The Ledges are great... but what's to climb in Mid-Michigan in the winter?

The next time your girlfriend drives you up the wall... you may actually have a wall to climb up.

See, climbing walls are REALLY popular these days. And, according to the State News, Michigan State is the only major college in our Great Lakes State without a public climbing wall. So, leave it to a geology major to advocate on behalf of rocks... or climbing them anyway, with a proposed $300,000 rock wall.

It takes me back to my post undergrad days right after college at MSU. See, I was living with this guy, George, and five of my other alcohol-induced friends at that big house in the 500 block of Virginia Ave (yes, the one with the HUGE TREE in front). We had a burn pit in the backyard... I think at the time it was the only licensed burn pit in East Lansing.

But, the burn pit wasn’t good enough for George. See, he was a “climber” and used to go out to Grand Ledge to climb the 50-foot ledges. He also climbed the walls inside the house, we had a siding perimeter about 3-feet up along the whole downstairs, and he’d climb from one room to the next like a monkey in the trees, or as if the floor were molten lava.

That still wasn’t good enough. So, George BUILT a climbing wall in our carport that we stored junk in. It was crazy, the entire interior of the garage was a climbing wall. George would keep adding to it and adding to it all year long. Indeed, “If you build it, they will come” was a truism. Climbers from all over MSU used to come to our house, get George, and climb on that wall out back. They’d climb even in the dead of winter, when it was freaking freezing, Mr. Bigglesworth.  I think that climbing wall might still be there.

So, now the idea is for all you rock climbers to have your space on the Michigan State campus to climb... just like the cagers can play hoops on their gym, or the racquetballers can play their game, or the swimmers can swim. It seems reasonable... especially as noone has been asked for any money yet. Rather, it is the space that organizers want to secure first -- both the IM Circle and Demonstration Hall are willing to give up the space.  That's space for a 30-foot wall (or a climing tower), maybe appropriate harnesses, and possibly some cushions.  

Do you climb? Do you care?