At the beginning of the semester this year I start climbing with the rock climbing club through Champlain. Pretty good deal, you get to go once each week and pay $4 for your rental and for 2 hours of climbing/bouldering.
It wasn’t enough.
I almost immediately wanted to get my own gear and a pass to the rock gym, Petra Cliffs, in Burlington. Problem being: money. Well, it only took me a few days to realize that I own(ed) a $300 longboard that I had used about 6 or 7 times in the past 2 years. Upon that realization, I posted the board for sale on Facebook and Craigslist, and tweeted a few times to get the word out, and I sold within a week, for $220, which is probably about as much as I would have gotten for a used 3 year old board.
Jump to a week later, this Sunday, when I went down to The Outdoor Gear Exchange in Burlington and spent about an hour there talking with one of the climbing employees and spend some money getting shoes, a harness and chalk. Later that day, went to the free climb day that Petra was having where they were also selling $99 passes good through the end of December, which ends up being about $50 cheaper than it would be to get three 1-month passes.
And jump to today, on my third day straight of climbing. My hands are sore and starting to callus, my arms are aching like never before, but I feel great. I can already feel myself getting stronger, and I’ve set a goal for myself to complete at least one route in the bouldering cave that I hadn’t been able to do the previous time. I’m normally pretty good at picking out things I’m becoming obsessed with, and this definitely feels like that. But ya know what, I have no problem whatsoever with that.
I’m actually making a new post category for climbing. That’s how positive I am that this is going to be something that sticks with me for quite some time 
climb bitch climbb
Your comments are always so encouraging and kind, Kyr. Like the last one: “SENDMEABURRITOBITCHH”