What Climbing Means to Me in 2020 by Harper Peach-Riley

Harper is 14 and is from Missoula, MT. Her essay wins our 2020 Short Essay Contest category.

I started climbing when I was in sixth grade.  It was a small hobby that I occasionally did, but in the past 8 months, my passion for climbing has become one of the most important parts in my life. In March, when we had to quarantine and the climbing gym closed, I was sad, but it wasn’t that big of a deal to me. In early April, I started to realise that I had been really missing climbing.  I couldn’t stop thinking about it and could not wait to get back to the climbing gym once it opened again.  I had never felt this way about climbing before.  It changed when I couldn’t climb outside anymore because of the weather, or inside because the gym was closed.  I realised how important it was to me and how I couldn’t live without it.  When the climbing gym reopened, I went right away.  I realised that I had lost huge amounts of strength, but I was determined to get better.  Climbing was the only thing I thought about.  Once I didn’t have too much schoolwork, I started going five days a week for the entire summer.  I never wanted to take a break.  I really wanted to start climbing outside, so my dad took me and I realized it was so much harder than climbing inside.  I went to a crag near Missoula, and I tried a 5.8.  It was really hard for me, but since then I've gone several more times, and I have progressed, which I’m proud of.  My dad and I went on a road trip to Yosemite about a month and a half ago, and when I first saw it in person, all I wanted to do was climb.  I learned how to crack climb, but it was really hard and I felt like giving up.  I was really put down by the fact that I couldn’t climb very well outside.  When I got back to Missoula, I kept training in the gym and made huge progressions in my climbing.  About a month later, my Dad and I went down to Moab to bike and climb, and I ended up doing my first outdoor lead.  I was so happy that I was actually improving with my climbing outside because all summer I had been pushing myself to get stronger, because I couldn’t climb as hard of a grade outside.  Earlier this year, I was comparing myself to other climbers frequently.  Because of climbing grades, it can be hard to not compare yourself to another person by skill level.  This year I have moved past that and now I can ignore that and just have fun. In the past 8 months I have made huge gains in my climbing, mentally and physically.  The pandemic led me to experiences that I wouldn’t have had if everything were normal.  I realized that I can achieve so much more than I think.  Climbing is so much more important to me than it was in February, and now I consider it my greatest passion.  Throughout these past 8 months, I also realized that even though climbing is my passion, there are so many other opportunities as well that could enable me to make a difference in the world.  I want to climb for the rest of my life, but I also want to make a difference.  Maybe I can use my skills in climbing to make a difference.

Harper climbing in Montana this year