Beginner climber in Northern New Jersey!

First, Let me introduce myself
Im Adrianna, im 23 and im from Northern New Jersey. I hike a TON, am an avid runner and am super excited to start to climb. I will be attending a "beginner climbers" session at New Jersey Rock Gym next week to start off. I have no friends that are into climbing at all and im feeling like i need some direction. Does anyone have any advice for me starting off?? I honestly wasnt sure where to start with all of this.

Thanks in Advanced!
-Adrianna

Hey Adriana,

My name is Christine Aguilera (i promise this is my real name) and I saw your post. I was actually looking for a rock climbing forum to find a rock climbing partner since I started in January. I don't have friends who climb and those friends that I do have that rock climb just do it occasionally and not as seriously.

Anyway, I live in Northern NJ as well and I actually have the same interests, believe it or not! , Ive been an XC runner since high school and Im also a new yogi and hiker.) You can follow me on IG, christinexo13, and you can see for yourself so you know Im not lying lol. Im 20 years old :)

Hope to hear from you soon! Hopefully we can get to know one another and be climbing partners perhaps? :)

Best,
Christine A

Woo this is cool may you girls end up doing something together, let us know, I'm a bit far to NJ, I can't join you,,, lol

You should try to hook up with the people at the Powerlinez - a climbing area in Harriman state park just off rt. 17. There is a facebook group you can join. A couple of them work at Gravity Vault on rt. 17

adrianna melody wrote: Does anyone have any advice for me starting off?? I honestly wasnt sure where to start with all of this. Thanks in Advanced! -Adrianna

As an avid outdoorsmen before I started climbing, I felt I had a somewhat basic understanding of "how it all worked" once I got shoes, a harness and tied into the rope. Needless to say....I was wrong. ;)

Rule #1: Take belaying very seriously. A big part of someones life and saftey is based on how attentive you are while doing this. Never take your brake hand off the rope. Ever. I suggest to learn with an ATC. Not a GriGri. You could develop lazy habits after using one for a little while. Just my opinion!

Since you don't have friends who are climbers, might be worth it to buy these two books. One for basic skills(knots, footwork, basic climbing commands etc...), the other for knowledge of building anchors. This will come further down the road(and might be overkill early on), but it can at least give you an idea of things to consider/to practice and/or give you an understanding of what it means when your partner yells "Off Belay".

Climbing basics

Anchor building