Funny Climbing Gym Stories?

While at the gym I heard a scream of fright from our top rope wall. A girl (first time climber), decided to free solo our top rope wall (~25') despite all of the ropes dangling.

Fortunately, she managed to down climb and was ok.

bkozak wrote: Looking at it again after someone else posted a picture flipping it around, I saw that I was indeed incorrect, but it was just tied very weirdly. Didn't mean to hijack the thread. Back to funny gym stories, I overheard some an Earth Treks say they liked the climb they just did because the "grips were so grippy". Made me chuckle.

without mad backup it's a crap knot for any climbing purpose... you're right to call it out.

maybe 6 months ago a guy in his 50s (that's YOUNG to me) came in with his harness loaded with trad gear. said to my climbing partner that he'd forgotten his sport harness. proceeded to climb with all his gear on his harness. we just snickered. So a couple weeks back I was climbing with my son and dude was back THIS TIME IN HIS SPORT HARNESS apparently because he had at least a dozen draws on it. Thank goodness it was time to leave because I could NOT stop laughing. wtaf

mbrd wrote: yeah, this! who the hell is anyone to determine what is appropriate for someone else learning to climb? i've always taken off my slippers at the first rational opportunity, and not everyone was born climbing bookshelves and muntins. don't get me wrong, i hate the gym movement and the overpopulation of the crags, but i still can't see denying any individual decent tutelage. as you seem to allude, a lot of these folks will never become climbers, but will relish the experience of having climbed. that's fucking awesome, and they deserve to treasure that experience. any elitist crap putting down low to mid grade climbers is some weak punter garbage.

I'm so glad there are like minded folk on here on this topic...

My wife and I were climbing at that outdoor place in Reno not too long after it opened, that sits above Virginia St. It was a cold night, and nobody was outside on the climbing wall, so we thought we'd play out there. The kid inside at the counter gave us the go-ahead and we headed out.

There's a right side and a left side. The left had a couple ropes tied to the guardrail, so I picked one and headed up. About 2/3 up, I got tired or something and shoved off, expecting a standard catch (I'd even warned her). Unbeknownst to us (as noobs) this left side is (or was, been a long time now) a speed wall. As in, there's a pulley at the top, not a friction-generating bar, biner, or the like. So instead of the standard catch, I'm zipping on down and my wife is zipping UP toward me!

I managed to catch her side of the rope and stop us about 5 ft apart, both of us now swinging back and forth out over the railing above Virginia St, trying to figure out WTF. I hand-over-handed the rope to put her back on the deck and then assist her in lowering me, and we proceeded to untie. While we're untying the kid from inside at the desk comes out and says "yeah, um, you can't tie into that rope, it's been out here a couple months and isn't safe."

Gee dude, thanks for the heads up!

Also, when I first started, I WAS that guy at the gym with a crapload of trad gear (draws and shit) hanging off my harness. These days I try to make sure I only snicker and make fun of the uber elite athletes at the gym who are dicks and clearly aren't Honnold. I'm beginning to think I should drag my cowbells to the gym just to fuck with some of the elitist pricks. And a go-pro for those really hard TR's.

After dislocating my elbow falling from the finish hold of a bouldering problem last year, I vowed never to boulder again. That is, after I finish using my punch passes to the bouldering gym.

I was at the bouldering gym last night, and I don't finish problems anymore. I stop 1-2 moves below, then downclimb. As I dismounted from a problem, this slightly overweight guy said, "you almost got it." I said, "no, I don't finish problems anymore" and explained why. He said he was actually working on that problem, but didn't know where to put his feet. I said, "well why don't you give it a go, and I'll look from a different perspective and offer some suggestions." Excited, he said, "wow, thanks, you would do that?" I nodded, as he approached the start hold.

But before he was able to get on the problem, a gang of 3 guys approached. One fit guy said to the 1st guy, "hmmmm we're about the same height let me show you." And jumped up the problem without climbing shoes- to show us how easy this problem was for him. I made a mental note not to climb that problem again with someone's bare feet all over the holds. He was dancing up and down the route and swinging around, when suddenly he lost his grip and thudded to the floor on his side. "WHOA" everybody said. Luckily he didn't hurt anything except his pride. "I was just talking about my bouldering injury.... but you look a lot bouncier than me" I said thoughtlessly, to mean he was a better faller, and then realized it probably came off as saying he looked fat or padded. Which was probably not the reaction he was going for when he started swinging up that route with bare feet.

overheard at Planet Granite Sunnyvale, a first time indoor climber asked the woman he was with "does there exist such a thing as outdoor climbing?" The ensuing explanation of "how do you get the ropes up there" was priceless!

Dimitri Bevc wrote:The ensuing explanation of "how do you get the ropes up there" was priceless!

Wasn't there a book at the Yose gift shop by that title at some point?

My climbing partner told me a prosthetic leg fell from the ceiling the other day. I thought that was funny.

at my home in big gym, warm up usually consists of v0..v9. sometimes the setter are lazy and there are too few v9s so we will instead campus a v7 to substitute. generally, at big gyms, this is fairly common and nobody cares. the v7 projecters won't complain verbally, but they will wait with brush in hand.

went to a small gym while on vacation. campusing a v7 garnered the attention of the entire gym. after flashing a few v8's, even the employees began watching when i climbed. i wanted to tell them at big gym, i wasn't even close to the actual strong climbers. apparently, the v10s were essentially reserved as projects for the setters, almost flashing one made everyone think i was a pro climber.

big gym is usually set slightly harder than most outdoors. a v10 there will usually mean a v10 in most other big locations like bishop or jtree. surprisingly, though small gyms are sometimes softer, this small gym felt fairly consistent to big gym.

Aweffwef Fewfae wrote:at my home in big gym, warm up usually consists of v0..v9. sometimes the setter are lazy and there are too few v9s so we will instead campus a v7 to substitute. generally, at big gyms, this is fairly common and nobody cares. the v7 projecters won't complain verbally, but they will wait with brush in hand. went to a small gym while on vacation. campusing a v7 garnered the attention of the entire gym. after flashing a few v8's, even the employees began watching when i climbed. i wanted to tell them at big gym, i wasn't even close to the actual strong climbers. apparently, the v10s were essentially reserved as projects for the setters, almost flashing one made everyone think i was a pro climber. big gym is usually set slightly harder than most outdoors. a v10 there will usually mean a v10 in most other big locations like bishop or jtree. surprisingly, though small gyms are sometimes softer, this small gym felt fairly consistent to big gym.

I cant tell if this is sarcasm, satire or just good ol' fashion bragging.

Scott Campbell wrote: I cant tell if this is sarcasm, satire or just good ol' fashion bragging.

Is it bragging when I say I just stand up and jump to the top of these crusher routes?

rging wrote: Is it bragging when I say I just stand up and jump to the top of these crusher routes?

Well damn, I though there was some clever joke hidden in the post.

Aweffwef Fewfae wrote: big gym is usually set slightly harder than most outdoors.

I had a Big Jim when I was a little kid. Like a J.I. Joe, only cooler.

Fernando Cal wrote: A few years back, I was at a climbing gym when a climber freaked out after a fall and her belayer managed to get the grigri stuck and didnt know what to do. Gym staff decided to take her off belay by having two staff members grip the rope above the grigri with their hands, remove the grigri from the belayer's harness, wait for additional staff member to put on harness, attached another grigri above the stuck grigri, and then lower the climber who was shrieking uncontrollably. This was maybe a few weeks after i started climbing and knew nothing about climbing/self rescue/belay escape, anything, nothing. And at the time, I thought the gym employees were strong bad asses ready for anything!

Are you sure they didn't put a belay device somewhere on the slack underneath the jammed grigri before dealing with the jammed grigri?

I've been corrected on my CORRECT belaying by youngsters who didn't know what multipitch meant. There are people working in gyms that shouldn't be.

Long Ranger wrote: So, YOU'RE the guy! Kidding. I think the problem was, new partner and the climber wasn't really communicating well. Think of the scenario as the climber: you're on indirect, and then decide, "Welp, going to climb, again!" You take yourself off, and start climbing with a big loop of rope out, because as you say, the belayer has to release you. If the belayer is bored, looking around the various yoga pants flora, it could be a, "oh shit!" moment. I'd vote, indoors, to not go indirect. How are you doing that, anyways? Just the draw on your belay loop? I've actually have never seen anyone at this gym to that. I can see outdoors, working a route: fine.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.climbing.com/.amp/skills/the-art-of-polite-hangdogging/

Paul Hutton wrote: Are you sure they didn't put a belay device somewhere on the slack underneath the jammed grigri before dealing with the jammed grigri? I've been corrected on my CORRECT belaying by youngsters who didn't know what multipitch meant. There are people working in gyms that shouldn't be.

No which raised my concern of "what if they let go?" when I saw this. I see people belaying with their brake hand above the belay device all the time at the gym right in front of the gym staff. I've tried raising the concern but only to be ignored. So i just keep to myself. Good thing they only allow the grigri! haha

There's always the very-first-time-climber who does a top-rope route.

"When you're at the top, just lean back and walk down the wall as I lower you!" Instead of having total faith in the system, the newbie death-grips the wall for dear life.

"Let go of the wall, I'll lower you!" They might let go of the wall, but they keep tightly holding on to the rope as if they'll die without it.

"Lean back while I lower you!" Nope, gotta stay perfectly upright, maintaining the standing pose as if they're on the ground.

"Keep your knees straight and walk down!" If they don't get it by this point, I usually end up lowering the person and try not to wince as he/she hits every hold on the positively sloped newbie wall.

Jeff Lee11 wrote:There's always the very-first-time-climber who does a top-rope route. "When you're at the top, just lean back and walk down the wall as I lower you!" Instead of having total faith in the system, the newbie death-grips the wall for dear life.

That was me! I have a worse than normal fear of heights, so the first time I climbed it took about 5 minutes of coaching from my (very patient) belayer before I was able to let go of the wall and be lowered. Over time I've lost all fear when I'm on top rope, but lead climbing is still difficult.

My funny gym story: Climber (top rope) reached top of the wall. The belayer let go of the rope and belay device completely so that he could clap and congratulate the climber. Hooray climber! Good thing the climber didn't let go to be lowered in the middle of the cheering session.

ErikaNW wrote:My husband had been working a pretty hard boulder problem, V6 if I recall correctly, and kept falling a couple of moves from the top. This little girl, probably about 10 years old, asks if she can have a try. She floats up the thing, makes the move he'd been struggling with, then says 'And now, for the grand finale!' and does a huge dyno to the finish. She wasn't being a jerk, just having a blast climbing. It was super cute and hilarious - we still laugh about it. Kids are amazing.

My 10 year old daughter did that to a young guy on a V5 problem at my gym, I'm happy to make it up a V3 and this guy had been working on a tricky "balancy" V5 and kept falling off at this one point. My daughter had been watching and says, do you think he'll mind if I try, that looks like a fun one. The kid says "fill your boots, I've been at it for five days". She nailed it second try and says to the guy, who was ripped, "maybe if you were skinnier you could do it". She's 5'1" and about 70 pounds. He laughed realizing she meant nothing malicious by it and carried on.