants total.

Despite this being a competition, the event was basically just like any other day for these climbers. Freshman Trevor Smith, (undecided major) likes the wall as “it burns more calories than running.”
Senior history major and Outdoor Pursuits employee Cole Murray pointed out that the Rock Wall is the best workout in the Rec Center. It really “brings people together. It’s a whole community coming together for one common interest,” he said.

The competition against each other, however, is nothing compared to the challenges against individuals themselves and their own endurances. It is all about expressing your relationship between the rocks.

Freshman nursing major Dylan Moore says that “The Wall is just a place to get out your frustrations—a place where you don’t have to focus on anything but the task at hand.” Most of the climbers feel similarly, that they do have a purpose for climbing besides just to climb upon their sweet refute. A lot of his moments of clarity occur at least halfway up the route. Senior film/Cinematography major Thomas Simpson too realizes “it’s more of a mental sport than physical.” To him, it’s a place one can go to just escape “the real world” and forget all of their problems. He does not think about anything until he is back on the ground.

 Cole Murray emphasizes the importance of expression while climbing, as the rules are few. Very much like life, much of climbing “is planning your next step,” says Dylan Moore. In addition to always thinking ahead, Tony Hendsdrill, graduate assistant who is getting his Masters in Public Administration, knows that “a good climber is really patient on the wall. It’s not about how fast you go, it’s about endurance and having control.”

For climbing natural rocks, “one goes from the bottom to the top of the wall,” says Thomas Simpson. A climber must “use what they have and try not to fall to their death.” Senior Finance major Andrew Sparacio notes that this rock wall is meant to imitate the rocks outside, allowing for “just a different kind of climb” where one must work their way up their own route, without the assistance of tape.

In addition to climbing, the Rec Center Rock Wall does include a cave, which is 12 feet high of rocks meant for the rope-less climbers who wish to improve their arm strength. As well as the cave exists tape on the wall, which helps to outline particular pathways of routes one may wish to follow as means of an extra challenge.

On off-days of competitions, climbers may free-form their routes, as long as they aim to ring the bell on the very top. The tape routes each indicate the level of which it is based on the amount of dots on the starter tape, meant to keep climbing more simple for everybody. One dot equals the easier routes, two and three dots are for the intermediate levels, and the four-dotted tapes are the advanced pathways. The employees name each route according to whatever they are feeling at the time, and some are very appropriate when compared to its level. For example, one route, which is at a level of four dots, has been named “Paying the Tuition.” Overall, despite the dot-system,  “the climbing experience is 1/4th the climbing, and 3/4ths the encouragement from others,” states Climbing Instructor and English/Liberal Arts major Brandon Harris.

The competition was judged by the Rec Center employees who know the climbers, and vice versa. It is truly a close-knit community with a very chill atmosphere. As a whole, went very well for all of the climbers, partially because of how well things went. There was a total of four winners, each representing a different category of climbers: for the women’s beginner, Melissa Bozarth; women’s advanced, Jaclyn Bush; men’s beginner, Sean Johnson; and men’s advanced, Thomas Simpson.

These climbers show up often to merely do what they are passionate about, which is climbing. After all, as one piece of motivational tape on the wall states, “The day a climber is ‘too good’ for a route is the day the spirit of the climb is lost to him forever.”