Who are Climbing the Walls? An Exploration of the Social World of Indoor Rock Climbing

This study is an exploratory look at the social world of indoor rock \nclimbers, specifically, those at Texas A&M University. A specific genre of rock \nclimbing originally created to allow outdoor rock climbers a place to train in the \nwinter, indoor climbing has now found a foothold in areas devoid of any natural \nrock and has begun to develop a leisure social world of its own providing benefit \nto the climbers, including social world members. This study explored this social \nworld of indoor rock climbing using a naturalistic model of inquiry and qualitative \nmethodology, specifically Grounded Theory (Spradley, 1979; Strauss & Corbin, \n2008). This research borrows from the literature on social world theory, serious \nleisure as well as specialization. \nThis study confirmed indoor rock climbing to be a form of serious leisure \nfor some participants. Furthermore, it found the social world of indoor rock \nclimbing at Texas A&M provides a deep sense of belonging to some members \nwho were found to coalesce at a mesostructural level into a confederacy of peers (R. A. Stebbins, 1993). Bouldering was found to be an avenue for social \nworld entry for men but the female experience in social world entry was found to \nbe different. The most prominent finding of the study was that the facility itself \nprovides a place of belonging for social world members, even diverse and \ndifferent groups which, outside of the social world, may be expected to come \ninto conflict. Lastly, it was found that the social world has the ability to mediate \nconflict or negative experiences arising from competition and feelings of risk and \nfear. \nThis exploratory study is expected to provide a framework for which to \nconduct further, more in depth studies into phenomena affecting the lives and \nexperiences of indoor rock climbers. Furthermore this study has practical \nsignificance in assisting climbing wall managers to better understand the culture \nthat surrounds and utilizes the facilities they operate. A review of the current \nliterature on rock climbing, research questions that guided the study and \nmethodologies, as well as the study results and conclusions are discussed in \nthis paper.