Welcome to Free Press Free Write, a weekly column written by the staff of The New School Free Press. Each week a new staff member might share a story, memory, maybe a DIY, or a week-in-review. Free Write is a space where our reporters, artists and editors can express themselves through writing. In times like these, writing can be an escape.
As the spring semester inches towards the end, our final free write comes from our reporter and artist, Faith Gerstein, a fourth-year BA/BFA student in the Integrated Design and Journalism + Design programs.
The last thing that I expected to help me climb out of the pandemic fog would be literally climbing a rock. But that is exactly what happened.
Staring at the walls of my childhood home in Austin, Texas during peak lockdown gave me cabin fever. All the gyms were closed so my usual energizer bunny weight lifting routine was out of reach. With double-hip dysplasia that gives me the hips of an 80 year old, running wasn’t in the cards and doing push-ups in the park felt like a midlife crisis move.
I wandered through the trails that wind their way around Austin’s infamous river and trail system, The Greenbelt, wondering what to truly do with myself when I, quite literally, walked into a rope that would turn into my lifeline. Rock climbers scattered across the looming wall in front of me. After eagerly striking up conversations with the friendly daredevils, I was off to the races.
The next nine months were filled with climbing Texas limestone in the heat and the cold, chalk dusting everything I own, and more blisters than I could count. Rock climbing gave me a Covid-friendly hobby, time in nature and more new friends than I could imagine.
When I moved back to Brooklyn in early April I had to say goodbye to the chalked-up hands that held me up through the darkness of the pandemic. It was truly bittersweet. I couldn’t put into words the happiness I felt having my feet back on NYC pavement but I still yearned to be on my tippy toes, forty feet up a wall, gazing at the rolling hill country.
Then once again, all that mopey wandering brought me to my next move: Vital Climbing. The brand new facility located next to McCarren park appeared as if it had a halo around it.
I stared at the bodies hopping up and down the vibrant, multi-colored walls for much longer than I care to admit. I threw down the money for a membership card without even taking a tour, and happily ditched my dinner plans that night. I climbed until my hands were raw and torn, and I loved every second of it.
While I only have a few climbs under my belt at Vital, I feel so at home there. The sunny Texas walls I started on don’t feel so far away anymore.
It’s funny the way being locked down made me branch out, giving me new experiences that now I can’t imagine going more than a few weeks without. I’m excited to be Brooklyn-based again and I am looking forward to another summer of climbing. But this time, on multicolored plastic rock instead of sunburnt limestone.
