LET'S GO CLIMBING

Let’s go climbing!

This month I want to write about another sport that I practise: climbing. Maybe I should have said “another strange sport” because people usually get astonished when I say that I go climbing. Some people think that I go to the countryside and I climb trees, and others think that I climb buildings or something like that. 

Climbing is the activity of ascending objects (that can be totally vertical, steep, or even horizontal). There are lots of types but the one I practise is “bouldering”. We practise this sport in special facilities (climbing walls) that can be: any shape, indoor or outdoor, only two metres high or even 50 or higher... These walls are especially prepared for this sport because they have appropriate holds that you’ll have to grip and hang on them.   

I have always loved climbing. When I was little, I enjoyed climbing the small walls in parks. But three years ago I found out that my uncle was going climbing to a sports centre every week, so I decided to go with him to try it and... Since then, I’ve been going with him once or twice a week. And I’ve taken part in two competitions which were really difficult but really fun too.

As I’ve said, we train in those climbing walls, but only to get fitter and stronger, because you need to improve your ability to be able to climb real mountains or rocks, which are the real fun! Depending on your ability, you can access certain circuits. And the better you get, the higher-graded routes you can enjoy. These grades show the difficulty of the variety of routes. There are lots of ways to express the grade, but here in Spain we use roman numbers from I to V (for the really easy routes, almost like ascending stairs) and then we use the French graduation with numbers from 6 and up, and letters like a, b, c to be more precise (being “a“ the easiest and “c”, the hardest).

 The equipment we need is not abundant, we just use climbing shoes and special chalk (to avoid the sweat and grab the holds easier). Obviously, if you want to climb higher, you’ll need protection like a special mat (“crashpad”), a helmet, rope and a harness.

The thing I like the most of climbing is the variety of ways that you can practise this sport. It seems that it’s always the same, but it’s actually the opposite. You have lots of alternatives depending on the weather:

• ·       During the winter it’s really cold so you can enjoy ice climbing
• ·         During the summer it’s really hot to train indoors so... you can practise psicobloc!!!

What’s psicobloc?

Psicobloc is a type of climbing practised on cliffs by rivers, the sea, or any mass of water. The advantage of psicobloc is that when practising it, you don’t have to care about protection, you just climb as high as you can (and as high as your fear lets you) and then you just need to be brave and jump into the water.

We practise psicobloc in a lake in Guadalajara. There, we take our canoes, we row until the route we prefer, we climb it... and then we jump!

In my opinion, psicobloc is the best part of climbing because you can mix the fun of climbing with the fun of swimming and jumping into the water.