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Climbers reach for new heights
By Tim Esterdahl
testerda@mscd.edu
The 22-foot tall little giant sits in a corner peering out across the floor filled with treadmills and barbells looking for somebody to play with.
This 1,300 square foot giant is the new rock wall installed in the Auraria Event Center during the summer. It has already seen an array of student and faculty climbers since it has opened.
New climbers hoped to find what the experienced staff already knew, that the wall builds confidence, is safe, facilitates team building and is accessible, and hope rides high among the staff for a much larger crowd this fall.
"I just think rock walls can be a ton of fun," said Ellen McGuiness, an Outdoor Adventure employee. "It can also be a social thing, especially if you are using ropes."
Climbers will use two climbing techniques when using the wall. One is belaying, during which a partner stands at the bottom connected by ropes to the climber, which serves as a safety net. This partner will also help guide the climber up the wall because many climbers don't think laterally.
Photo by Leah Bluntschli bluntsch@mscd.edu
Metro student Malik Lee boulders the overhang on the climbing wall in the Fitness Center on Auraria campus. Bouldering is a ropeless style of climbing on obstacles less than 15 feet high. "A good bouldering problem is where every move is at your maximum ability," Lee said. Campus Recreation will offer rock climbing classes for the fall semester, and the schedule will be available online at www.mscd.edu/~cra.
The second technique, bouldering, is a free-form way of climbing done without any ropes or assistance. Although the height limit is 10 feet, meaning many will climb laterally, the risk of falling still exists and climbers must receive a certification card.
A climber would receive a certification card after a monitored climb with an Outdoor Adventure staff member and then they can climb whenever the gym is open.
"I'm just not into timers (timed machines)." McGuinness said. "I want to climb until I am exhausted."
Climbers exiting the wall are exhausted and "ripped" as Lynnea Atlas-Ingebretson put it.
Atlas-Ingebretson, who serves as student coordinator for the Adventure Leadership Program, said that many times new climbers don't think they can do climb to the top even though the staff knows they are capable. Reaching the top is more of a validation of skills they already have. When they finally get a chance to climb the wall, fears are overcome and replaced with confidence, she said.
"It gives us a real apparatus that many feel is a lot more challenging and fearful, which brings a bigger reward," Atlas-Ingebretson said.
Safety is the main concern of many new climbers, which is one of the reasons behind the certification process for all new climbers. The staff will work with new climbers the first time to make sure they know the equipment and have the necessary skills to climb.
A study on indoor climbing wall accidents by German researchers found the risk of injury per visit to be .016 percent.
"People will do team building now, when before they might have felt it was dumb," Atlas-Ingebretson said. "Now, we can do rock climbing on a rock wall, which sounds more glorious. It is a lot more exciting."
The Outdoor Adventure program is part of the Campus Recreation department, with a budget of approximately $480,000.
Outdoor Adventure is broken up into five different departments: Adventure Leadership, Technical and Adventure Skills, Rental Shop, Service Learning, and Web Skills. Each of the five departments helped the 1,292 participants last year meet their individual goals and the program's goals of co-curricular adventure-based experiences that foster personal, academic, and professional success.
The Adventure Leadership department plans to incorporate many of their team building exercises with using the wall.
Atlas-Ingebretson said the wall is an accessible bridge between the low-risk activities of team building to the high-risk activities such as hiking in the back country or ice climbing in Ouray.
"It is accessible because it's here; it's accessible because it is free and because it's not intimidating," she said. "It's an entree to all other outdoor activities."
Accessibility is the big draw as many students use the wall, which is free and includes all the necessary equipment and training.
Important dates
Sept. 1 Outdoor Adventure, 303-556-2391, will have a permanent staffing schedule available after Sept. 1 and will be available between 10 a.m.-4 p.m. throughout the week until then.
Sept. 6-8 Outdoor Adventure will have a grand opening of the wall from 10-2 p.m. on Sept. 6 and will host an open house from 2-4 p.m. on Sept. 7 and from 6-8 p.m. on Sept. 8. Staff will be on hand to provide training.
Originally slated for a redesign for the Events Center two years ago, the project was cut due to lack of funding. Support grew over the last two years after space was allocated when the gym was moved and a student interest drive was mounted, pressuring all three student governments to provide the $80,000 for construction and support the cost of staffing through student fees.
"I think it was really a student-driven, administrative-supported effort to get the wall in," Atlas-Ingebretson said, "Students should feel good about it and take advantage of it."
