The climbing team at UVA is really, fundamentally
a community. We just happen to all like to climb

together too. The climbing center at UVA opened
the fall of my first year, it's right next to

dorms so i used to go there a lot. Once I
started doing it more and got into it I
 

joined the team. I'd never once climbed in my
life, I hopped on that wall and talked to the

person about the climbing team i'd heard of, and
she was like, "Yeah, you should like totally sign

up. Get on the listserv, there's a party this
weekend." I remember looking up UVA Climbing

Instagram before i even came to UVA to see who's
on the team. You know, it was probably one of the

single best decisions i've ever made as a student
here. The climbing house is pretty sweet we've had

multiple years of climbers living there. Each
year it kind of adapts, but it's always just

climbers who are really good friends,
living together and having a good time.

We like to travel to all sorts of places,
predominantly on the east coast. We'll go up to the

Blue Ridge Parkway, we'll go to Old Rag Mountain
in the Shenandoah National Park. We love going out

to the New River Gorge in West Virginia. One of
the really cool aspects of the team is how many

of our members are really new climbers.
Each semester, almost 50 are like, completely

brand new or have only been climbing for
like a few weeks. So, we have this program

it's called Boulders and Pebbles it's equivalent
to like a big/little program, you would see in a

sorority or fraternity. That boulder is usually there
with you at practice and you climb together and

they'll walk you through some tips and tricks that
they've picked up over their experience climbing.

One of the main reasons i got into climbing
and got really passionate about it was because

I had some really wonderful role models who
were like, supporting me and encouraging me.

They were pushing me to be better and making
me feel like i was included and in a safe space.

When you're getting on that wall, there's
always a good couple of people cheering you on.

There's a structural drive to get people to learn
these things. They just progress so quickly and

it's really rewarding to see someone new to the
sport get excited about it and then provide them

resources to continue to improve. The people there
want to see you succeed and you can feel that.