Climbing Wall | Photo by Grace Ramsdell | The Wright State Guardian
The rock-climbing gym located in the Student Union is opening back up for climbers starting March 8, and students and staff are excited to traverse the wall again.
The wall closed during March of 2020 due to the coronavirus, and staff at the Outdoor Recreation Center (ORC) were worried.
“It was difficult to process what it might look like in the next few months to see if we would be back climbing,” ORC Program Manager Erin Sherrets said.
The ORC submitted an appeal in December of last year to open the wall at the start of the spring semester, but that was denied due to the rising number of coronavirus cases. A second appeal was submitted two weeks after the semester began and granted in February.
Reopening at this time is due to warmer weather as well as a decrease in cases.
Keeping climbers safe
There will be a variety of precautions in place to keep students safe at the rock-climbing gym. The gym will only be open for bouldering for the first month, and climbers will have to wear masks and pre-register for a time slot.
“We have a max of eight people in our gym at a time and that includes two employees and also six climbers,” Sherrets said. “Climbers will have to Lysol the bottom of their shoes before they come into the gym, and they’ll have to use hand sanitizer before and after each climb.”
The gym will be open between 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on weekdays to allow for extensive cleaning of the wall.
Sherrets believes that these precautions are essential.
“We have pretty rigorous procedures and policies, but we feel that we need to do the best that we can to move forward to be able to open our wall,” Sherrets said.
A positive outlook
Many students have mentioned to Sherrets that they have lost some of their climbing ability while the gym has been closed.
“For a lot of people, climbing is their exercise for the day,” Sherrets said. “Just like lifting and strength training, climbing uses your body in different ways than you would just going to class every day, so it’s nice to welcome some new muscle groups and try something different.”
Student manager Matt Slusser believes that rock climbing is a good full-body workout.
“It’s really rewarding to be able to see your strength grow over like one week and then the next week, you’re climbing still, and you have just a noticeable strength increase and you can noticeably climb harder routes,” Slusser said. “For me, it’s one of the most satisfying things about it.”
Student thoughts
Neuroscience student Sarah Scott has been looking forward to climbing in the gym since she started at Wright State.
“I’m really excited,” Scott said. “The rock wall was one thing I was looking forward to when enrolling at WSU, but it’s been closed throughout my entire time here, so I’m glad to have it for at least a month or two before I graduate.”
Biochemistry and molecular biology major Ximena Santin-Abarca is also happy about the reopening.
“The rock-climbing wall was one of the things that attracted me towards Wright State as a fun thing I could do to work out,” Santin-Abarca said. “I am glad that it is opening back up so that I can use it and maybe make a few new friends.”
