My 2024 climbing journey and aspirations for 2025

There’s something about climbing that feels so perfect for my blog.  It’s not just the cool videos and photos, although my Instagram would be a lot more boring without them.  No, it’s the metaphor.  Climbing is the symbol of my journey.  Because even though I just started it as a true hobby this year, this entire journey has been a climb.

At first, climbing was about how exhilarating and fun it is.  Even when doing it indoors, not only am I grateful to have a body that can do it, but I’ve never done something so thrilling in my life. 

For me, climbing has been a celebration of who I’ve become.  In fact, my first time ever going out on the rock in the summer of 2023, I questioned how the rope would be able to hold my weight if I fell.  My instructor said, “it’s held people a lot heavier than you.”  To her, and most others, that was probably obvious, and it should have been just as clear to me.  But having made made a significant part of my transformation over that year, I had not yet appreciated just how much my body was not what it used to be.

My first time climbing — Alaska, July 2023.

That first day, just showing up and doing it was the accomplishment.  I had taken on something I never could have nor would have done before.  Having now had time to reflect on that day and the eight additional ones that I had out on the rock this past year, I realize that this is very much the same type of climb I’ve been on since the day I started my journey in 2013 with Paul, my personal trainer.  Showing up and doing it was the accomplishment, and it led to many moments where I could take on something that I could not or would not have done before.

So, that brings me to my year in climbing and my year ahead.

My 2024 climbing journey . . .

Each climbing route in climbing has a grade. The grade starts with a 5, meaning that the route is something that requires climbing with a rope. The second number reflects the difficulty ranging from 1-15. So, the grades go from 5.1 (novice) to 5.15 (extremely professional).  Think skiing where one could go out on their first bunny slope compared to Mikaela Shiffrin racing down a giant slalom. Throughout this past year, I worked my way up to the 5.6 routes at The Gunks.  The gains often come faster during the early stages of a journey.  In fitness, my early gains included doing a squat without the assistance of a chair, transitioning from walking as my form of cardio to doing elliptical or spin classes, and moving from bodyweight exercises to adding heavier barbells or dumbbells.  These are the gains that make any beginner realize that commitment and practice make all the difference.  Now I’m training for a marathon and thinking about so much more.

In climbing, those gains went from learning what it felt like to grab onto large handholds and step onto large footholds at a relatively modest incline to moving around the rock wall with smaller holds and a vertical wall.

Left: First outdoor climb this year on April 8, 2024; Right: Last outdoor climb this year on November 10, 2024

This next video from my second time out this year shows my struggle to get beyond what is now a relatively simple crux on a 5.4 route.  The handholds and footholds are large, but I did not yet have the vision to see the possibilities around me.  My arms were tense which exhausted my strength.  Still, this step up from where I had recently started was a big improvement not just because of the rise in grade but because I learned that struggling and failing is what most of climbing is about. It taught me became comfortable with the security of the rope and my guide who would save my life at some point on most days out.

Eventually, as the year went on, I developed better moves, better strategy, and better vision, making 5.5 or 5.6 climbs far easier than that day on a 5.4.

My last time out this year, I even figured out how to get over or around a roof by getting horizonal with my feet nearly above my head on a 5.6.

Of course, climbing is not without its injuries.  After just my first time out this year, I realized I needed a first-aid kid added to my gear – and thankfully, my guide had one that day.  I quickly learned there’s a name for when the skin rips off your finger when it catches on a hold – it’s called a “flapper.”  Nearly every time out comes with some amount of bruises although I rarely seem to feel it or notice it in the moment – only the next day when I try to figure out how they happened.  And of course, there was the elbow injury that resulted in a blog post about my foolishness of overdoing it.

The parallels between climbing and my journey are endless.  Learning how to work out, eat healthier, sleep better, and recover have all involved slowly climbing up to different levels one step at a time.  With each new level, I established a different baseline for what I was ready to do next.  Which brings me to the year ahead.

Aspirations for 2025 . . .

Several times before, I’ve written that goals can be dangerous, and I’ll write more about that next week, but for now, I’ll explain the obvious, that not all goals are dangerous and it’s good to have ambition.

As I look towards 2025, my ambitions for climbing are not to reach a specific grade like 5.7, 5.8, or 5.9 although each of those would be amazing.  Right now, the 5.6’s are awesome, and surely whatever level I achieve will be amazing. First and foremost, my goal is just to climb outdoors more and more.  I train every week indoors, and that helps me reach new levels, but there’s so much in the outdoor world that I want to explore.  Up until last year, most of my outdoors life was spent on a golf course.  Even there, the best moments are the courses set in the most breathtaking places.  But my trip to Alaska last year opened up my mind to nature beyond golf.  Climbing feeds that passion.

Ideally, that passion will be fed this winter when I hope to try ice climbing.  Actually, let me revise that.  My favorite Star Wars quote is when Yoda told Luke, “Do or do not.  There is no try.”  So my plan, of course, is to do it.  Whether or not I like it is what I’ll find out, but I certainly love visualizing myself in this world . . .

Not me (yet). Aspirational photos courtesy of Adobe Stock Images.

Perhaps the biggest gift that this journey has given me is the hunger for learning.  Luke Skywalker didn’t just “do” the Force, he learned it first.  The same goes for everything I’ve done in this journey.  I’ve learned science behind working out, eating, and recovering in order to do each of those at the level I’m at right now.  Sure, I can go climb without the countless hours that I spend learning the gear, techniques, and history behind the sport, but that would limit the levels I can reach.  I want no limits, so one of my climbing goals for 2025 is to learning everything I can.  The aspiration is to lead climb up the rock.  Up to this point, my guide leads up every route, and I climb it while taking out the gear she laid.  With Patty’s guidance, I’ll be leading one day.  Whether that’s in 2025 or later is anyone’s guess, but the goal now is simply to keep learning.

I’ll also start traveling for climbing in 2025, as have a few trips planned.  For now, climbing trips will replace my golf trips.  But most importantly in relation to my upcoming travels is that I want to start climbing with others in the community.  While I am just meeting people in this space, one of my closest colleagues and favorite friends in life shares this passion.  In June, I’ll be going to Colorado so that she can guide me for a week of mountaineering and climbing.

The plan is a two-day, 24.6-mile hike in White River National Forest along Capitol Lake, Avalanche Creek, and Hell’s Roaring Pass Loop.  That will be followed by a couple of climbing days on The Wall at Coal Creek Boulders and Daredevil at Independence Pass.

I also have another trip on the calendar to Red Rocks, Nevada when I will also be there to test out the Las Vegas Speedway in a Ferrari. 

If I boil down my goals and ambitions for 2025 into a few basic concepts, they are all about progress, nature, and friends.  The goal is to embrace this journey by make climbing a bigger part of my life.  With that, the skills should improve, and the grades may become higher.  Sure, there may be struggles, setbacks, or injuries, but no matter what, this climb that I’ve been on since 2013 will continue as it goes higher and higher.

Aaron