On Sunday, Lincoln Woods welcomed rock climbing enthusiasts from across the city for the second-ever Rhode Island Ripper, a bouldering competition organized by the Ladies Climbing Coalition.
Before last year, LCC had “never had an (outdoor) rock climbing competition in Rhode Island,” said Kristin Re, LCC executive director. Despite having to reschedule this year’s event twice due to the weather, Re persisted, recognizing the event’s ability to build community and introduce new people to climbing.
Re first became involved with the sport in college. “It changed my life. … Now all of my best friends and husband are rock climbers,” she said. Re described climbing as a “moving meditation,” with the focus being to “move your body and compete with only yourself.”
Re co-founded LCC in 2017 to “empower women and nonbinary climbers (and) create safe spaces and clinics for them to feel comfortable, learn and grow,” she said.
Heather DeSantis, gym manager for Rock Spot Climbing Peace Dale made sure to check out the competition.
“It was very easy to spiral into this lifestyle,” DeSantis said, recalling how she knew she “wanted to do this forever” after her first ever day of climbing. She started working at Rock Spot seven years ago so she would no longer have to pay for a membership, and “it just quickly became the only thing I did with my life,” she said.
The Ripper is one of many signs of rock climbing’s growing popularity.
There used to be only one climbing gym in Rhode Island; now, there are four, Re said. Even though the rock climbing community “has grown a lot over the past year,” it is still “really small and tight-knit,” she added.
The sport has been gaining popularity at Brown too. Every Sunday evening, students gather under the Faunce Arch to join a night of climbing with the Brown Climbing Club.
Last year, the University sent BCC’s climbers to a USA Climbing competition, organized by the sport’s national governing body, for the first time.
“We’ve had people participating in local competitions for a long time, but what’s new for Brown is participating in the USAC collegiate division,” said Wells Bussey ’26, BCC social media manager.
Bussey said he hopes the University continues to expand its support for the sport.
The University supports BCC through funding, which allows the club to cover transportation to Rock Spot for students every Sunday as well as provide discounted day passes. But “that doesn’t help with the other six days of the week where a student might want to climb,” Bussey explained.
BCC member Neal Klemba ’25 highlighted the development of an “on-campus training area” as one of the club’s hopes. “This would make the sport much more accessible as gym memberships are expensive and traveling to the gym is hard for many,” he said.
Beyond Brown, rock climbing “gets more national attention every year,” especially after the sport was featured in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, said Heather DeSantis, gym manager for Rock Spot Climbing Peace Dale. “There are climbing competitions across the world but it’s the kind of thing that you only know about if you’re already into climbing,” she said. But being in the Olympics helped the sport enter the “national spotlight.”
Rock climbing “was always a counterculture activity,” but recently it “has been creeping into mainstream culture,” Re said.
For DeSantis, rock climbing is “absolutely something that everybody should try.” At Rock Spot, she has seen every type of climber: “We have climbers as young as three and as old as 80. … We have had a woman climbing at our gym for two years. She started when she was 74, now she’s 76.”
“Everyone wants everyone else to succeed,” DeSantis said, immediately moving to help a fellow rock climber attempt the Ricky Raccoon climb. “C’mon Marissa, you’ve got it.”
Chinmayi Rajaram is a staff writer for The Brown Daily Herald. She likes that one quote about the peeling paint and the other one about oranges.
