WJ Rock Climbing Club held their interest meeting during lunch on Wednesday, Jan. 24. The officers, freshman president Noam Reich, sophomore vice president Sophia Babayev, junior treasurer Ava Posin and sophomore secretary Jamie McClintock, covered future activities and the purpose of the club.
“Our main activity is bouldering at Movement Rockville,” Reich said.
In addition to indoor climbing, the club plans to go on weekend trips for outdoor climbing opportunities such as scaling the Seneca Rocks in West Virginia. The club wants members to experience both outdoor and indoor climbing.
“I prefer indoor climbing because the best part of climbing is the community around it and you can meet so many people at the gym and also try diverse courses at the gym,” Posin said.
All four officers are a part of the Movement Rockville team and have various climbing experiences. The club also has climbing equipment to share with new members such as harnesses and shoes.
“Climbing is crazy expensive and is not accessible so if there are people at WJ who want to start climbing but don’t have people to go with or don’t have the money or don’t have the chance to do it, then we want to provide the opportunity in a low-pressure environment and let them see if they like it and decide whether or not they want to continue,” McClintock said.
The officers have first-hand knowledge of the difficulties of climbing for the first time.
“I started climbing pretty recently and was fortunate enough to have people to help me get into it like family members, but if I hadn’t had that, then it would have been super intimidating to start going to the climbing gym especially as a high schooler when a lot of people start sports earlier,” McClintock said.
Rock Climbing Club hopes to make climbing a more accessible sport for students at WJ.
“I really like unique sports like rock climbing and am excited to learn about it with WJ students. I founded WJ TaeKwondo Club three years ago, and it’s nice to see new sports clubs forming at WJ,” senior Ruth Cho said.
