by Sarah Honhart
The world of climbing – through trad climbing, competitive climbing, mountaineering, alpinism, etc. – is so deeply rooted in the culture that encompasses the Pacific Northwest that it was only a matter of time, growing up in the suburbs of Seattle, before I discovered the magic of the mountains.
My infatuation with the mountains first began when my dad taught me how to ski when I was four. The mountains became the ideal environment to foster my constant itch for adventure, tranquility, and need for speed. My love of the outdoors really ramped up in my early teens, which led to my discovery of rock climbing from a YouTube video. A day after watching this video, I asked my mom if she could take me to a climbing gym. I had absolutely zero experience with climbing prior to this. I just had an overwhelming urge to see what it was all about.
By some combination of luck, coincidence, and other stars aligning, the local climbing gym that was less than ten minutes from my house, was America’s first ever climbing gym and home to one of the top elite youth climbing teams in the United States. After that first visit to the gym, climbing became my bloodline and Vertical World became my home. My obsession with climbing quickly began to unfold and I wanted nothing more than to train and compete with the youth team. For months, I pestered the coaches to let me try out but they had reservations about my age. Fourteen was quite late to enter the youth comp climbing scene. Eventually, they either got tired of me asking, or they felt inclined to give me a shot. I was told I would be allowed to try out by the end of the year. One of the coaches gave me a little sticky note with a list of five items I needed to aim for and be able to execute before try outs. For the next few months, completing the tasks on this sticky note became my one and only focus. I vividly remember the elation I felt when I was finally able to complete my first pull up. Fast forward to the day after try outs, that same coach found me in the bouldering area and handed me a team shirt. I think that remains one of my happiest memories to date.
Although I was ecstatic to be on the team, to say it was rough to be so new at climbing and training with the best youth athletes in the country, would be an understatement. I felt so behind and like I would never catch up. I progressed in climbing rather quickly, but nothing could replace the years and years of training that many of my teammates had already put in to excel in competitive youth climbing. In reality, I would never and did never ‘catch up’ to many of them in the scope of competition. However, this reality forced an important lesson upon me that has shaped my climbing journey in so many ways. It allowed me to develop a love of climbing that was pure and complete, not dependent on my performance among peers or standing on podiums. I just loved to climb. I loved the movement, I loved training, I loved the culture, and I loved competitions because they were fun, not because I wanted to beat anyone else. This pure love of the sport has powered my ever-evolving aspirations of pursuing outdoor goals and pushing the envelope of my personal capacity. Although my initial exposure to climbing was through a competitive lens, one of my favorite parts about climbing is that it is not actually a competition at all. Everyone’s climbing journey is unique and our relationships with climbing serve a wide variety of purposes. Comparing your climbing journey or ability to anyone else’s is uninformative and unnecessary.
Despite my team being on the podium at youth nationals year after year, our coaches never put any pressure on us to perform at competitions. They trained us hard, but their goal was to build lifelong climbers with a lifelong love of the sport. I look around at so many of my former teammates now and it is so apparent how this value has carried us and guided our climbing careers. Some of us have pursued elite competitive climbing and are competing in world cups all over. Some of us are crushing in the collegiate competition circuit., Others, like me, are finding new ways of falling in love with climbing all over again. For myself, this means getting outside and pursuing exploration and adventure, connecting with friends, and learning new skills.
A year ago, I had no idea what trad climbing was. At the beginning of the summer I couldn’t tell you how to girth hitch something, what PAS stood for, or how to build an anchor. Now, I am slowly and surely growing comfortable with these and so many other outdoor skills, all courtesy of the incredible and generous women of WLC that have taken the time to teach and mentor me. I wish I knew a way to truly express my gratitude to the club and everything it has given me. I didn’t know I could love climbing more than I did when I first started, but connecting with all you rad women through climbing and making memories together outside has, fortunately, proven me wrong.
Leave a Reply