The Great Girlfriend Debate

Sorry it's been a while since my last article. Since I last wrote I've become a WFR, visited the entire southeast over Christmas break from school, not touched a single rock, and (most importantly) started dating a girl.

Now I know what you're thinking and you're probably right. Girlfriends have a way of distracting climbers from their most sincere passion of getting on top of big rocks and make them want to be productive members of society. It's for that very obsession that I've witnessed more than a few females (or males on rarer occasions) who've been dragged to the crag by their significant other in an attempt to justify and share their climbing experience.

Which brings us to this...

THE GREAT GIRLFRIEND DEBATE!

Climber girlfriends (or boyfriends) offer a wide range of benefits to the rock warrior in all of us. They're a built in belayer/encourager/partner in crime/spotter/cook/psych factory yeller/etc. But what if our significant others.... wait for it....

don't....like.....climbing?! (gasp!)

Well that's what I'm accustomed to seeing and honestly, I think it sucks. Running a free climbing gym for a university, I constantly experience newcomers trying out bouldering and route climbing with varying levels of success and follow up. After doing it for three years, I've started to notice some trends in the people who come back and those who never grace our walls again. Believe it or not, girlfriends who are persuaded into climbing by their boyfriends rarely ever make a return trip to the climbing area. And in really bad cases, they become embittered towards climbing and their boyfriend ruining not only the experience but also the relationship.

I was out at Leta one day when I saw a guy leading trad with his girlfriend (could have been wife) as a belayer. He was trying his luck at a 5.8/9 (i think) crack climb. It was not going well at all. First of all, he outweighed her by a good fifty pounds. He was probably 6'3" with a broad build and she was probably 5'7" and rather skinny. While she appeared to have some experience with belaying, she was by no means an expert and by no means excited to be there.

Dude took fall after fall on a single piece of gear he'd placed about fifteen feet off the ground. How he got that piece there I'll never know since I didn't see him get past it again. I think he may have been embarrassed by his newbiness since I was belaying my crusher friend on a 5.12 a few yards away. I feel rather comfortable calling him a newb because all his trad gear was real shiny. Each time he fell, he yelled at his girlfriend about her belaying technique as if she were to blame for his punting all over the route. He then proceeded to come off the route and help her anchor to a tree (she was complaining that belaying him was hurting her). He told her she was doing it wrong. I wanted to tell him that it probably had something to do with where she was standing and the fact that he was way bigger than her, but I also didn't want to be an ass.

Moral of the story is this: Making someone climb who doesn't want to is only going to make you have less fun and damage your relationship. 

I know that sounds kind of high-horsey and I must admit that I've taken my girlfriend to the climbing gym a few times*. But I think what's important is that we climbers remember that climbing is just PART of who we are. If your significant other WANTS to try climbing, then you have the great opportunity of sharing that part of your life with them, but if they don't want to then please don't make the rest of us look like idiots by forcing someone into our hobby.

Beth Rodden: Just one example of a badass climber chick!

*She loves it. Can't wait to take her outdoors for the first time.

So What Do You Think?!

Buildering is your strange cousin

Buildering: The act of climbing buildings when there either aren't any rocks around or you've already sent everything.


My somewhat unfortunate confession is that I actually got into climbing via buildering. At the time I may have told you that I was free running or doing some parkour, but I don't think you can call it that unless you can do a flip. Much to my disappointment, I can't. Back when I went to Lee University, my friend JP and I would run around downtown Chattanoga outfitted in mostly black apparel with some sort of running shoes like total badasses (not). Then we'd find the coolest looking building (meaning the easiest to climb) and climb to the top of them!

                               
                                                                 (Parkour at its finest)

Parking garages, *aquariums, old auto repair shops, no one was safe. Getting onto the roof was our greatest goal and we accomplished it quite frequently. But of course that was all before I knew what it was like to climb on real rocks (or even plastic ones for that matter). So I guess why I'm writing this post is that I'm curious as to what Buildering really means to the climbing community, if anything. I've read on some climbing blogs that buildering is a late night drunken escapade for when you left the bar and are still feeling strong. I've heard other people say that only rocks are for climbing.

To me, buildering is like the idiot cousin of rock climbing. He's there at all the family reunions, even though you usually don't acknowledge him. He may be good for a laugh every now and again, but you definitely don't want to spend the whole day with him. His mom probably hates your mom for stealing her casserole recipe in '92.

You basically steer clear of this guy because he's not as fun as all your other friends and you're really not sure you have much in common until...

Everyone at the family reunion has passed out. Your adventurous and wily grandpa (trad climbing) is asleep because he's getting up early to go hike. Your wild younger brother (bouldering) is sitting in the kitchen watching videos and updating his blog while filing his fingers and chugging pbr. Your fun aunt (sport climbing) is laughing at him from the living room while watching braveheart. Your little sister (deep water soloing) is talking to boys because she never climbs. And for some strange reason, your crazy cousin is standing by the door with that crazy look in his eye and you just can't say no to an adventure.

That's kind of how buildering came into existence, or at least that's my theory. What do you think, got any crazy stories of climbing some buildings?! 

*We once climbed all the way up the back staircase of the aquarium to the butterfly room by climbing a water pipe to get over the gate which blocked the stairs. Then we heard security open the door and we ran like James Litz trying to escape a Sportscenter interview.



                                       This kind of buildering is actually pretty sweet

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Welcome to ToeHook(soon to be).com! 

If you're reading this, then chances are you know who I am. But I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you a little about myself and what this here blog is (gonna be) all about. Also, it's raining and I've already climbed in the gym and there are no good climbing videos to watch and I have a paper to write, but this is more fun. 

What is Toehook.com? and why should I take time away from cool climbing websites to check it out?

Toehook.com is a climbing blog which will focus not on individual sends or how many v19s Adam Ondra can crawl up one handed, but rather on local beta. Before you freak out about how I'm going to ruin access to your local secret stash, let me explain. 

This weekend I was at Little Rock City (Stone Fort for those of you not from the area) trying to climb amongst the hoards of newbs. If the increase in climbing popularity and new guidebook weren't enough flame to stoke the already blazing fire of LRC access, the new radio commercials by the golf course pretty much guarantee that Chattanooga's crown jewel of bouldering will be furthermore overrun by newbs with boom boxes. On Saturday, I literally saw a family of people climbing around on rock faces in their socks since they didn't have climbing shoes. That's when I knew I had to do something. 

The biggest problem in the climbing community in my opinion, is that the sport is growing faster than the community is able to handle. 

What I mean is this, I was introduced to climbing by my friend Ben Heacock. We worked together at summer camp and he introduced me to the ranks by taking me to the Obed and listening to me bitch all the way up a 5.9 sport climb. He tried his best to make me a trad climber, which I'm sure I'll one day be, but was unsuccessful in keeping me from getting into bouldering. He wasn't perfect, but Ben took the time to teach me about a sport and a culture that I was otherwise unaware of. After climbing with Ben I joined a local climbing gym and haven't looked back since. 

That family on Saturday didn't have a Ben to mentor them into the world of climbing. Now one can argue that they didn't care enough or know enough to search one out, and I'd say that's fair, but let's face it; rock climbing is only going to get more popular. So instead of sitting around complaining about all the gumbies who don't know not to bring their dogs to the crag or how to send without screaming, this blog is for you. But it's also for all the dirty hippies who've been rock climbing since they climbed their way out of the womb.  This is your chance to constructively explain the local beta to your crag/boulder field/backyard. I'm not going to ruin access by spraying about secret stashes, nor will I condone this site to be a place for releasing climbing secrets. But I think it could be helpful for us climbers who've been at it for a bit to pull our ideas and explain a little bit of the culture to those who we don't know. 

I'm not naive enough to think that this blog has the ability to replace a one on one mentorship of a new climber to the world of rock climbing, but I also think that it may be a start. 

All that said, here are some of my preliminary ideas for the blog: 

• Area beta/advice for publicly known boulder fields or crags- such as LRC is $3 to climb, but don't bring your boombox!
• Words of Wisdom from old-timers- I'd love to get some articles from climbers who've been around for a bit to comment on the current state of the climbing world beyond my feeble knowledge
• Local News- This might be a good spot to contribute local news about gym comps, trail days, etc. 
• Gumby of the Week- Stories of gumbies being well.... gumbies 
• Gear Review- eh... who knows
• Climbing Friends- List of blogs both pro and weekend warrior which are fun to read when not climbing

So what about you, what's the worst thing you've seen at a climbing spot lately? Do you agree we need more mentorship in the community? How many v19s will Ondra send?