Your First Time Climbing

Your Local Climbing Gym

If you’ve never climbed before, a trip to the local gym with a friend is your best introduction to basic climbing movements, gear, and skills. Most gyms can outfit you with rental climbing shoes, a harness, and a belay device and then give you lessons in how to safely belay and climb. Just remember that the indoor climbing experience is very different from outdoor climbing, which requires an entirely different competency and skills for a safe experience.
Climbing indoors mirrors climbing outdoors—without the risks and objective dangers found outside. Indoor climbing is all about minimizing danger and having a safe and fun experience in a controlled setting.

Climbing Partners

Indoor gym climbing is usually done in pairs, although you can boulder, which is climbing the walls up to ten or so feet off the ground, by yourself. But it’s usually more fun to climb with a friend. As climbing partners you check each other’s knots; you belay each other; you give each other technical tips; and you have fun together. As a climbing team, one of you is the climber and the other is the belayer.