Community High School has always had a group of tightly knit rock climbers. Several years ago that rock climbing community was as large as twenty or thirty student climbers, but today there are less than ten regular climbers at Planet Rock gym. Still, unlike some team sports, this tightly knit family spans far past high school. “It’s just an amazing group of people who are always ready to hang out with different people, who always have things to talk about, even if you haven’t met them before,” said Oliver Hill, a junior at community High school and a member of Planet Rock’s climbing team.
Planet Rock is a rock climbing gym, located just off of Jackson Road, and the go-to place for many rock climbers from Ann Arbor. Regular practices are held there for anyone who is participating in one of Planet Rock’s competing rock climbing teams. Several of Community’s students are members of Planet Rock’s team and go to the gym as much as a few times each week for hours at a time. They meet up with the other team members for a constructive practice, hang out with the other regulars at the gym and get to know people who are new to the rock climbing world. “The community is basically like a family,” said Hill, “If you have climbing stickers on your car, you wave to each other and talk to each other about climbing.”
Rock-climbing is unlike any other team sport. Since rock climbing is a sport dependent on the natural rock formations, such as rock faces and mountains, there can be a ton of variation from climb to climb. In Kentucky, Red River Gorge is one of the most well known climbing locations in all of the United States. Rising above the ground are hundreds of natural world-class climbing walls and climbers come from all over the world to spend an entire day there. Hill traveled there recently with his climbing team for several days of outdoor climbing.
At times it’s good for climbers to escape the gym and experience outdoor climbing. “It’s more fun, and it’s a lot prettier, but it’s a lot harder on your hands because your hands get torn,” said Max McVety, a senior at Community High School. “You don’t get that many climbs in, but there is more adventure and more working out.”
On trips like these, climbers get the chance to meet others who are part of the climbing community. Because rock-climbing is such an extreme sport, there is an automatic connection between people who are part of the rock-climbing world. “When I was in Kentucky, I met these people and talked to them for so long even though I didn’t know them and I knew I was never going to see them again, but it was just so fun,” said Hill.
Every climber has a different set of skill levels. There are even different grading scales that play to different strengths. There is the 5-point scale, which aligns more with endurance, and a V-point-scale, which aligns more with strength. At Planet Rock, the taller walls have 5-point routes to follow – marked by a distinct color of tape next to each hand/foot hold that is part of the route. Although there are hundreds of holds on any given part of the wall in order to actually follow a route, it is important to only use the holds with the corresponding tape. At Planet Rock, the difficulty ranges from about a 5.7 to a 5.13, with the difficulty increasing as the number increases.
The routes marked with V-point scale range from V.0 to V.16. The V-point routes are generally much shorter, and ropes aren’t required to get to the top of the route. Once at the top, the normal thing to do is just jump down. “[V.16] has really tiny hand holds and it’s just awful. I’m never going to be able to do that,” said McVety. “Most people on their first time can beat a V.0. It takes a lot of weeks to get to a V.4.”
It’s really difficult for students to participate in this particular extracurricular and do school work at the same time. Hill and McVety are also a part of the ultimate Frisbee team in addition to everything else. “It puts a dent in my school [work]. My grades aren’t as awesome as they could be because I’m here [at Planet Rock] all the time, but it’s worth it,” said Hill. “I definitely would rather be doing rock climbing than doing homework.”
Hill first got involved with rock climbing from his former forum buddy, Gabe Stuber who graduated 2 years ago. Stuber introduced him to Planet Rock the summer of his freshmen year. Hill loved it ever since. “The first time I came, I couldn’t get a particular move [on the route I was climbing], but the second time I came in here with Gabe, I tried an easier route and it was just so fun.” While rock climbing, Hill has gained a lot of close friendships. “There are like 5 or 6 people [from Community,] but we’re all really close. [We] know each other and talk about routes and we see each other a lot but we probably wouldn’t have been as close if not for rock climbing.”
McVety started climbing when he was 13 and would only climb once a week or sometimes not at all. But as he grew to love the sport, McVety began going more regularly to the gym. “When I was 15, I started climbing 3 times a week” He was influenced by his uncle and brother, who started taking McVety climbing when he was younger. It took him a long time until he could do anything because he was too short but he continued to climb anyway. “When I got [to be] 5 feet, I got to do stuff, but then [my uncle and brother] stopped and I kept going.
