Rock Climbing

There is an odd trend at the office. So all of us obviously like architecture enough to try to make money practicing it, which is pretty odd in itself. However, it turns out that a lot of architects also get pretty excited about bikes. People were pretty intrigued by my Roubaix when I rode it in the few times, so talk of hobbies and sports came up. It turns out that half the people in my wing indoor rock climb, so I figured I'd try it. I also found a coupon and got a great deal at Brooklyn Boulders, a warehouse that was converted into an indoor climbing gym.

I went with a group that a co-worker told me about. We were mostly first timers or at least very green, so it was a nice atmosphere to begin in (ie: we were all terrible).

This is an image of what some of the walls look like.

And here are some silly people trying to climb.

So there are 2 types of climbing available at this gym. The photos earlier are called "bouldering." We got a lesson in what's called "top-roping" in the following photo. The main difference that you'll notice is that one doesn't need ropes, the other does. Another difference is that bouldering tends to require better technique, while top-roping is more endurance. Also, you need to get "belay certified" and have a friend for top-roping because someone's gotta hold that rope for you.

Some silly looking walls:

Some folks attempting to climb those silly walls:

Rock climbing uses some odd muscles. Well, technically, you should be using your legs as much as possible because those are the strongest limbs in your body. (Cycling legs: check) But you still need to be able to balance that with a degree of arm usage, especially forearms (Cycling anti-arms: no good!) Also, as newbies with zero "form", we were hauling ourselves all over those walls with our arms, so by the end of the climb session, our forearms were completely dead. It was to the point that I was worried about using a computer the next day! (I was fine) Good times!