Damek.

I’ve always wanted to get in touch with the outdoors, but wanted a mentor of sorts to show me the ways. Sadly I’ve never found such, but I did find something to cover a small part of that desire. See, one specific thing I’ve wanted to do for the past couple years is learn to rock climb — due in no small part to the influence of Kim Stanley Robinson, many of whose books feature mountain climbing to one degree or another.

Last summer I was looking for some sort of rock climbing lessons in New York City, and discovered two main resources: City Climbers Club and the Central Park North Meadow Recreation Center

The City Climbers Club, housed at the 59th St Rec Center, will give you a Beginners Lesson for $30. The North Meadow Rec Center has longer, more expensive climbing programs for children and adults.

After trying to sign up for adult climbing instruction at the North Meadow Rec Center last summer, but being told they didn’t have anyone else interested at the time and couldn’t enroll just one person, I finally got off my butt this June to go check out the City Climbers Club. I was given some equipment and given a short intro to belaying, but wasn’t sure what I was doing and didn’t want to go back. I decided to give the North Meadow program another try. Imagine my surprise this year when I was told “sure, you can start in August.”

So for four not-quite-consecutive Saturday mornings for the past six weeks (I was sick once and the instructor had car trouble another time), I went up to the Center and had one-on-one instruction with Dario, the resident expert. And he certainly knew his stuff. He taught me the basics of climbing, including technique and equipment, and gave me starting points for learning more, including what is apparently the all-in-one resource for outdoors activity, Freedom of the Hills. He also pointed out on a Central Park map a few of the good places in the park to go bouldering (traversing rock near ground without ropes).

He was a wonderful, patient instructor, and very accommodating with my seeming inability to learn how to tie knots. I had a great time and highly recommend the course to everyone with even the remotest interest in learning climbing. You’ll have great fun, especially on the sessions spent outdoors climbing actual rocks in Central Park. Funny how they look taller from the top than from the bottom…

Oh, and that’s not all you get for your $200. As part of completing the 4-session instruction, I also have free use for one year of the North Meadow Rec Center’s climbing gym, during adult climbing hours (Sundays, Tuesdays & Thursdays). It was all a lot of fun and I feel much more confident now to go out and work on some rocks in the park, or go to the gym and practice. I might even stop by the City Climbers Club again to check out their routes. My only regret is that I have so many other things going on in my life right now I won’t be doing it much.

So anyway, if you’re at all intrigued about the idea of rock climbing, I highly recommend the North Meadow Rec Center’s program. Dario told me he does it year-round — yes, even in Winter. I’d almost want to take it again during cold weather just to see what it’s like. If you have kids, they have popular children’s instruction, too.

And if you take the program, let me know. Maybe we can go practice the ropes together sometime.