Aggie Climbing Club creates challenging opportunities for students
Rock climbers of all skill levels can now connect and enjoy the sport together because of a new club created by Utah State students.
“The goal was to create and maintain a group of climbing enthusiasts,” sad Zach Hall, one of the founders of the Aggie Climbing Club. “We wanted to help people feel included and progress in the sport.”
There’s a barrier to get into climbing that the Aggie Climbing Club hopes to minimize, said James Neeley, another one of the club’s founders.
“We found a lot of people who didn’t have a lot of climbing partners or gear and wanted to go climbing, but didn’t know anyone that could take them,” Hall said.
Rock climbing has grown in popularity in recent years and there are a number of Utah State students that would like to start climbing, Hall said.
Neeley credited the growth of the sport’s popularity — particularly at Utah State — to the advent of sport climbing.
“Sport climbing is a relatively new avenue in the climbing world,” Neeley said.
In sport climbing, bolts are permanently secured into the rock wall, making it much safer to climb.
Cache Valley is unique because there are so many sport climbing walls in Logan Canyon. The canyon has a number of routes of varying difficulties and is easy to access, which USU student Bethany King says makes it an ideal place to climb.
“People have traveled from other places to go to Logan Canyon to climb,” said Desi Malan, who recently graduated from Utah State. “You could be climbing Logan for years and years — your whole life — and still be working on different stuff.”
A lot of the enjoyment from climbing comes from the difficulty, said Utah State student Corrine Hoster.
“There are some times where you just want to quit and give up because it would be easier to just come down than to get to the top,” Hoster said.
Neeley echoed that sentiment.
“It’s a challenge,” he said. “It’s exciting. It gets your adrenaline going.”
King said she likes the personal challenge of climbing.
“You have to work out different strategies for different routes and things and really think about it,” King said. “It’s like playing chess with the mountain.”
Despite the climb itself being an individual challenge, the sport provides opportunity for social involvement, Hall said.
“You get the best of both worlds of going out in the mountains, hanging out with your friends, eating some good food, just chilling, but at the same time you’re doing something active,” Hall said.
Hoster said she enjoys climbing with friends.
“It’s good with friends too when they’re cheering you on. Tt kind of makes it easier because they’re all rooting for you to get to the top,” Hoster said. “You feel pretty cool once you overcome a hard climb or do something difficult and get to the top.”
—Thomas Sorenson
—Twitter: @tomcat340