Students at Chamblee participate in many different types of sports, and one of the most unique is rock climbing. It’s a growing sport among Chamblee students; some do it for fun, while others participate in competitions for it. The climbing gym almost all student climbers at Chamblee go to, Stone Summit, is the largest climbing gym in the Eastern United States. Cora Scherrer (‘26), is one of the Chamblee students who participates in competitive climbing.
“I’m on [Stone Summit’s] summit team, and I’ve been on the competitive team there since I was 12,” she said.
Scherrer’s favorite form of climbing is called bouldering.
“Bouldering is where there’s shorter walls but no rope. It’s a lot more exciting [than other forms of climbing],” she said.
Bouldering also happens to be a favorite form of another Chamblee climber, Jaela Huang (‘26).
“[Bouldering] involves more coordination and balance [than other forms], and in some cases, more strength. I feel like it’s more technique-based than sport climbing.”
Sport climbing means climbing tall walls with ropes, which requires more endurance than bouldering. Aspen Heimer (‘26), enjoys this form more.
“I love it because it’s fun to get really, really high and then see if I can go higher,” she said.
Heimer’s love for climbing also helps her in her life outside of the climbing gym.
“Climbing made me a lot better at thinking about what I’m doing instead of just going in blindly. Because you can’t just see where you’re going to go next, you have to figure out how you’re going to get there. You can’t just brute force your way through it. Because once you get to a hard enough point, it requires a lot of skill to be able to get past it,” Heimer said.
Besides the benefits it brings to one’s outside life, climbing also boasts an incredible community. Ethan Charris (‘25) loves the community that climbing provides for people.
“It’s very supportive. Every time I go to a climbing gym, there’s always tons of people cheering everyone else on. If a person sees someone that’s stuck on something, they’ll want to help them out. One time I was climbing and I spent 20 minutes on a climb, trying to get it down, and when I finally got to it, there were a bunch of people clapping for me; the community is just very supportive and friendly,” he said.
Peter Kim, a coach at Stone Summit for competitive teams, got into climbing by just passing by the gym and going in out of curiosity. Now, he spends time helping young climbers discover their love for it.
“We offer summer camps and winter camps during summer and winter breaks for kids as young as six years old up to 17 years old so that they can try out climbing, see what it is. If they wish to get involved with the climbing community, they can always sign up for a membership or join a team and see what it’s all about,” he said.
Although indoor climbing is a more accessible option to most climbers, outdoor climbing is also a great way to advance one’s climbing skills.
“It’s definitely less straightforward [than indoor climbing] because it’s not like there are colorful holes that jump out at you, you have to figure out which parts you can grab,” said Scherrer.
Charris finds more beauty in climbing when he does it outdoors.
“I think it’s a lot more fulfilling when you climb something that was made by nature rather than in a gym,” he said.
While outdoor climbing is fun, indoor climbing is more accessible to most as it’s just a short drive for many people, and they can rent equipment to start out. However, most climbers do end up getting their own equipment at some point in their climbing journey.
“You have to pay a membership for the gym, and the equipment isn’t much more expensive than most other sports. You have to get a pair of shoes, a harness, a chalk bag, and chalk, but if you compare that to most other sports, it’s comparable in price,” Huang said.
When you get the few things you need, there’s not much else you need to get started climbing.
“Just go to a climbing gym and just go spend the day there. If you know someone who already climbs, maybe ask them to go with you so they can show you around. Once you get started, the first time isn’t going to be as fun as it’ll get later on. You’ll probably be exhausted, confused, and overwhelmed, but you just have to keep going, climbing more and more,” Huang said.
Climbing has provided joy to many Chamblee students. It gives them a fun way to exercise as well as a supportive community that helps get them farther both on the climbing wall and in life.
