Snapshots of Some Climbing Friends

Erin:

Erin is one of the few girls I climb with; she’s awesome. She reminds me to eat, is super encouraging and supportive when I’m hang-dogging, and is always down for a good Pawtuckaway night session.

Erin has a unique philosophical look at climbing. If she’s not having fun on a route she’ll simply let go, dirt, and make someone else clean the draws. If climbing is supposed to be fun, why spend your time on a route you’re not enjoying? That’s her take on things.

She is also, under nearly every circumstance, down to climb. We spent several days at Rumney together this summer while she was recovering from a concussion. Maybe not the smartest idea, but we made sure put a 5.8 cap on her climbing for the week. The best part: she got incredibly psyched talking me through leading a wonky 10a. That onsight is 132% due to her encouragement and telling me to dry off my wet shoes with my chalk ball halfway up. “I was just climbing vicariously through you,” was her reply to my thanks.

Matt:

Matt is a solid athlete. He climbs 5.12 sport, kiteboards, mountain bikes, road bikes, hikes, Nordic ski races, and hammocks like a champ. Right now, when there isn’t enough wind to kiteboard, he tries to find pumpier and pumpier sport routes, so he can say, “that was the most pumped I’ve ever been in my life” after sending each one.  I’m impressed by his ability to push himself with sport climbing, campusing cruxes when he can’t get his feet on and later asking us how he did them, explaining he “blacked out there for a minute” while climbing them.

Matt is also a fan of making horse noises, loud “da, ba,” etc. exclamations, and occasionally employing wild yelling to get himself through cruxes. Sometimes he jokingly plans out what he’s going to vocalize on the way up: horse noises to the crux then wild yelling to the chains. He usually follows through with it.

Tim:

Tim is a baby climber like me, having gotten into the sport later in college. He is notorious for getting things almost right, especially when it comes to climbing terms. He likes to ask me if routes are “permadrawed” at the top when he wants to know if there are quick clips and pronounces “flacking” out one’s rope like Ben Affleck’s last name: “flackking.”

My favorite Tim-ism is his use of “you got me” to mean both “take” and “climbing.” When belaying him I’ve learned to take when he’s climbing and says “you got me?” and then give out slack again the next time he yells it down to me.

Tim can also be a big fan of the word take, especially in the gym. He even uses it when on top rope, and he’s naturally always taken due to the nature of top roping. However, he’s always down to belay, is super encouraging, and will likely offer you a pb&j at the crag. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll get to see him send a route in full sweats when it’s seventy degrees.