Choosing the Right Climbing Partner

Reading climbing magazines we learn of great new places to dream of and sometimes go to. We learn new techniques, view gear, and idolize the hottest climbers. As I read these articles I reminisce about my climbing past, the crux moments, the anguishing defeats, and the people who were with me.

Picking a climbing partner seems like a natural thing. A good friend you trust with the skills or desire to learn them, or a friend of a friend that has a good reputation. So you meet, you climb and a certain kind of friendship is forever sealed.

In these great magazines, the stars seem to always have equally great partners that they have climbed with from the beginning of time or at least a great many years. I, myself, have never had a partner for more than two seasons; perhaps the reason I am not a climber you've ever heard of. Living in seasonal recreation tourist towns draws the transient and therefore my climbing partners (or I) came and went. And then there are the ones you just sort of "grow apart" from.

One such partner of mine was a great girl who taught climbing to children for a couple summers between going to college, working, and rowing, playing rugby and whatever other sports as she found. We met through mutual friends and became roommates with grand plans of climbing adventures. Being a much stronger person as well as climber she was my perfect counter, at first. She pushed me to climb harder routes, making me stronger and braver, and taught me about knots and anchors. Silly and somewhat crazy, we once donated plasma then climbed at Smith Rocks summating the .6 on Rope-?De-Dope in the dark. Ours was a fun, loud, spontaneous climbing partnership. But as time passed and I, having another partner too, got stronger, more knowledgeable and less dependant on her we started to have friction. She became seemingly resentful of my being more agile and in turn became crabby. While climbing she'd make everything a competition, fastest time on the easiest routes, who could do the harder routes. I liked climbing as a team, not competitively. Eventually her yelling for the sake of yelling became cussing at me while I belayed her. If she needed to hang and the rope streatched, the four letter words would berate me. Of course I didn't sit quietly and take it, sending her back a few words of my own on the subject of respecting the person who holds your life. Needless to say our term as climbing partners was short (as was our time as roommates).

On the other hand I climbed with a calm experienced climber who liked it for the mental and physical challenge of pushing himself. He climbed with great guy strength, while I had the girl finesse. Together we coached each other into harder and harder climbs with positive feedback and friendly encouragement. Those days of meeting after work at The Columns in Eugene, OR will always be my glory days. He taught me most of what I know about the sport, enabled me to get into the best shape of my life, and was fun to climb with. The basics that he taught me gave me the incite to know which partners to be aware of, and which to follow up what ever .11 exposed Yosemite trad route they want.

Whether it's similar or opposing styles, someone to push you or just someone you enjoy being around, the best trips we read about in magazines couldn't happen if the star climbers didn't belong to beloved teams.