Climbing to the top
Written by Sarah Ross, Former Student on Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The musty smell of chalk and sweat lingered in the air as Snohomish High School senior Mackenzie Kennedy-Hubler entered “Vertical World”, her rock climbing gym.
“When I first get to the gym I’m kind of like, wow, I can’t believe this is something I actually do,” Kennedy-Hubler said.
Kennedy-Hubler was introduced to climbing by a friend during the summer of 2011, and continued to climb since.
“When I first started climbing I was pretty sure that it was something that I wanted to stick with. When you get to the top of the rock, you get this good feeling that you can’t get anywhere else,” Kennedy-Hubler said.
While climbing in a gym, certain paths are laid out for climbers to follow, called “climbing routs”. The climbing routs are graded on a five point scale based on their level of difficulty. The scale ranges from a 5.5, the easiest level, and rises to a 5.14, the hardest level.
“I am currently climbing at about a 5.9 level. It is nice to know that rock climbing is a sport that you can always improve on. Each person has a different way of climbing the rock, and there is always room for improvement,” Kennedy-Hubler said.
The mechanics of rock climbing rely on two people, the “climber” and the “ballayer”. Both the climber and the ballayer are hooked to a rope, which is also hooked to the rock. While the climber scales the wall, the ballayer ensures that if the climber falls, the rope that he or she is attached to stays tight and catches them.
“Learning how to ballay was pretty intimidating, I mean when you are ballaying you basically have somebody’s life in your hands. I feel like it’s something that intimidates most people,” Kennedy-Hubler said.
Kennedy-Hubler has been a certified ballayer since last winter, and is always attempting to recruit her friends to climb with her.
“I recruited my neighbor! I was pretty excited that he finally decided to go climbing with me. I am pretty confident that I can recruit a few more people,” Kennedy-Hubler.
Although Kennedy-Hubler is unsure if she will continue climbing while in college, she is positive that she will pick it up again after she graduates and has a steady job.
“I believe rock climbing is an all-around beneficial activity. I can see rock climbing potentially being something I do with my own family in the future,” Kennedy-Hubler said.
