Scaling the towering walls. Gripping onto the rocks with nothing but ropes, harnesses, and physical strength to get you to the top of the wall. The thrill of reaching your highest hold. These are all part of the thrill that senior Suhvin and sophomore Yehvin Park enjoy as they compete in competitive rock climbing.
S. Park’s rock climbing journey began when she started climbing nine years ago. “It all started when I went to a birthday party at one of the Gravity Vault climbing gyms in New Jersey. My parents told me that I came home and asked to do the SAME thing for my birthday. As a kid, I had a lot of energy, and my parents needed to find a sport that would help me blow off steam.” The journey to finding her hobby was very experimental, as she tried multiple sports and activities. However, S. Park found that they were not fulfilling. “None of them fit me well, and I eventually stopped those activities,” she explains.
Although rock climbing began as a recreational activity for her, she says, “the coach [at my local climbing gym] had seen my sister and I often, playing around or with friends, and asked my parents if I had wanted to join the classes there.” Figuring rock climbing was a good source of exercise for her, S. Park’s parents signed her up for her first climbing classes.
Younger sister Y. Park on the other hand took up rock climbing around seven years ago, at the age of eight. “I remember it was when I was doing ballet, and my parents asked me to make a decision: if I wanted to continue to do that, or climb with my sister.” S. Park had been climbing before her, so Y. Park wanted to try it out too. She ended up enjoying it and eventually joined a competitive team.
The Parks each have their own role models in this sport. S. Park is inspired by Kim Jain, who is a professional Korean rock climber and the winner of the Lead Climbing World Cup three times, the Lead Climbing World Championship once, and the Rock Master once. “I’ve looked up to her probably ever since I began climbing, seeing her as a role model and someone I would always be awed by.”
On the contrary, Y. Park’s inspiration is World Class competition climber Janja Garnbret, a Slovenian professional climber and winner of multiple competition lead climbing, competition bouldering events, and two Olympic gold medals. “When I was younger, watching climbing videos was something I did a lot in my free time, and I would always watch the competitions she was in. She showed me that to be the best in something, you have to find a deep passion for it and have fun doing it, which also motivated me to do better and try harder.”
Both sisters consider their participation in national competitions to be their greatest accomplishment in the sport. In August 2023, S. Park competed in the Seoul Youth Bouldering World Cups, ranking 10th in the world. Just two months before, she had become the U.S. National Champion in Youth Bouldering at Salt Lake City “after a really hard year to say the least,” with “many different struggles, both mentally and physically.” Also, she had qualified in last place, and over two days, she rose to first place at the finals round of the Bouldering Youth Nationals. Despite enduring both mental and physical challenges, S. Park “felt proud of the fact that [she] had come from the bottom to the top, with help from [her] community along the way.”
Similarly, Y. Park competed in Nationals in 2022 and 2023. She says, “Although climbing has teams all around the world, it is a very individual sport. There were so many great climbers I had to compete with and to be honest, I wasn’t too confident in myself to go against them.” Despite not performing well, this feat was a great achievement for her. “I’d always see my sister make it to that stage, and I felt proud in the moment to make it there.”
The Parks say having to keep up with climbers who are better than them is one of their greatest challenges when pursuing climbing: “I have friends that are significantly better than me at climbing, so I try hard to keep up with their pace,” S. Park says. “Another challenge is staying mentally focused during competition, even when it feels as if nothing [is] going right. Since your placement correlates with your success rate, it can be tough to stay optimistic if you begin to calculate what ranking you are in based on your points, while the competition is going on.”
Y. Park agrees, saying that “this sport has a wide range of ages, especially in the youth world of climbing. I think that because there were so many better climbers, it led me to compare myself a lot to others, making me question if I’m fitted to even be an athlete in this sport.” Yet, she focuses on her own self-improvement and progress, “for [her] parents and coaches keep on encouraging [her] to work harder and focus on [herself] as an athlete rather than the performance of others.”
For those who want to get involved in rock climbing, the sisters share some advice: S. Park says, “since climbing has gained more interest than the past, there are many gyms to choose from. They are extremely beginner friendly so it won’t be hard to get started and also make some friends to climb with. I would say that the climbing community has been the highlight of my life. I think I have found many lifelong friends while climbing, and people who support each other wholeheartedly. Though we are placed against each other in competition, being able to connect right after and laugh about something else is extremely important and something I hold to my heart.”
Y. Park encourages those who are interested in rock climbing to “try to go to a local climbing gym around the area and see if they would enjoy it. The climbing community is very welcoming and it is easy to make friends and create good relationships. Even if it’s not competitive, it’s a good hobby to try.”
