What can I say? I've been climbing--and falling off--things since before I could walk. When I was a kid, I could usually be found somewhere off the ground...up a tree, on the roof, etc. My parent's used to select where to live by the proximity to the hospital emergency room (not that I had a serious injury until I was hit by a van while motorycling).
I had long been interested in rock climbing, but hadn't really tried it (except for one day while I was in Boy Scouts, but the rest of the aura of scouting overwhelmed anything positive about climbing that day). In 1997, when I was still freelancing as a stagehand, and doing a good bit of rigging (climbing on pipes & beams & girders and hanging up scenery and lights so that they do not ever fall down) a stagehand friend of mine took the intro climbing course at Extra Vertical to get more familiar with the knots, harness, and procedures that he was using at work. Shortly after, I started going to the gym, then climbing outdoors. Then comes buying the gear, planning holidays around climbing, having the world's smelliest shoes, etc., etc., etc.
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