I almost didn’t buy a hat last week. As my boyfriend and I drove into Joshua Tree, the California sun beat through the windows onto my fair skin and I thought, Crap. I forgot my hat. And as a redhead in the desert, sunscreen and hats are my saving grace. We pulled into a shop to grab some more climbing gear and low and behold, there was a hat. Green and dark blue, it read it read “Climb Clean” with some sort of climbing gear. I turned it over in my hands a few times. I put it on. Looked in the mirror. It’s perfect. But I can’t buy this hat, I thought. I’m about to go on my second outdoor climb ever, and I don’t even know what “climb clean” means.

I started thinking about what qualifies someone as a climber, sort of like a personal test. Asking, okay, how good do I have to be before I can wear that hat? So, for the heck of it, I looked it up.

The dictionary never disappoints.

Definition of ROCK CLIMBER
: a person who engages in the sport or activity of climbing the steep sides of a mountain or cliff.

Hey, I do that.

Definition of CLIMBER
: one that climbs or helps in climbing.

Examples of CLIMBER in a sentence
: Chimpanzees are excellent climbers and spend a lot of their lives in trees.

Now if I move some things around there, swap myself in for the noun, and change the word trees to rocks, then what does it say? Granted I may not be excellent - but I climb - and I don’t spend a lot of my life on the rock right now, but I want to. Am I a climber?

I started thinking about the reasons I didn’t feel qualified enough to buy that hat. They were the same reasons I couldn’t call myself a climber. I’m a beginner. I’ve been climbing less than a year, mainly bouldering at an indoor gym, and it just seemed like everyone around me was so much better (probably because they were). But does that make me any less of a climber? Everyone has to start somewhere, and that’s the beauty of it. I wasn’t lucky enough to start climbing at a young age like some of the people I’ve seen, but rather at 23. And I wasn’t brought up in the outdoors like many of my friends, but I’m here now. And if i’m going to start climbing, shouldn’t I at least give myself enough credit to call myself a climber?

Don’t get me wrong, I know I have a lot to learn and a long ways to go, but I am so excited about that. Excited to meet people more experienced than me. Excited to learn from them. And maybe that’s the best part, I am just plain excited. I love watching seasoned climbers nail crux moves because now I can understand the strength and poise it takes. The more I think about it, the more I love and revel in this time of inexperience because everyday is something entirely new.

But a part of starting something entirely new, and a part of being passionate about it, is learning about it. There is an excuse for inexperience, and with that, room for growth. But, there is no excuse for arrogance and chosen ignorance, especially when the history behind climbing is so rich. It’s a sport that deserves respect and this part of becoming a climber was (and is) up to me.

“Climb Clean” was a campaign first launched in 1972, by Yvon Chouinard and other well known climbers of the time, as the rock climbers version of leave-no-trace. Chouinard’s main concern was the deterioration of the vertical world by use of hard alloy steel pitons being hammered into and removed from the granite they were climbing on. Yvon himself wrote that, “We believe the only way to ensure the climbing experience for ourselves and future generations is to preserve (1) the vertical wilderness, and (2) the adventure inherent in the experience. Given the vital importance of style, we suggest that the keynote is simplicity. The fewer gadgets between the climber and the climb, the greater the chance to attain the desired communication with oneself — and nature.” *1 This meant phasing out those hard steel pitons for a new design - aluminum chocks (camming devices would come soon after) - which could be wedged into natural cracks in the rock without harming it. Leaving climbers with the option of walking away from the climb with only chalk marks left behind.

Despite my inexperience on the rock, researching and engaging in the world of climbing (outside of just playing on a wall a few times a week) made me feel more like a climber already. The gear on the hat included two hexes and a carabiner. I wore it on my first crack climb later that day.

*1 Chouinard, Yvon , and Tom Frost. "A Word,." Patagonia (1974): n. pag. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.

Day One in Joshua Tree and Already an Identity Crisis