Six Star Magazine Six Star Magazine Spring 2018 | Página 21

experience in the modern climbing gym is very high and
enjoyable. They’ve done a good job of fostering community.”
According to the IFSC, 140 countries now have climbing
walls, with the number of regular climbers estimated at
25 million around the world. In the United States alone,
the IFSC estimates that between 1,000 and 1,500 first-time
climbers try the sport each and every day. The demographics
of the typical climber suggest a sport only scratching the
surface of its popularity: About 39 per cent of all climbers
are under the age of 18, and close to 40 per cent are female.
With climbing added as an Olympic sport for the 2020
games in Tokyo, its visibility will no doubt surge. Athletes
such as Alannah, who hopes to qualify for Tokyo 2020 later
this year, may one day inspire a future Canadian Olympian
or two.
The popularity of rock climbing has also been spurred
on by the emergence of a true global celebrity. In June
2017, Alex Honnold, a 32-year-old American, became
the first free soloist in history to ascend the 3000-ft El
Capitan wall of Yosemite National Park in California.
Free soloists are those who climb without the aid of
ropes or harnesses; this daring young man completed
the Herculean ascent with only climbing shoes and a
pouch of chalk to get a grip.
Training for the ascent for nearly two years, Honnold
needed only four hours to scale El Capitan. His achievement
is heralded as not just the greatest feat in climbing history,
but quite possibly one of the greatest achievements in all of
sport. The accomplishment has, no doubt, lured countless
other athletes into the sport of climbing.
“The sport of climbing is
more than just physical,
there’s a mental aspect,
too, in that you’re always
trying to solve challenges.”
- Alannah Yip
For Sonnie, who serves as a mentor and coach to other
climbers, as well as a guide for the Alpine Club of Canada, the
sport has a spiritual component that he wants more people to
experience. “There is freedom and creativity to interpret the
route as you wish, with no rules or judges,” he says. “Some
days, I’m challenged mentally, other days physically, still
others technically... sometimes all three. But every day I
climb outside is the very best day of my life.”
Someone once made the astute observation that, when you
boil it down, adults and children differ in just one respect:
the size of their toys. On the surface, this is not as far-fetched
as it may sound.
That all-wheel drive SUV parked in your garage is really
just a surrogate pedal car. That commercial-grade oven is just
an extension of the Easy Bake, albeit one that’s leapfrogged a
few social classes.
To hear athletes such as Alannah and Sonnie describe the
sport of climbing, this same parallel emerges once again.
One gains the sense that the unbridled joy of the playground
jungle gym is alive and well, located somewhere on the
nearest rock face.
PHOTOGRAPHY (TOP) PHILIP QUADE
(BOTTOM) TIM BANFIELD
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