Five and a half years ago, a curious Joel Graybeal took an intro to climbing class at the then-new Triangle Rock Club in Morrisville.

Tonight, as one of TRC’s three managing partners, he helped break ground for an expansion that will increase the gym’s climbing space from 9,000 square feet to about 25,000 square feet, and introduce walls 50 feet high, more than twice the height of the current gym’s walls.
Graybeal and Andrew Kratz, who founded the gym with fellow ex-Marine Luis Jauregui, and club director Mike St. Laurent broke ground with the traditional syncopated shoveling of the first scoop of dirt before about 60 gym rats. The new space is expected to open in January.
The gym will feature state-of-the-art walls installed by Eldorado Climbing Walls of Boulder, Colo., which installed the walls in the current gym. In addition to the 16,000 square feet of additional climbing surface, the gym will have a cardio room for yoga, Pilates and spin classes. Kratz said the expansion area, behind the existing gym, will be surveyed next week, the concrete foundation slab will be laid in early August, the steel building should be up by the end of August and Eldorado should be able to start working its wall magic in September.
“They can do about 1,000 square feet of terrain a week,” said Kratz.
Prior to the groundbreaking, climbers checked out artists renderings of the new gym. James Olson Jr. and Charlie Brown were trying to figure out where the rendering of the bouldering area meshed with the rendering of the climbing wall while simultaneously admiring the size of the project.
“Either of you ever climb on a 50-foot indoor wall?” I asked. Twenty-four feet I can handle. But I was trying to picture being twice that high, indoors.
“It’s … intimidating,” said Olson, who’s climbed a 60-foot wall at Atlanta’s Stone Summit Rock Climbing Gym.  After thinking about it a moment, he added, “and it’s exhilarating.”
We’ll get a chance to see for ourselves in January.

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Today: Climbing the walls

Climbing the walls? Isn’t that what we’re trying to avoid? Indeed, but sometimes the answer lies in the question, grasshopper. Enough naval gazing: the walls we’re talking about are climbing walls, as in the climbing walls you’ll find in a climbing gym. First, let’s dispell a myth: You have to be an uber athlete with 0.4 percent body fat to be a climber. As Joel Graybeal with the Triangle Rock Club in Morrisville puts it, “If you can climb a ladder, you can climb.” Can your kids climb a ladder? Good, you’re in. And it’s not a pricey proposition, even if you don’t have equipment (gyms rent the basics: shoes, harness, chalk to keep your sweaty fingers from sweating): You can get by for $20 or less at most gyms — and that’s for a full day of climbing.

Find out more about the indoor climbing experience here;  go here for our list of 15 climbing gyms in North Carolina.

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“Yeah, I Know” is one of 103 climbing routes currently plugged into the Triangle Rock Club’s 9,000 square feet of climbing wall. It’s one of the gym’s 14 routes rated 5.8 on climbing’s Yosemite Decimal System, which grades technical climbs (those requiring protection/ropes) from easiest (5.0) to you-gotta-be-kidding (5.13). The Morrisville climbing gym’s routes start at 5.5; thus, 5.8 is relatively easy. For some.

My climbing coach (it’s a volunteer position) Joel Graybeal had spent our last two sessions trying to coax me through “Yeah.” About 10 feet into the climb, the third hand-hold requires a stretch that had thus far eluded me. Another 10 feet above that were two more holds that I could tell would be problematic. For a wall that’s just 25 feet high, that seemed like a lot of challenge.

“The key is not to hesitate,” Joel told me. “Figure out your route beforehand, your handholds and their sequence, as well as your footholds, and don’t hesitate. You hesitate and that burns gas in your tank.” In climbing, an empty tank often translates into a case of “sewing machine legs,” an uncontrollable trembling caused by iffy climbing technique leading to extreme muscle fatigue.

I stood back from the wall and examined the route. That third hold, I couldn’t help but think, would demand a leap of faith in addition to a leap of my right arm. I was reminded of countless instances on the mountain bike when I’d come to a technical downhill stretch and hesitated. Hesitate just once, get intimidated by the challenge, and experience told me I’d be hard pressed to ever clear that section. I didn’t want that following me into climbing. Joel’s words rang: Don’t hesitate.

The route begins with a one-hold start. (On a climbing wall, routes are marked with colored tape. There may be 30 holds within reach, but only those marked with the right color are “on.” Two pieces of tape near a hold indicates a start; if only one hold is marked, you must start with both hands on that hold.) From the two-handed start, the left hand goes up to a hold two feet above, followed by a right hold that, in the opinion of my right arm, was just beyond reach.

“Bump up your left foot to the blue nub,” Joel said. “That should get you enough extra height to reach that right hand-hold.” Trouble was, the nub in question was just that, a nub, rounded, perhaps three inches in diameter with precious little purchase. I eyed the nub and the profuse sweat with which I’ve become acquainted in my mid-50s began to flow. Before Joel could say “Don’t hesitate” again, I smeared my left foot atop the nub and, with life imitating art, made a slow-motion lunge for that right hand-hold. There was more to the hold than I thought; my right fingertips wrapped around the fist-size hold and held. Dang! I thought.

That’s one small reach for a middle-age climber, once giant step for a middle-age climber’s confidence.

I sailed up past the next two challenges, then did another 5.8 climb — Tinsel Tiger — on my first attempt before meeting my next nemesis. Burrito is a 5.8 that Joel, after climbing the route himself, declared “more technical” than my previous 5.8s. Translation: The holds aren’t nearly as generous. I tried Burrito once, fell, then listened as Joel coached me through the proper hand-and-foot sequence for Burrito. We’d been climbing for about 90 minutes and my arms were shot. My mind was ready to give it another shot, but not my body. Next time, I said.

Next time, I’ll return to take a second bite out of Burrito. A bite full of anticipation, devoid of dread.

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