WinterMission climbs to new heights

First, Jennica started with her right foot on a ledge higher than the left. She then alternated between moving her left hand and right hand to grasp the next available “climbing hole” or hand grip, climbing up something like a staircase of climbing holes. Bending her knees, she swung up and let go of her right hand to reach the highest holds. Junior Jennica Pereiras, one of the 14 participants in the “To Dare, To Do, To Boulder: An Intro to Rock Climbing” Wintermission, mastered this skill in her weeklong session. 

 “To Dare, To Do, To Boulder: An Intro to Rock Climbing” was one of the many week-long courses that Masters offered for Wintermisson 2023. Taught by History and Religion Teacher Brendan Collins Jordan and Math teacher Pascal Maharjan, the course was designed for students to not only learn how to rock climb but also to understand the culture surrounding rock climbing.

Collins Jordan hopes that besides having fun, students will reach another goal. “I hope the kids gain more self-confidence and sense of what they can do with their bodies and who they are in their bodies,” they said. “A gift for me with rock climbing is the sense that I can do a lot more than I think I can.” 

Participants went climbing two out of the four days. Students visited two different rock climbing gyms; one in Valhalla and one in Harlem. The other two days were spent watching movies and documentaries in order to understand the physics behind rock climbing.

Pereiras took the course and learned a new hobby. “At first I thought it [rock climbing] was just a physical sport, but I learned it’s mentally challenging and like a puzzle,” she said. “There’s techniques that we learned to be able to rock climb; like flagging which is using your whole body and distributing your body weight. Mr. Maharjan was really useful in talking about the physics part of rock climbing, which made the whole experience pretty complete.” 

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