I recently visited some family in San Diego for my uncle’s retirement and went with my cousin to the climbing gym. The last time I had been climbing was years ago and the YMCA and it was just as much fun as I remember. I got a lot of enjoyment out of it and it was a good workout I noticed it helped me a little more awareness of my body. Particularly my balance. Now being back I find myself still wanting to go. So I figured I could write about some of the basics of getting into climbing
Now, I don’t plan on getting into real rock climbing anytime soon, so I won’t go into ALL the gear. First up is the shoes, not going to climb much without some good shoes. A good pair of climbing shoes is going to cost roughly $70-100 but you get a perfectly good pair for cheaper if you buy used. I get to the gym and I can only use the bouldering walls because, without a harness, I can’t be strapped to the rope for someone the belay me.
Normally, the gym will likely rent you a harness or you could buy your own. You can get a brand new harness for as cheap as $25, but to get yourself a harness with good quality and more of a comfortable build it will be closer to the $60-80 range and up from there. Still relatively cheap and if you didn’t want to part with the money at the time, you could just stick to the bouldering area for a while until you save the money. Now cool, pretty cheap to get started. Now I’m on the wall climbing the easier route, blowing by them with ease. Then I decided to bump up the intensity and try the 5.8-5.10 routes. I get a few handholds up and I start losing my grip, uh-oh. I need something to combat the sweat on my fingers and give me a better grip. Well, chalk will be the answer to that problem.
Chalk is usually stored in bags attached to the harness for easy access while climbing. A chalk bag isn’t as important quality wise so you can get one for $10-20 or make your own. You could probably use the bag from a bottle of crown as your bag. Chalk itself is also pretty cheap being about $10-15 per half kilogram, which would last you a while depending on how often you climb and how much you use.
Finally, you need a gym to go to. I found one gym that has the option to just come for the day and membership options. I could do $17 for a day pass or a $70 monthly membership. Now considering I already have a gym I go to and it’s half the price and distance, is it worth an extra $35 a month to have access to climbing walls? Also, it’s not a climbing GYM, they do parties and events so I would probably be fighting with kids and lots of people to climb sometimes, which doesn’t sound enjoyable.