Rock climbing became an Olympic event for the first time ever during the Tokyo Summer Games, and shows all the signs of making its comeback for future Olympics. With the 2024 Paris Games quickly approaching, and the 2028 Los Angeles Games around that corner, USC’s lack of climbing facilities may hold them back in competition.
Climbers are traveling from around the globe to scale mountains in California. Thanks to the successes of athletes like Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell at Yosemite National Park, California has become a touchstone for any serious modern climber. Yet, the USC Climbing Team still has no on-campus wall.
“We actually did have a climbing wall,” said Carson Mogush, the climbing team’s Trip Leader. “But it was replaced with a crossfit gym, which is pretty surprising.” The Climbing Team, as of now, invites its membership of more than 250 people to climb at local Cliffs of Id, located in Culver City.
“It’d be so much more convenient if I could just get done with class, head down to the Lyon Center and just climb instead of having to get in my car and battle traffic,” Mogush said.
Jen Menendez, the manager of LA Boulders, works with other gyms owned by Touchstone Climbing, including Cliffs of Id, and she said she has noticed more excitement at her facilities. “In addition to the Olympics, the media and popular culture have seen a rise in the popularity of the sport,” she said.
Not only does Menendez say she sees this trend progressing, but she also believes California may be one of the best places to experience it. “California just has something for all types of climbers,” she said. “It’s full of places to climb.” That puts USC students in the center of one of sport’s fastest-growing trends.
Historically, California has established itself as ground zero for climbing, popularized by dirtbag hippies in Yosemite during the 60s and the 70s. The group of (sometimes reckless) pioneers would go on to install some of the first-ever climbing anchors for ropes right into Yosemite’s El Capitan summit; the rest, as they say, is history. Aside from El Capitan, California has a variety of other hotspots including Bishop Park and Joshua Tree National Park as some of the few popular rocks in SoCal.
“You’re in the bread basket of the climbing world, I mean, it only makes sense [to have a wall],” said Clayton Rudiger, a University of California, Santa Barbara alumnus who’s competed and traveled in the pursuit of climbing. If it weren’t for having access to a wall on campus, he said he may have never started climbing. “There’s definitely a barrier to entry unless you have a wall on campus,” he said. For students like him, driving to a remote gym to train isn’t feasible.
“I didn’t have a car,” Rudiger laughed. “When I was training for local competitions, I was climbing five days a week. I would’ve been at zero without the gym [at school].”
Aside from competition, climbing has proved itself to be an escape from a fast-paced metropolis for the Climbing Team, and part of the reason why the USC team dedicates itself to the wall, even if it’s not on USC grounds.
“I think a lot of times during the semester students feel trapped in LA,” Mogush said. “Climbing is great for that; avoiding the hustle and bustle and getting away from it.”