Suspended by only a rope and harness, the ground below stares back up at the SDSU climbers. Their adventurous souls will go where many will not. With tight and pointed rubber shoes that pinch their toes and powder chalk caking their rough, calloused hands, these climbers brave the rock walls of San Diego, always striving to reach new heights.
SDSU Climbing Club is a space where climbers of all skill levels can find community over their shared love of rocks. Each semester, the club organizes several weekend outings to popular climbing spots, including locations such as Joshua Tree, Red Rock and Bishop.
First-aid kit in hand on every trip, Pablo Hinojosa, senior mechanical engineering major and club safety officer, ensures members are climbing as safely as possible.
Hinojosa became interested in climbing when he started doing calisthenics. When he transferred to SDSU in Fall 2023 and heard about the free rock climbing offered at the Aztec Recreation Center, he decided to stick with it. For him, soaking in the beauty of nature is one of climbing’s biggest appeals.
“After doing a hard route, just getting to the top, setting your anchor and then hanging for a little bit — you just turn around and you see all the view,” Hinojosa said.
Even the experienced climbers still get nervous. Hinojosa does lead climbing, which involves clipping his rope into anchor points as he goes up the wall, rather than the rope being attached to the very top the entire time with a belayer adjusting it below. If a climber falls while lead climbing, they will fall to wherever they last attached their rope, making it a much more daunting type of climbing.
“I experienced my first gnarly fall and now I’m like ‘Okay, maybe I should be more conscious about it,’” Hinojosa said.
Even though climbing sometimes makes him feel scared of what could happen, once he begins a climb, he feels a need to finish what he started.
Madelyn Winger, junior communication major and club publicity officer, started climbing in middle school in the Girl Scout program. She joked that even she still gets nervous on a climb sometimes, and said most climbers would likely say the same thing.
“The only person who doesn’t is Alex Honnold,” she joked.
Honnold is a world-renowned climber who scaled the 3000-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without any ropes, a type of climbing called free solo. While these students may not be climbing at quite the same level, their sense of wanderlust still shines through.
The club decided to stay unattached from SDSU in order to maximize the opportunities they would have to go on trips and bond. If they were officially affiliated with SDSU, they would need a faculty member to accompany them on all trips, and they didn’t want that requirement to hold them back from traveling.
Despite functioning independently, the club keeps itself funded by charging members $20 per semester. This supports the gas stipend for their trips, since members carpool rather than flying.
Members bring their own gear and food, but can also rent gear from the club or from the ARC for a fee. As far as lodging accommodations go, a simple tent suffices.
For Arvind Rao, junior mechanical engineering major and training officer, making new friends has been one of the biggest highlights of the club.
“Our club is basically like a gigantic friend group,” Rao said. “We are so welcoming to everybody, and all the people I’ve met are such wonderful people.”
Rao holds outdoor climbing sessions for the club at Mission Gorge, encouraging members to try all climbing environments.
“All I really do is tell people to go out and climb, it doesn’t matter whether you’re in a gym or outdoors,” he said.
Winger shared Rao’s sentiment about the value of community in climbing.
“It gives you the opportunity to connect with people who are climbing at a different level,” Winger said. “We as a club do not teach, but we give you the opportunity to meet people who might be able to.”
With climbing trip locations typically having weak to no cell signal, it also gives climbers the opportunity to unplug from the fast-moving world of college life.
“If you really want to decompress and disconnect from the world, those are the best opportunities,” Hinojosa said. “No time for doomscrolling.”
Hinojosa expressed that the club is always open to students looking for a new hobby, and also those looking for a family within the hobby they already know and love.
According to Winger, one of the most common misconceptions about climbing is that climbers need to have a certain level of skill and knowledge before they start doing it with others. She said that this is false, and that all levels of experience are welcomed with open arms in SDSU Climbing Club.
“I feel like people think that you have to know a lot to get into it, and you don’t, because the community is made up of so many kind people who just want to spread the love of this sport,” Winger said. “Any level you’re at – as long as you go into it with an open mind – you’re going to have so much fun.”
