The Future of Climbing in a COVID-19 World

What a crazy time. For several weeks, I couldn’t even think about writing about climbing. In fact, the first week of lockdown I had a good laugh at all these at-home workouts that were flooding the internet and  was like, whoa people, let’s just take a step back and chill, this isn’t going away any time soon. People thought they’d be out sending their project in April after this thing passed over really quickly. Or not.

Now that we’ve settled in, each day brings a slightly more clear picture of what the future holds. And as some of these restrictions are eased, “normal” life starts to creep back in. At least, until the next big surge and we all have to hide in our homes again. Who knows?

But if we can continue to slowly mitigate this thing, and the economy doesn’t collapse into some kind of Mad Max-like dystopia, here are some predictions on how this pandemic might transform climbing this year and beyond.

TR soloing with a buddy becomes the new normal

The other day a friend invited me to go top rope soloing with him. Maybe this is the new normal? I’m still choosing not to climb, but it made me laugh to think of the two of us driving separately to the cliff, setting up our own TR solos, and cragging near, but not with, each other. I think most folks agree that the real issue with climbing right now isn’t the unlikely scenario of catching the virus from holds, but from your partner and the people you are around. With TR soloing, we could all be alone together! (But not too many of us!)

A bunch of new crags will get developed

I’m guessing that many of the route developers out there will take this opportunity to go scout those crags they’ve always wondered about, or never made the time for. (Kind of like how I feel about the long-overdue redesign of this website). It doesn’t get more socially distant than hanging off a rope at some cliff no one knows about. With this will come a bevy of pandemic themed route names, so you can look forward to being able to climb a “Flattening the Curve” and “Social Distancing” in every state with rock from here on out.

Obscure crags will become popular

 

I can’t even wrap my head around what climbing in Rifle will look like this summer, it just seems so unlikely that people will actually abide by social distancing rules. “My project is more important than your health, bro.” So for those who don’t want to risk exposure to asymptomatic carriers breathing heavily all over the Ruckman Cave, the next best option is to seek out the obscure. In fact, just last weekend I was out for a hike and saw folks climbing at a cliff I have driven by hundreds of times and never seen anyone at. 2020 will be the year of the obscure! (Unless everyone does this, then Rifle might actually be safer.)

Home walls continue to see a rise in popularity

If you’ve tried to buy a hangboard in the last month, you know they are flying off the shelves, and this trend will likely continue. Gyms are nice, but nothing beats the convenience of being able to get strong at home, and as more people are turned on to this, we will probably see an increase in this kind of training. What will be interesting to see is what percentage of folks will keep using theirs for more than a couple of months. Like any shiny new toy, the luster tends to wear off after you realize you’re the one that has to reset the wall every time you want new stuff to climb on.

Turns out all we needed to do was hang off small edges after all

It’ll be pretty funny when a bunch of climbers come out of this thing way honed and crush everything in sight once they get back on the rocks. While mega-gyms are super fun, they aren’t very effective for actually building strength, unlike hanging off small edges at home. There’s a ton of good info out there about training at home, and those of you that don’t get injured will probably reach new levels of crusher-ness.

Gyms will see their profitability plummet

Kind of like thinking about Rifle, it’s hard to imagine climbing gyms being what they once were. We have a long way to go as far as knowing what the future will look like, but some groups have taken a preliminary stab at what might work to get them open again. You can read it yourself here, but fewer climbs, limited hours, and mandatory facemasks will likely cut down on traffic to climbing gyms. And since everyone will now have their own home walls, hangboards, etc. they might realize they don’t even need the gyms after all (except it’s nice to see friends, that would be nice…)

This thing is such a moving target, who knows what will really happen. Maybe the economy fully collapses and we starting stripping cliffs of bolts for the metal scraps to sell. Maybe this is the start of our descent into post-apocalyptic madness, in which case the folks buying up all the guns and booze might have a leg up on the rest of us. Or maybe we find some magical cure (not Lysol) and a vaccine comes sooner than hoped.

Only time will tell, but please everyone continue to be safe and do your part to help contain this thing. Better days are coming.