Climbing is one of the best things that I have found for myself.  My only complaint is that  I cant do it alone.  For me climbing is my chance to get away from everything.  Any decent climber will tell you that climbing requires absolute devotion to the task at hand.  One moment of thinking about something else could easily result is a world of pain.  You must put all of you attention to what you are doing and your mind is forced to think about nothing but climbing.  I dont know about others, but when I climb everything feels so different.  The rock on my fingertips feels different.  It’s hard to explain really.  Your world becomes so much simpler.  All that matters at that moment is the next handhold.  For me the hardest thing about rock climbing is enjoying the company.  I just want to climb and even though I’ll be with friends I want them to shut up and belay.

Of course the day will end and I’ll come back to reality.  Work for me involves a lot of outdoors time, however it also requires hours and hours of office time.  Even though I’ll be in an office for an entire day I’ll catch myself crimping  on doors or desks all the time now.  And in those two seconds that I’m doing it I’ll lose myself high off the ground with a solid hold.  There’s something about having a solid handhold and feeling your body dangle below you.

I dont get to take many climbing trips, so most of my experiences come from 15 meter fixed rope climbs.  Even though I usually only get an hour or two a week in, climbing is slowing becoming my drug, which sort of frightens me, but also it’s becoming my outlet where all of the negative things seem to disappear for the few hours that I’m on that wall.