look how high i am...

so for the past several months my buddies and i have picked up the hobby of rock climbing. i started this a few years ago the summer before my freshman year but with me moving into a different state i couldnt really continue the hobby

a few months ago i decided i wanted to pick it up again, so my friend ryan and i started going back to the indoor gym i used to go, nevada climbing center, and man was it hard. honestly it was quite embarrassing, the walls the little 8 years olds were climbing with no problem, ryan and i were struggling to get up them, but once we got back into the swing of things we were back on track

after the first week we finished all of the walls that were in his gym, thats when we started climbing all the routes. now the routes have a grading scale. 5.1 is most basic, and i have never seen a climb like that, they usually start around 5.5 or 5.6 and go up from there. now one of the hardest climbs in the world is a 5.16b (once they start getting so high, they put letters after the numbers to do some kind of double rating). so we worked our way up the scale, and after a couple months we were doing 5.10's (which are the hardest in the gym doing a top-rope climb),(( ill explain top rope climb in a second))

so after we finished the routes we were getting bored, now there was another thing we could do and that was called lead climbing

now the difference between lead climbing and top-rope climbing is, top rope is when the rope is already in place, usually hanging from the top of the ceiling in a gym or on the highest rock for out door climbing and lead climbing entails you carrying the rope with you and hooking yourself in the clips as you make your way up the wall.

so today we did just that, learned exactly what we needed to do to lead climb and we started it out, and man was it hard. looking at it from the other end it seems the same as top-rope climbing, but it takes alot more energy to clip yourself in and to make it all the way to the the top, or wherever you eventually stop. our first day lead climbing felt like our first day top-rope climbing, it was definitely a different experience but alot more fun. eventually we will make it out to red rock (one of the best places to climb out here in nevada) and try to do it out there. we have already purchased our harnesses and chalk bags. in the coming days we are about to purchase some shoes and some more gear so we are ready to make it out in the real world. the videos below is one top-rope climb and one lead climb so you get the full experience (i used kids for the top rope cause youll understand how big the difference is between them)

TOP-ROPE CLIMB

LEAD CLIMB