Rebuilding Your Climbing Kit from Scratch? Start with These 6 Essentials.
I’m at the crux of the route I’ve been working on, reaching for a thin crimp with my right hand. I manage to stick three fingers on it and slowly move my left foot higher. “Mommy, you’re so high up!” I hear from below. My hips move too far…
I’m at the crux of the route I’ve been working on, reaching for a thin crimp with my right hand. I manage to stick three fingers on it and slowly move my left foot higher. “Mommy, you’re so high up!” I hear from below.
My hips move too far from the wall, my center of gravity shifts, and my fingers slip. But it doesn’t matter. As I sit, hanging from the rope, I’m grinning down at my four-year-old son and my climbing partner of the last decade. I don’t care that I’m struggling on grades below what I once climbed. I don’t care that I’m only on my fourth attempt and my arms are already pumped. I don’t even mind that we’re in a stuffy gym instead of outdoors. All that matters is that, after five years away, I’m climbing again.
I’ve never been a particularly skilled climber, but I’ve loved the sport for a long time. I first got into it at a small bouldering gym in Boston—and at crags along the East Coast. I kept climbing as I moved around, chasing different jobs and adventures, landing everywhere from Boulder, Colorado, to New Zealand. When I finally settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I still live today, I made my first real friends at the climbing gym and spent weekends at the local crags with coworkers. Still today, I initially bonded with the vast majority of my close friends covered in chalk and dirt, on camping trips to nearby climbing hubs.
But I stopped abruptly when I got pregnant in 2021. I was tired and nauseous, and maybe a little risk-averse. I vowed I’d be back after I gave birth, but nine months turned into a few years in a blur of bottles and diapers, and then I was pregnant again—this time with my daughter. Finally, when my longtime climbing partner moved back into town a few months into my second postpartum stretch, I told him I was ready to get back into our climbing routine.
The problem was that my gear was ancient, lost, or covered in cobwebs. So I had to start largely from scratch. I tested new shoes, apparel, belay devices, and more, fascinated by the innovations that had taken place while I’d been away from the sport. From my testing, here are my favorite pieces that helped me get back into climbing again.
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