http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/03/14/yosie.jpgWhether you live amongst the smooth rock towers of New York City or the colossal rock walls scattered up and down the western united states, if you have caught the climbing bug, then you will find someplace to climb, period. As a sport, rock climbing has managed to stay under the mainstream radar, but if you ask anyone who considers rock climbing "their sport" what its all about, then be prepared for a long and passionate rant filled with technical jargon and wide-eyed excitement. From coast to coast, if there is a climbable surface, whether it be the boulders of New York City's central park, the crags of Tennessee's smoky mountains, the overhanging limestone caves of Iowa, or the granite big-walls of California's Yosemite National Park, people will climb! 
Climbers in the Northeastern United States must endure wet conditions and climbing areas that are both small in scope and in the actual height of the climbs. For climbers in the Western United States, it is quite the opposite. Geology has blessed the western United States with more rock than can ever be climbed in a lifetime, and some of the most revered climbing destinations, although extremely popular with tourists, are often unknown as climbing spots by 95% of the people that visit. Take for instance Yosemite National Park. On a recent trip there with my father who has never rock climbed, we stood below a massive wall of vertical granite called "El Capitan" which overlooks the bustling valley floor. As a 35 year resident of New York City, my father's idea of structural grandeur was dominated by the former World Trade Center buildings which rose 1,368 feet (417 meters) above the streets of New York. We now craned our necks straight up in awe of El Capitan, which rises 3,593 feet (1095 meters) from the valley floor to the top, almost 3 times as high as the former World Trade Center! Climbers from all over the world come to test their skills on this pillar of rock, which usually takes more than one day to climb, forcing climbers to sleep in tents which hang from the wall during the night.<script></script>
Climbing will most likely remain a sport under the pop-culture radar because of its extreme nature and little potential to make big bucks doing it professionally. But climb to the top of your first rock wall, whether it be in a climbing gym or an alpine spire, and you will feel a sensation that cannot be put into words. Climbing, after all, is a verb which is applied to all forms achievement. Many people ask me why I climb, and every time I tell them this; "If you have to ask, you'll never know."