By far the most-adrenaline-per-square- inch award goes to The Rock Club. When you enter its New Rochelle warehouse, you might think, “Well, that doesn’t look so high.” Boy, are you in for a surprise. The curving, overhanging, jutting walls are dotted by thousands of “holds”—i.e., the colorful little gizmos you try to grip while climbing—that make up constantly changing, multi-difficulty courses that are re-routed every three months. What do we mean by multi-difficulty? To understand that, you need to understand the “Yosemitie Scale.” That’s a gauge of how hard it is to strap on a rope, find a friend or instructor to hold one side of it, and summit a rock or wall. It ranges from 5.5 to 5.13 (the lower the second number, the easier the course). We started with a 5.5 on the scale and made it up pretty easily, our torsos and rears wrapped up in the only uniform you need—a rope (and maybe some tight-gripping shoes). But then our instructor added in a diagonal plane and rounded holds that are not so easy to hold. Though we made it to the top each time, we may have sat in our rope-made cradle once or twice. To be specific, the club offers top roping—what we did; lead climbing—similar, but with the added obligation to hook yourself on to various points in the wall; and bouldering—short, vicious, overhang climbing without a rope (i.e., climbing where your back is to the ground). When we were finished, we could barely close our hands, but, man, did we want another moment of heart-pounding, one-grasp-away-from-success fun as soon as we could grab those holds again.
We left saying: “I’m going to rock that wall’s world…next time.”
Bring a friend: Yes, and after some training he or she can belay for you.
Fear factor: Low. If you fall, you don’t really fall.
Just do it: climbrockclub.com, (914) 633-7625
Plus
â–º Hang Glide
â–º Paintball
â–º Fight Club
â–º Archery
â–º Fly an Airplane
â–º Drive a racecar
â–º For more from 914INC’s Q2 2013 Issue, click here.
