Newbie introducing herself

[Pete]

consider hiring a guide to take you out in the red - check w/ red river outdoors about their guiding services/fees - you'll be sure to learn a lot about safety and it would be well worth the $.

[Wes]

No worries,

www.redriveroutdoors.com

[anticlmber]

i did not andrew. we just sat up discussing 18th century poets, the role of children in today's economy, and what its like to have an overbearing, non-listening, brother. who is gay.

[meetVA]

Books to read:

Warrior's way
Training for climbing
Freedom of the hills
Stone crusade
Sherman exposed
The intro section of any good climbing guide book.

Don't kill the woman Wes, would you like a 500 page book report afterwards? Single-spaced 10 point font.

I'd start with Training for climbing to give you ideas on technique and what not. Warriors way is good for learning about how you think about climbing. Freedom of the Hills is a technical book that can be a bit confusing without context (but, as I don't know you you may be one of the gifted people who can read about sailing a 50 foot yacht and then go out and do it by yourself no problem, me...I need a bit more experience+reading to get information into my head).

I don't know about the other ones. Good luck. Enjoy yourself and remember, even the best climber out there had to start somewhere. Some of us are still at our starting points.

[SikMonkey]

Enjoy yourself and remember, even the best climber out there had to start somewhere

Yeah, but it seems that the best ones start with about 10 years experience more than the rest of us.

Mj

[meetVA]

Terrible, Monkey, terrible.
The ones that really irk me are the 16 year olds who've only been climbing for a year and a half. Lucky b@ss-t@rds.

[Spragwa]

Richelle, I strongly recommend hooking up with someone who has been climbing for awhile and climbing with them.

Here are some common mistakes that I wasn't allowed to make because I had an experienced climbing partner:

Trying to lead climb too early;
getting frustrated b/c I couldn't climb 5.12 in six months (I'm not a mutant);
thinking I knew everything about rockclimbing;
taking other new people out when I was inexperienced and risking injury to them and to me;

those are just a few I can think of to avoid. But good luck and have fun!

[JB]

where do you climb... it may be that one of those "experience climbers" from your gym posts here... you'll connect... it'll be fate!

[Richelle]

I climb at Rocksport in Louisville. Anybody else here go there? Anybody? Buehler? .... Buehler?

Thanks for all the advice, y'all. And I'm happy to see at least one other woman on here!

yeah, Spragwa, I can see how a newbie like me might get overexcited and make those mistakes. I have no interest in leading anything anytime soon, but it would be nice to climb with somebody who knows more than I do, so I can learn faster. When I watch more experienced people, I can see that they know a whole lotta things I don't, and sometimes I can't even figure out exactly what magical thing they're doing to stay on a hold. Sometimes I can see it, but sometimes it really does look like magic.

[JB]

there are women on here??