I can’t tell you how many times I hear the following sentence “yeah, I went to another gym. It was cool, but… it just wasn’t that fun.” Climbers in the gym always visit other gyms and never really understand what’s missing. Things always seem a little “off” or “funky” or “weird.” And here’s what’s missing:
SETTING!
The reason Planet Rock is one of the best gyms in the country is not because of our tall walls, it’s because of our great setters and our great teachers.
It’s kind of ironic, for how physically damaging our sport can be, how emotionally healing it is.
Climbing is one of the most physically and mentally stressful activities known to man. It puts heinous amounts of stress on every fiber of your body. Pulling on holds can destroy tendons, falling off boulder problems can dislocate elbows and break ankles, dynoing for holds can explode shoulders, and so on. All of these things are always present, a danger lurking behind every crimp, sloper, and pocket.
Just remember the healing climbing can offer you.
This week’s blog comes complete with a handy dandy link at the bottom, directing you to check out an episode of NPR’s “Radiolab”. It examines the known limits of human potential, and the different discoveries surrounding the research into how to break those limits and push new boundaries.
It got me thinking. What are we all REALLY capable of? How many times in your life have your shattered a perceived weakness/limitation without even noticing? It seems we all have the potential to switch off the part of our brain that says “Nope. Not today.
It is a frailty of the human condition that we deal in generalizations. We have become so good with labels and blanket definitions because we never truly stop to understand what it is we’re looking at. For us as a people, it is much easier to say, “That looks/sounds/feels a lot like this other thing, therefore, they’re related, therefore, I already understand that.
There is a tremendous amount of debate surrounding belay devices these days. With so many models flooding the market, each with their own unique promises and gimmicks, it’s hard to separate one from the other. Figuring out what you need can be a somewhat daunting task, but there are some easy pointers to keep in mind, and some key differences between all belay devices.
Mechanized
One of the main differences between belay devices is whether or not it has moving parts.
