by Luka Hildebrand
Climbing came to me as a surprise, it wasn’t something I was familiar with and truly I understood it as a more of a rogue-like embarkment taken on by those who found traditional sports lackluster to one degree or another.
It stuck out to me as something in the realm of true adventurers, like Ernest Shackleton and Edmund Hillary. To me it wasn’t a sport for casual pleasure and was merely a component in the great adventures of pioneers outdoors.
However, upon starting my University degree in 2021 I found myself disillusioned by the world of competitive traditional sports and falling into the wondrous world of climbing.
It for me started with being a bit lost with my direction, up until the point of commencing uni I had always KNOWN things, I knew I’d study marine science, I knew soccer training was tuesdays and thursdays separated only by school and running on wednesdays and football games on the weekend; and I knew spaghetti and meatballs was better than carbonara. My involvement in the sports I knew was strong, I coached football, refereed it and played even in the summer time. To say I loved may be a stretch but I was definitely avidly involved and saw it to be my long term sport. I ran competitively as well and felt I wasn’t that bad at it.
These sports seemed as true to me as the other things I’d known, but starting uni changed that. I had always planned to move away from home to study and found myself settling on the idea of Newcastle as it was far enough to escape the clutches of my parents but close enough that I could still duck home to pinch groceries and toilet paper. I didn’t however account for the fact that the teams I’d been so involved in my whole life would also be left behind. This posed to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated, losing that integration I had in my community left me with a big gap in my life that I was unsure of how to fill.
The intimidation of joining new teams and feeling I may not be good enough or well received in a world I had been so involved in led me to pull away from something that took up a large portion of my life, it left me bored and lazy. I became an avid viewer of Love Island, beach-bum (I say bum as all I did was rotate between lazing on my towel or in the ocean) and doomscroller, and for a time I didn’t recognise the toll this was taking on my physical and mental health.
In fact it wasn’t till my great friend Maya introduced me to climbing,
“Yeah Luka, you can actually rappel down these HUGE cliffs and climb these amazing walls I’ll even teach you!” she would say while flicking through images from Alex Honnold's Free Solo and photos of huge multi pitches in the Blue Mountains. Safe to say it was the spark I needed to chuck myself into a new sport (at the time I guessed it would merely be a hobby).
It was that afternoon my love for climbing first began to bud, she took me to the base of this wall and the holds lit up on it like a constellation, chalk lighting up the path, I was awestruck,
“When do I learn to rappel Maya, this seems to short, and where are the ropes”
“Oh don’t worry we won’t need that yet… this is bouldering”
Although I didn’t get into rappelling down for a huge multipitch instantaneously, the joy of solving problems of movement and using my body was enough to give myself something new to KNOW. I KNEW climbing was something for me and that I would undoubtedly spend countless hours in the gym.
Although I’d solved my slump of fitness and passion for a sport; swapping the couch and doomscrolling for bouldering, a new problem had arisen. Uni work and making time for the gym and social events was bleak by comparison to the allure of Pulse Climbing Adamstown's new BLT set. Countless times in the climbing gym I would be wrapping up at the end of a long session to a text from a mate, generally something along the lines of,
“Online quiz due at 5pm make sure not to forget it”
This would generally be read at around 5:30pm, no quiz having been done and a head sat in chalky hands.
“Fuuuuuuuuuuuu…….”
I would mutter as I scrambled to write up an email full of excuses to my lecturers and professors as to why I so desperately need an extension on this quiz.
This became a regular occurrence, skipping the gym, missing quizzes and having significant trouble maintaining the balance between life, uni and climbing. It was a challenge to manage everything. Classes for uni were between 2 campuses, the gym was on one campus, quizzes online or between the two campuses and the climbing gym at least a few suburbs over from the closest place of importance made the juggle a nightmare. I loved this sport so dearly but it grated against the other parts of my life I also had to prioritise.
This climbing/life balance was taking a toll and it began to see me going to the climbing gym less and less, I was beginning to fall into old habits, and I hated that.
It wasn’t till my younger brother had suggested Climb Fit while back at home that I had seen a solution to my climbing obsession and balancing life.
Climb Fit St Leonards was my first introduction to Climb Fit in July 2023, there were some things that made it stand out, tall rope routes, quiet study spaces and a gym. Not to mention, the thing I’d seen a year ago watching climbing videos with Maya, quickdraws, just hanging from the roof. Maybe it was here that I would not only find the balance between life and climbing but progress in climbing the way I first imagined it to be.
It wasn’t till early the next year that I actually became a regular there however, while still struggling with my uni/life balance I made the executive decision to move home and swap to part time online uni for the final 2 or 3 semesters. I can say with confidence that my GPA thanked me for that. It was then that I began climbing at Climb Fit St Leonards more often, spending entire days climbing, gyming and studying able to tick off many of my boxes in one fell swoop and giving myself plenty of time to spend with friends, family and my partner.
Climb Fit became a space I spent countless hours and was able to pursue multiple facets of my life and goals simultaneously, it gave me the space I needed to progress in pursuing more.
The one shortfall I’d had upon moving to Climb Fit was I had lost the community of climbers I’d found, since coming to Climb Fit it hadn’t been my goal to replace this community, rather it had been to focus on streamlining other parts of my life.
But as they say, you don’t find community, community finds you, and find me it did. Climb Fit was full of names and faces of many who are dear to me today. Many of those from this community were the ones who moved me away from the bouldering and into the world of sport climbing (although a lot of the ones I hold dear definitely tried their hardest to keep me tethered to the moon board, it will always hold a place in my heart #fengshui).
It was the community of Climb Fit who pushed me to progress more, not only in climbing but in life, from talks with the legends who crush here; who, like my professors, encouraged me to pursue an internship that I loved, an honours degree I have started, and most importantly REAL ROCKS!
It started with the interest I had talking with the members at the gym.
“I’d love to try climbing outdoors, like really climbing on real rocks”
And it was someone who may be familiar to a few readers who first made that outdoor sports climbing dream a reality (I should also mention the boulder legends had taken me outdoors bouldering BEFORE this but that is a story for another blog, #fengshui).
Andrew and Saxon, they were the first two to drag me out to my local crag at Berowra and throw me up some sport routes, I hadn’t tried anything outdoors at this stage and was an absolute gumbie (still may very well be one HA).
They took me under their wing and got me HOOKED on a new way of climbing in the beautiful outdoors. It was amazing it had me awestruck and wanting evermore.
It’s funny that after years, climbing outdoors had finally swung around and it had taken its time. There was one thing that made it happen though, something that is uniquely climbing centred, the community. Had it not been for this I wouldn’t have made it outdoors. The support and way they uplift everyone is what made that happen. That community is strong at Climb Fit and THAT is what got me outside.
It was Andrew again who, a month later on a Wednesday at the anchors below the indoor lead route at Climb Fit St Leonards, spoke some words to me that finally completed the circle of climbing,
“Want to come on a multi on Sunday, we need a fourth”
It was then with his guidance that Wednesday that I found myself on Bellbird with James, Aiden (who has designed some of the Climfit merch, LEGEND) and of course, our favourite Canadian, Andrew.
Through the losing one community and the beginnings of a new hobby that saw me working through a rollercoaster of a degree while finding a new community, Climb Fit had the people, the facilities and the perfect timing to take me from Footballer to Plastic holds to REAL rock, from running, to bouldering and all the way out to multi pitch.
Here are some more resources for you to check out;
Blog - transitioning to outdoor climbing
Blog - how to improve your climbing endurance
Videos - Rope skills with the ASM and Climb Fit
Australian School of Mountaineering (ASM) have helped lots of our crew get trained up for outdoor adventures. Check out their huge range of courses. The ASM also run indoor Learn to Lead and Anchors courses here at Climb Fit in Sydney.
