The rock climbing club is a new addition to the 2024 school year with Jacob Slaughter, an advanced chemistry teacher, as the sponsor. Junior Andrew Lee is the founder and club president. Lee has been rock climbing at the Austin Bouldering Project (ABP) at Westgate since May of 2024.
“I heard that Mr. Slaughter was a rock climber from a couple of my friends so I asked him if he would be interested in being the sponsor and he said yes,” Lee said. “To promote the club, I went around asking people for the first couple of weeks and then at the club fair we got about 30 people from just handing out candy.”
Club meetings occur during FIT in Slaughter’s room on the first Monday of every month, but attending these meetings isn’t required. After school every Monday and Friday, the rock climbing club goes to the ABP to climb. Austin has two ABP locations, but the club goes to the nearest one on Westgate. Sometimes, the club goes to McKinney Falls in the morning to swim and climb the area.
“I climbed for about half a year before we started the club at the beginning of school,” vice president Noah Dougherty said. “My favorite part of the club is the community and the friends I’ve made so far this year.”
A monthly membership at ABP costs $85, but they offer club members a discount of just $55. If students are hesitant to join, ABP also offers day passes, or climbers can receive a guest pass from a member.
“I went to ABP before the club but always just used day passes,” junior Gray Montgomery said. “I joined because all of my friends were there and I wanted a good place to get a workout.”
ABP offers different difficulty levels for their members, these levels can be differentiated from the color of the holds on the wall. Yellows tend to be the easiest while whites are the hardest. ABP also includes a built-in gym, yoga center, and custom rock walls.
“I joined because my good friend Andrew made it and we got into rock climbing together,” junior Colton Demetri said. “I like climbing the blues and blacks because I can do a lot of them, but they’re still difficult.”
ABP has a diversity of walls such as dyno, canvas, and campusing. In rock climbing, dyno walls are obstacles that require the usage of upper arm strength to jump from one hold to another, campusing refers to an obstacle that doesn’t require feet, and a canvas refers to a basic wall that needs all four limbs for.
“Andrew had invited me during one of the first weeks of school so I decided to join,” junior Seth Zuniga said. “Sometimes I go to ABP outside of the club with my brother. Right now, I mainly do greens, but I’ve been trying to do more advanced stuff than that.”
On October 18, juniors Noah Dougherty, Colton Demetri, Elisa Morgali, Jack Calvin, and Reed Watts were chosen as the club vice presidents.
“My passion for climbing encouraged me to co-found this club and help others grow as climbers,” Dougherty said. “I didn’t have to run for vice president because I was already elected since I co-founded the club. As vice president I make fliers, lead meetings, and lead climbing sessions at the Austin Bouldering Project.”
The rock climbing club accepts everyone, regardless of their experience or skill level. To be a part of rock climbing club, join the GroupMe chats, come to ABP during one of the meeting times, and begin climbing.
“I wouldn’t say I met new people from the rock climbing club,” junior Colton Demetri said. “But, I’ve gotten to be friends with people that I already knew but I hadn’t talked to in awhile so I kind of got to rebuild a friendship with them.”
