Alongside the traditional gym-rat culture—backless sports bras and pre-workout with 300 mg of caffeine—a culture of rock climbing has exploded. Nearly every one of my friends, their boyfriends, and their mothers are climbing. As someone severely afraid of heights, I’ve never seen the appeal of in scaling up a wall or hanging onto a grippy pad while experiencing the worst wedgie of your life. But I do feel quite left out on Saturday mornings when every one of my friends is are headed to Ascent New Haven to test out the walls. As one would in this very situation, I began to wonder: what is it about rock climbing that is making all of this noise?
Rock climbing first started out as a hippie’s activity intertwined with the counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s. Now, indoor climbing is a multi-billion dollar industry. The sport has changed over the years: it’s evolved into an activity anyone is welcome to join and test out. With indoor climbing gyms popping up across the nation, competitive climbing gained recognition and there was an evident shift in climbing culture. I wondered what made climbing right for all of my friends and began to question if my stance on the sport garnered a change. I spoke with three of my friends, all avid climbers but of completely different skill levels, to learn more about the culture of climbing.
I spoke with Jasmine Jones, MY ’26, to learn more. She spent her younger days attending rock climbing parties. She found rock climbing to be an activity that both physically challenged her and carved out time to spend with friends. Jasmine says that rock climbing is an activity that already athletic young adults are tacking on to their daily routine almost as a bonus. “Rock climbing is an athletic activity but something more social since you’re exercising and staying healthy and all but having more fun than just going to the gym,” she said.
Zara Escobar, MY ’26, shared similar thoughts to Jasmine.
“The challenge is fun! It feels like a puzzle and one that I can come back to at any time and progress.” Perhaps this challenge is part of rock climbing’s appeal. I would be lying if I said I didn’t start to reconsider my stance on rock climbing as an over-hyped activity: maybe there was more to the sport than simply scaling walls. Having never even given rock climbing a chance or tested the walls out for myself, I began to wonder if it would in fact be the perfect intersection of physical endurance and social interaction—a time I could both train my back muscles and laugh with friends over failed attempts to map out a climb. My friend Savannah Eastler, MY ’26, describes each climb aslike a puzzle meant to provoke daring individuals.
“The feeling of finally succeeding on a route you’ve struggled on for hours or weeks is unmatched,” she told me. “Maybe you have to be a little weird to spend your weekends dangling off a cliff for fun.”
