Every month, a group of students from all grades gather at a local rock climbing gym to indulge in their favorite thrill-seeking hobby: rock climbing. While rock climbing is typically not viewed as a team sport, senior Zach Ruwitch started the Menlo Climbing Club in the fall to share his passion for climbing with the Menlo community.
“I love climbing,” Ruwitch said. “I used to do it more, and then last year, I kind of stopped, but I would get friends to go do it. And I thought, ‘Well, what if I just opened it up more to Menlo?’”
Ruwitch has been climbing since 2016, but isn’t a competitive climber. Instead, he climbs for enjoyment and is especially drawn to the thrills of ascending himself. “I like heights,” he said. “I like coming down, you kind of float down a little bit.” Ruwitch also likes to belay other climbers and be on the opposite end of someone’s rope.
Because Ruwitch tore his meniscus during dance recitals for the fall musical, the club did not host any climbing events in the first semester. The club’s first event was on Feb. 3, during which Ruwitch took nine students to a local Movement Gym to climb for the day. Movement is a rock climbing gym with four Bay Area locations in Santa Clara, Belmont, San Francisco and Sunnyvale.
The club meets outside of school at climbing gyms and is open to climbers at any level. “The hope is that we meet once a month or twice a month and just go climbing,” Ruwitch said. “It’s really meant just to be super casual.”
Senior Ana Banchs appreciates the casual nature of the club. “I think my favorite thing about the club is just how flexible we are,” she said. “It’s just a lot of freedom and you just get to [go] climbing.”
In particular, Banchs enjoys the goal-oriented nature of the sport and the satisfaction she feels after challenging climbs. “Every time I go, I always have a goal, a specific climb that I want to do,” she said. “Just reaching that goal is always super awesome.”
While sophomore Jacob Elkes has been climbing and taking lessons since he was a little kid, he hasn’t climbed regularly in years. The club has allowed him to reconnect with a past hobby he enjoyed when he was younger.
“I like rock climbing, but a lot of the time I don’t have people to do it with,” Elkes said. “It’s a fun thing to be able to do with friends because I don’t have to go by myself.”
Similarly, junior Jake Kaplan has been rock climbing for two years but struggled to find others to rock climb with. He decided to join the club to be a part of a supportive and casual community of climbers. Kaplan enjoys bouldering, which are short reps that don’t require another person to belay him.
“I [boulder] by myself, which is fun, but it can also be a little bit lonely to not be able to climb with people,” he said. “It’s just fun to have a change of pace and be able to have fun with people who also enjoy climbing.”
Sometimes, more experienced members of the club give other members supportive tips. “Last time, we taught people how to tie the knot so that they could get through their hard points and climb properly,” Ruwitch said. “But I know that the Movement [Gyms] have classes if you want to learn how to properly belay or properly top rope climb.”
Even though Elkes finds climbing to be somewhat self-explanatory, there are some techniques and specific rules that club members helped him learn. “For bouldering there’s certain things you have to get two hands on in the final hold in order to actually complete it,” he said. “You can’t use some of the gray holes that are there because those are there for different purposes.”
Elke’s favorite aspect of the sport is the satisfaction that he feels after finishing a hard climb. “The challenge and the feeling of accomplishment when you get to the top, it’s really nice,” he said.
