PHOTO VIA @mvboulderingclub on Instagram

Senior Shreeya Pavani climbing at Minneapolis Bouldering Project

Bouldering, rock climbing without tools or ropes, is not only a fun new experience with friends, but it can also lead to a lifetime activity with family. Junior Aidan Beisang began bouldering in fifth grade after learning from his dad who rock climbed and bouldered. Senior Katherine Schaberg used to boulder with her sister. This is the idea that started one of Mounds View’s newest clubs, bouldering club, that meets to do nothing more than boulder and have fun.

Beisang decided to start the club in order to find new climbing buddies and teach people a new sport. “I just really like climbing, and it’s fun to go climbing with people, and it’s always hard. I knew so many people would be interested in trying new stuff,” he said. While he enjoys having a group to boulder with, Beisang finds it challenging sometimes when trying to teach others. “It’s weird to teach because a lot of [bouldering] is something I just automatically do, and [teaching] it makes me think about it a little more,” he said.

Most people who joined the club are new to bouldering, yet the opportunity to learn a new skill draws them in. “I’ve always thought [bouldering] looked really fun,” said senior Shreeya Pavani. “And when I saw a post on Instagram for this, I thought it’d be really cool. I wanted to check it out.” Pavani, who then shared the post with her friend Schaberg, got inspired to attend the introduction meeting for the club and the first practice.

The first meeting was on Feb 26. Since then, the 15-person club meets twice a month on Friday afternoons for practice. They spend two to three hours bouldering at the Minneapolis Bouldering Project, where they get a discount for going as a group, paying $16 for climbing and equipment. However, Beisang would like to move practices to weekends so that more people can make it.

The newness of the club lends itself to a less competitive atmosphere where it feels more like a hang out than a rigorous club according to Schaberg. “[Bouldering club] is very laid back in the sense that it just kind of started up, so it hasn’t been a thing for super long. I feel like what makes it standout is it’s just a group of friends or people going and doing something fun together,” she said.

Since the group is relatively new to the sport, a feature of the club is how accepting and inclusive the club is, inviting new members and teaching them how to boulder. “[I love] the environment and how inclusive it is to new people and how much everybody wants to focus on helping others get into bouldering as opposed to just working on their own things during practice,” Pavani said.

However, bouldering can also be challenging, especially to people who are unused to the movements or the muscles involved. “Bouldering is really, really hard. It was definitely harder than I expected it to be. After I did a couple of climbs, my forearms were really sore [and] my hands were sore,” said Pavani. 

Beisang hopes to make it easier by teaching the specific skills and training necessary to be good at bouldering. “With bouldering, a lot of it is body positioning and very specific techniques you have to learn. So I’ll just show them that when we come across it, and body positioning just takes practice,” he said, later adding, “Conditioning for boulders is a little different. There’s a lot of hangboarding. I’m planning to [include it] in a couple sessions, but I need to get [the club] introduced to it first.”

The club hopes to expand in the future, with more community outreach and potentially another info meeting. They would like to compete but are working up to it for now. “I’d love to get us to a point where we can compete at some point, but it’s not probably not gonna be this year,” Beisang said.

Beisang hopes people join the club just to have fun and try something they do not usually do. “It was a lot of fun, and I really liked being able to go from not knowing how to boulder at all and then figuring out some of these more complicated walls, so I’m excited to go again,” Pavani said.