Greetings

Hello to friends and climbers alike, and welcome to Chicago Climber.

I am Benjamin Gappa and I’ll be one of the writers here. I’m a relative newcomer to the sport but, as many folks have experienced, climbing quickly entered my cells and restructured my DNA. I’ll give more lip service to that later on but I thought I’d write this post so all you cats can get a feel for what it is we want to do here:

We’re here to talk about the growing rock climbing community in and around the urban center of Chicago. Traditionally, urban climbing has been a bit of an idiosyncrasy. How can you climb if you live in a city? Well, gyms are popping up everywhere and interest in the sport has never been higher. Even so, real estate in Chicago is the beast it’s always been and most climbing endeavors happen outside city limits or in fitness centers not as dedicated to climbing as we’d like them to be. Still, climbers are resilient and resourceful people, not letting a little thing like access stop us. If anything this makes Chicago climbers a diverse group, coming from every-which-where in the city.

This is the energy we’re trying to harness. We’ll be writing about everything from gyms in the area to destination climbs in the Midwest. Personally, I’m excited to be able to track my progress as we venture through blogland and share my experiences developing as a climber. All of us here at Chicago Climber want to bid you a tender and warm welcome to our life of climbing.

Bg