The climbing community here at Occidental is going up, down, sideways and all over the wall. While students do climb on their own in their free time, the college also has an official club for the activity, the Oxy Bouldering and Climbing Club.
Club President Alice Amdur (senior) said she started climbing in high school. Despite not having as much time for the sport in college, she said she still makes an effort to climb regularly. Amdur said she has been part of the college’s climbing club since it officially formed three years ago. According to Amdur, the club’s activity has taken a dive this year because of frequent leadership changes and the cost-intensive nature of the sport.
Amdur said the club aims to introduce climbing to more students and gain the funding necessary to make the sport more accessible by doing things like providing gear at the Student Leadership, Involvement & Community Engagement (SLICE) desk. Amdur said another one of the club’s major goals is to connect more climbers here at the college, as she herself struggled to find fellow climbers during her first year at Occidental.
“It took me a while to even realize that there were so many climbers at Oxy, because they find their climber friends and then they go climbing and that’s kind of it,” Amdur said. “But there are so many people who are interested in it and who have been climbing for a long time.”
Amdur said that despite how active Occidental’s climbers are, she thinks that the club no longer plays a significant role in the broader community.
“There’s a lot of really well-established climbing groups at Oxy and meeting those people and becoming part of that group is maybe the quicker way to get into climbing right now,” Amdur said.
One climber not affiliated with the club is Gianluca Crescenzo (senior), who said he got back into climbing after some friends invited him to climb with them. Crescenzo said he has since been making regular trips to the Hangar 18 Arcadia gym throughout the week, as well as bouldering outdoors at least once a week.
Kyle Eric Smith (first year) said he started bouldering two years ago and that he is not familiar with the college’s official climbing club. Smith said that part of climbing’s popularity is due to the collaborative aspect of the sport.
“Everybody’s helping each other with their problems, and everybody’s just open,” Smith said.
Ryan Tang (sophomore) is another climber at Occidental who said that despite joining the college’s official club at Involvement Fair, he has never gone climbing with the group. Tang said he likes the sport because it makes exercising fun.
“It’s kind of a gamified sport, you know, there’s levels of progression and it keeps you engaged,” Tang said. “It’s very clear to see your progress, and that’s not exactly true of other sports.”
According to Amdur, another reason climbing is so popular is because the community is so welcoming and encouraging.
“Even when I climbed competitively, it didn’t ruin it for me because I would collaborate with my competitors. They would help me out, they would give me advice and cheer me on and I would do the same. So it wasn’t a super hostile competitive atmosphere, but more of a very collaborative one,” Amdur said.
Contact Arlo Gallati at gallati@oxy.edu
