For many climbers, rock climbing is much more than just a sport, it is a lifestyle that fulfills their spiritual needs. While it may not coincide with the traditional notion of what a practice of spirituality looks like, I assure you – it is one. Rock climbing transcends the stereotype of what spirituality is supposed to look like.
Although spirituality and religion are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. While they share many common fundamentals such as belief, comfort, reflection, ethics, and awe, they differ in a few key areas.
Spirituality involves asking one’s self how they should live and what they value and places emphasis on how one finds meaning and feels connected. Religion on the other hand focuses on what practices one should do to express their faith and has one ask themself what is right and what is wrong.
Rock climbing does not require places of worship or deities to express one’s spirituality. All it requires is a rock and someone with a desire to explore nature and one’s self.
Rockclimbingguru.com
In 2013, Michael Pond completed a Master’s thesis for Ohio University titled “Investigating Climbing as a Spiritual Experience” in which 20 climbers were interviewed regarding the connection between climbing and their spirituality.
The results of this study, my own personal experiences, and the reported experiences of other climbers on forums, blogs, and YouTube were taken into consideration when making the following list.
The Top 10 Spiritual Benefits of Rock Climbing:
1. It Can Impart Meaning To One’s Life
Many people do not find meaning in working a 9 to 5, I know I sure as heck didn’t. For some of these people, they may find meaning in family life or religion. For others, this meaning can come in very unexpected forms, like climbing.
While it is extremely hard to find meaning in life, it is a lot easier when you have a sense of purpose. Climbing is able to provide many people that sense of purpose and give them something to strive for.
2. Connects One With Nature
The vast beauty of nature has long been tried to be put into words. I am a much less talented writer than those who have attempted it before me and have failed to do it justice. So I will not try to do so here. However, I will say that nature is incredibly spiritual and has been known to connect people all across the globe without so much as speaking a word.
When zooming out and taking a look outside of our everyday life, we are tiny compared to the mountains we climb, let alone the planet we live on. Thousands of years of harsh weather and diverse biological activity has formed the landscapes surrounding us.
Climbing gets people outside to viscerally experience these landscapes and connect them with it. It is truly an inexplicable feeling to be hanging onto the side of a cliff that has been there for thousands of years before you and will continue to be so for thousands of years after you’re gone.
3. Connects People Of Different Backgrounds
Many climbers are drifters who do not fit in with normal society. Climbing is able to bring these people together in an atmosphere that promotes cooperation and communication. It doesn’t matter if one is an accountant or a skydive instructor, they are there for the same reason: to climb.
If you have ever gone to a climbing gym or a local crag, you can attest that climbing is as much of a social activity as it is a physical one. Personally, I have met a lot of my best friends through climbing.
4. Combines All One’s Energy Into A Singular Purpose
Climbing is truly a unique sport because it doesn’t just require physical ability or athleticism. While those are integral parts of climbing, the mental and technical aspects are just as important if not more so.
When pushing yourself to the limit on the wall, you are combining every single ounce of your mental and physical energy into one move. While it may not seem like it, this can be an incredibly spiritual experience for those who have never focused all of their effort and attention into a singular focus.
Feeling and seeing what you can accomplish when giving everything you have into a single move can be a truly amazing experience.
5. Forces One To Live In The Moment
Far too often we could caught up with what needs to be done in the future. When you are climbing you do not have time to think about these things. Your mind does not wander to what groceries you need, that email you have yet to answer, or the oil change you need to get for your car.
All you can think about is the here and now – the pump your forearms are feeling, the next foothold you need to reach, your fingers running out of chalk, reaching the next move. Climbing provides a much needed escape (albeit a short one) from the stressors of everyday life.
6. Makes One A Part Of Something Bigger
Climbing is a lifestyle and a movement, not just a sport. In recent years, climbing has started to gain more momentum and is becoming a little bit more mainstream. As such, the climbing community has grown to quite a substantial amount.
As a climber you are a part of that community and movement. You are not just some random person, you are a climber.
7. Creates A Flow State
While the full extent and benefits of being “in flow” is not yet fully comprehended, one thing is known about it for sure – it is magical.
Everything seems to fall away and you are able to complete tasks to the best of your ability. You are 100% focused and are able to achieve things that you would not be able to otherwise. Flow is a mystical phenomenon to say the least.
Climbing can put people into this flow state and let them experience the incredible mental benefits it has to offer.
8. Conduit for Other Spiritual Experiences
As many other climbers will attest, they have experienced a multitude of spiritual experiences while climbing. I have noticed that these appear to be much more frequent when climbing outside rather than in a climbing gym. However these are brought about, it seems as though climbing can act as a catalyst for them.
9. Builds Patience
Patience and spirituality have been intertwined for centuries. Climbing instills patience into those who are trying to take up the lifestyle.
In today’s day in age, everything is immediately available with just the click of a button. Instant gratification has taken over our daily lives. Why put in work for something meaningful in the future when you can have something that will keep you entertained and satisfied right now ?
Climbing does not indulge this desire. Sure, it is fun and entertaining to climb but it requires work and effort to get good at overtime. You do not simply wake up one day being able to climb 5.13.
Becoming a good climber is a long process that inherently demands and builds patience.
10. Humbles One’s Self
I dare you to look up at a 2,000 foot vertical wall of sheer granite and not feel humbled. I can only imagine what Alex Honnold felt 1,000 feet up on a cliff without any ropes to get back down.
If the size of climbing routes is not enough to humble you, then the difficulty they present will. It is impossible to not feel humbled when you are projecting a 5.12a while climbers like Adam Ondra and Chris Sharma are out there expanding the conceptions of what can and cannot be physically climbed by the human body.