any climbers here?

[drglasner]

I'm curious - any other climbers hanging around here? what's your story? and did climbing impact your list of grad schools?

 

I've been climbing for about two years now, and it's a huge part of my life. I compete regularly and try to get outside when work allows. I'm an ambassador for Skratch Labs, and I work at one of the biggest gyms in the country. I absolutely love climbing!

 

it definitely impacted where I applied this year...I tried to pick schools that were close to great crags or boulders or had a strong community and good gyms. maybe not the best way to do it haha

 

anybody else?

[pears]

i'm not a climber, but an outdoor enthusiast in general, so i totally feel you as far as factoring outdoor resources into my decisions go! my top two choices are surrounded by outdoor playgrounds. my current fixations are fishing, whitewater kayaking, and snowboarding, and i'm learning how to ride a dirt bike this weekend. i'm not particularly good at any of them, but i really enjoy all of them, so that's good enough for me! 

 

a friend of mine convinced me to try bouldering with him once tahoe's snow season is over, so here's to hoping i don't totally wreck myself! i tried ice climbing a few times when i was an undergrad, too, since we had a great lodge and mountain club with lots of active, super skilled, generally wonderful members. the east coast isn't always prime for skiing and snowboarding, but dang, our ice was nice. i was pretty terrible but i liked it anyway! i'm actually terrified of open heights, which is exactly why i want to learn how to climb (and skydive, but that's for when i'm not totally broke..). i might invest in that this month, actually- there's a gym with a deal on a month-long beginner course just 10 minutes from me by bike. 

[drglasner]

i'm not a climber, but an outdoor enthusiast in general, so i totally feel you as far as factoring outdoor resources into my decisions go! my top two choices are surrounded by outdoor playgrounds. my current fixations are fishing, whitewater kayaking, and snowboarding, and i'm learning how to ride a dirt bike this weekend. i'm not particularly good at any of them, but i really enjoy all of them, so that's good enough for me! 

 

a friend of mine convinced me to try bouldering with him once tahoe's snow season is over, so here's to hoping i don't totally wreck myself! i tried ice climbing a few times when i was an undergrad, too, since we had a great lodge and mountain club with lots of active, super skilled, generally wonderful members. the east coast isn't always prime for skiing and snowboarding, but dang, our ice was nice. i was pretty terrible but i liked it anyway! i'm actually terrified of open heights, which is exactly why i want to learn how to climb (and skydive, but that's for when i'm not totally broke..). i might invest in that this month, actually- there's a gym with a deal on a month-long beginner course just 10 minutes from me by bike. 

 

awesome! I know there's got to be at least a handful of people around here who climb/love outdoor adventure. and just loving what you do is what it's all about - they say the best kayaker/surfer/climber/etc. is the one having the most fun, right?

 

I've never ice climbed before, but I have a lot of friends who trek up to New York and New England for the ice. it's something I'd like to try at some point, but to be honest, it scares me a little bit! the bouldering out in Tahoe is fantastic...and, well, the climbing in general out in Northern California is just magnificant. I was out there visiting Berkeley in November, and I really just used it as an excuse to go climb with friends.

 

I hope you do start climbing! I think it's the best sport out there, but I may be just a liiiiittle bit biased...and if you don't mind my asking, what gym would you be checking out? there are some awesome ones in the Bay area!

[pears]

i totally agree! i never realized how spoiled i was at my alma mater until i found myself missing not only its resources (the mountain club was one of the largest and most well funded clubs on campus; we had 5 of everything you could ever want, even kayaks and mountaineering boots), but a pre-fab community of great people with overlapping interests who are all about making friends and getting them to try new things. i can only hope to have such a nice community of dirt/snow/leaf lovers wherever i end up for grad school.

 

you should totally go up to NE to try your hand at ice climbing! if you have friends at any NESCAC schools, particularly tufts or northeastern, get in touch with them. i'm told it's pretty different from climbing, but.. well, obviously, i have no idea, haha! it's pretty exhausting but it's enjoyable. there are a lot of really talented people who hang around in NH when there's ice to be climbed. if you don't know any students who ice climb, there are lots of really great guides, especially out of the lincoln/woodstock, NH, area (which is teeming with all sorts of outdoorsy goodness).

 

i'd be climbing at planet granite, by virtue of it being in my neighborhood. i've heard pretty good things about them, but i'm living on the world's tiniest stipend, so even $129 for a month of learning is a lot right now. sad times. i definitely will find a way to learn how to climb soon, though! it's been on my to-do list long enough that it's just silly now. i've spent a lot of money this year on snowboarding things, since i've always loved it, but never had a local mountain or a setup of my own. totally worth it! also looking forward to extending my passholder benefits into the spring for some hiking and pool time!

[DarwinsBones]

I'm not a huge climber, but I have dabbled and being here in San Diego so close to Joshua Tree you feel bad to not take advantage, but yeah I'm more of just an outdoor guy and that impacted a major part of my applications. I need to be outdoors and most of all I need a place that I can just walk out the door and run. San Diego is nice because I can do that even being so close to the city, but its not the same.

[Tuck]

I'm a big outdoors enthusiast, but not much of a climber. I would prefer to live somewhere that I can easily access short hikes on weekends with my dogs. Austin has been perfect for that; we go to the Greenbelt nearly weekly and also to the Hill Country from time to time. I also would like to be somewhere within a couple hours' drive of good backpacking trips. West Texas has some amazing opportunities on that front, but you pretty much need a four-day weekend because of the drive time. I've had amazing visits to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Big Bend Country (which stole my heart), Fort Davis and the Davis Mountains, and various parks up in the Panhandle.

 

Two of the four schools I've applied to are in amazing locations for hiking - Salt Lake City and Boulder. I'm excited about it, but it's only two years and I doubt I'll have a ton of spare time, so I'm trying not to let visions of the mountains influence my decision-making process too much. It will likely come down to funding.

[ChemiKyle]

Yeah, I am. Unfortunately, living in Florida, I can only do gyms/walls, but there are nice spots for hiking despite the flatland. I got to go up to West Virginia for 4 days and climb sites at New River Gorge, though; that was actually my first time climbing. Hoping to go to grad school in Illinois for purely academic reasons, which would make a lot of nice climb sites available.

[frankstoneline]

I climb pretty regularly, while it wasnt the number one defining item on my list of schools to apply to, it certainly played a role. In the end it worked out well, and I'm quite excited for my move for both the science and the climbing.