Climbing the walls

Monday, March 2, 1998

Climbing the walls

Whether you’re safe and sound on UCLA’s rock wall or spending
the night on a ledge 1,900 feet above the ground, rock climbing
offers a new thrill to those who have overcome Step-Reebok’s
challenge

By Meghan Ward

Daily Bruin Contributor

At 1,500 feet in the air, the weight of his body resting on his
fingertips and his toes, Jason Ballas was not worried about what he
was going to have for dinner that evening or how much money was in
his checking account. Ballas’ only concern was to reach the next
hold so he could curl up on a rock ledge and call it a day.

Ballas is engaged in one of the newest trends to hit the fitness
scene: rock climbing. Though rock climbing first became popular in
the ’70s as Californians Royal Robbins and Yvon Chouinard (founder
of Patagonia) led the sport, today rock climbing is bigger than
ever, with men and women of all ages reaching new heights in record
time and rock-climbing gyms popping up in cities around the
world.

Ballas, director of UCLA Outdoor Adventures, a division of UCLA
Recreation, says the program’s goal is to "provide the UCLA
community with an avenue to the wonders of the outdoors." Ballas is
responsible for the latest addition to the John Wooden center, home
of UCLA’s recreation department.

Not a "big piece of abstract art", as first time climber John
Stevenson thought when he entered the building, the monstrosity
next to the racquet-ball court is a rock climbing wall available to
students and faculty whose inner child longs for the playground
jungle gym.

Anyone interested in learning the basics of rock climbing can
show up at the wall during hours of operation for a 20-minute
orientation, conducted by an Outdoor Adventures instructor on
staff. Aron Bookman, one of the supervisors, recommends that anyone
interested in learning to climb take advantage of orientations
before the end of winter quarter. Next quarter they will be
replaced by additional two-hour seminars at a cost of $15.

Orientation includes an introduction to climbing equipment, rope
tying, belaying (managing the rope for the climber), communication
skills and basic climbing techniques. For a more detailed
introduction to rock climbing, the two-hour seminars Rock I and
Rock II are offered several times per quarter.

For nature lovers, Rock I is the perfect place to begin. At 8
a.m. on a Saturday morning, 20 students led by five instructors
gather at Stoney Point in Chatsworth for a rendezvous with Mother
Nature. Beginning with a game of trust and some warm up stretches,
students then strap on their shoes and helmets to practice edging
and smearing on large boulders.

Once comfortable with edging (using the edge of the shoe to
stand on a narrow hold) and smearing (using a large surface area of
your shoe to grasp the rock), Rock I students divide into two large
groups and head for different sites of the park. At the sites,
climbers are divided into trios consisting of one climber, one
belayer and one back-up belayer.

In order to begin climbing, you need a pair of rubber-soled rock
climbing shoes, a harness, a locking carabiner, a belay device, a
rope and a partner. Wear comfortable clothing that enables a full
range of movement.

A T-shirt and shorts will do, but since the most common injuries
are minor scrapes and scratches incurred during short falls, rock
climbing pants are sometimes preferred. Bouldering – climbing on
low rocks and boulders without equipment – is slightly more
hazardous because it is easy to fall off a rock and twist your
ankle.

Once you and your partner are in harnesses, the climber ties one
end of a rope that is routed up through an anchor into his harness.
The belayer, the person who tends the rope while the other climbs,
loops the other end of the rope through a belay device attached to
his own harness. As the climber ascends, the belayer pulls in the
rope and locks it off so if the climber loses his grasp on a hold,
the rope will catch him.

In Rock I, top ropes are anchored by the instructors. Each group
climbs once or twice on a wall, then rotates with the other groups
until everyone has climbed each wall. Some walls are sloped but
have almost no handholds, providing opportunities to practice
footwork. Other walls require long reaches and more upper-body
strength.

After lunch, one of the Outdoor Adventures instructors guides
climbers up to the top of a wall to where they can see the anchors
holding the ropes. A look at the bolts, webbing, knots and cams
reassures students that their lives are in good hands. Climbers
then switch sites, and after a brief explanation of how climbs are
rated, they spend the rest of the afternoon practicing the
techniques they have learned.

For more advanced training, Outdoor Adventures offers Rock II,
Advanced Climbing, Anchor Building, a weekend excursion to Fossil
Falls and a multi-pitch climb . In addition, the UCLA rock wall is
an excellent place to build up strength and improve climbing
skills.

At the rock wall, holds are color coded to identify routes of
various difficulty by using the Yosemite Decimal System.
Approximately 50 routes ranging from 5.4 (easy) to 5.12 (expert)
are attainable via 15 different ropes. "I like the control of the
UCLA wall, the padded floor, the safety equipment as well as the
limited height," Stevenson says. "I also like how the sport
necessitates trust between partners. When you play doubles tennis,
if someone misses a shot, it’s not going to result in a broken
limb."

Calm, courage and creativity are qualities needed to rock climb.
Much more than a physical workout, rock climbing is an amazing mind
game.

According to Ballas, the greatest challenges of climbing are
staying focused, controlling your ego and accepting failure. "Your
mind says, ‘I can’t do that. I can’t do that,’ then you go for the
hold and your body contorts in a weird way and you do it," Ballas
explains. Other times, the challenge is accepting defeat either by
resting on the rope (a cardinal sin for die-hard climbers) or
heading back down the rock to try again.

Ballas likes how rock climbing forces people out of their
comfort zones. "It’s a feeder into being more adventurous in other
things in life – realizing that most of what we don’t do in life is
because of some unfounded fear," Ballas says.

Though rock climbing is physically demanding, there are no
prerequisites to clamoring up a wall. Climbers of all ages are out
there, and about one third of them are women. Linda Hall, a
50-year-old dental hygienist who began climbing three years ago,
says, "When I was on the Prow I said to myself that I was too old
at 49 to be climbing 1,900 feet and spending two nights on a portal
ledge on the wall. But when I was down safe and sound all I wanted
to do was go do it again."

Kelly Pollack, Outdoor Adventures instructor, agrees. "You’re on
this really tiny ledge and you’re standing there 100-feet up and
that’s fine," Pollack adds. Why is it that climbers get a thrill
out of dangling by their fingernails several hundred feet up in the
air?

Maybe Don Mellor, author of "Rock Climbing: A Trailside
Adventure", says it best.

"Now that our environment is tamed," he writes, "we still feel
an urge to put ourselves in precarious positions to fill the void
left by the disappearance of the saber-toothed tiger."

Mark Brown prepares to grab the next rock on the wall.