Over two years ago, a dream was finally realized at Brackendale’s Don Ross Middle School. The school’s bouldering cave, eternally under construction it seemed, was complete.
Thanks to the hard and long efforts of Bill Rizun and Stephan Guerin, a small steep bouldering cave was now part of the school’s gym.
Flash forward one year and I landed a small job working each Tuesday in the learning services room and teaching Socials and English 8. I knew about the cave and knew that more students wanted to get on the wall more regularly.
It was obvious that the school needed an afterschool bouldering club. I put about two minutes thought into it before “Don Ross Cave Dwellers” was born. Over the 2016-17 school year, we met every week and introduced the young budding climbers to everything from types of holds and the history of bouldering to a progression in climbing technique through drills and games to raffled day-passes for Ground Up Climbing Centre and monthly vertical challenge competitions.
At first, the each week’s session resembled an hour-long organized climbing lesson. It was OK, but the energy of the students wasn’t what I’d hoped. Training, technique, getting better and learning about climbing has to happen organically, motivated by choice and at a new climber’s own pace for it to really be enjoyed. After a day at school, the last thing I wanted was for the Cave Dwellers to feel like our climbing session was an extension of their academic day. I had to be sneakier if I wanted to educate them about climbing while also passing on how fun it was. On the other hand, just goofing about in the bouldering cave after school on Tuesdays wasn’t the best use of the new facility either.
Our Cave Dwellers time on Tuesdays slowly morphed into a hybrid, where we had a loose warm-up program, a game or drill — which helped teach a particular technique — free climbing time where I hovered around motivating and helping groups out, and then an ending that featured a conditioning drill focused on injury prevention and antagonist muscle building.
It’s now a year later and the Cave Dwellers bouldering club continues. It is an open, drop-in, inclusive club where experience isn’t a prerequisite and having your own gear is unnecessary. Added to our team is the talented Hans Montenegro, an educational assistant at Don Ross. He brings a higher performance bouldering base and Latin flair. Our students are as numerous as ever, having gained a clutch of psyched Grade 7s. The year looks promising with planned club trips to Ground Up and, dare I even think it, outside bouldering — so stay tuned. Squamish’s Cave Dwellers may be making the news this year.
