The Community’s Nonprofit Climbing Team Is Celebrating 10th Anniversary

RENO, Nev. (775 Times, NV Globe) – This year marks the tenth anniversary of a local non-profit climbing squad.

Sierra Climbing Team (SCT) was founded in 2012 to educate children how to climb at The Whitney Peak Basecamp.

“I started climbing at our recreation facility. “There weren’t actually grades there, just fixed climbs,” stated Harry Pullen, an SCT climber.

They train children aged 8 to 18, with the objective of making them lifelong climbers.

“Our goal is to have them climb for the rest of their lives,” said Brian Sweeney, Head coach of SCT. “If they want to compete, that’s great. We’ll support them in that. We’ve been able to send kids to worlds, but we also just genuinely want them to enjoy the sport.”

It takes a lot of work to become a decent climber, and it requires a lot of muscles that we don’t ordinarily utilize, so they also educate youngsters how to grow those muscles.

“On packed days like this, we do tag teams with workouts mixed in with our climbs,” said Charlotte Jonas, a climber with SCT. “So one of us is doing a workout and one of us is climbing so we get both in on one day.”

They not only educate kids how to climb and keep active, but they also teach youngsters how to deal with one of life’s most difficult challenges: failure.

“Climbing is such a good analogy for struggle,” said Sweeney. “You fall, fall, try, try, eventually succeed. That’s what happens in life. So if we can get these kids prepared to deal with adversity, struggle, failure, at a formative age, it’s just setting them up for success later.”

To enroll your children, simply visit the Sierra Climbing Team website and schedule a tryout. Children of all abilities are welcome. The purpose of the tryout is to assess how youngsters interact with the rest of the squad and how much they want to be there.

“They join the practice as if they were on the team for the 2.5 hour duration,” said Gwendolyn Roberts, Coach and Team Manager of SCT. “Then at the end, we just evaluate whether or not they did well with the other kids, were they here to try hard, do they take direction, and are they stoked to be here and climb.”

Sierra Climbing Team is Nevada’s only non-profit climbing team, making it an excellent choice for children who do not wish to participate in traditional sports such as football or basketball.

Parents appreciate the team because they can climb with their children while they learn.

“I think it’s special too because instead of the parents sitting on the sidelines,” said Erin Seimer, a parent of one of SCT’s climbers. “The parents can climb too, which is pretty special.”

Credits: KoloTv