Outdoor athletes get in out of the cold at rock gyms and more

Upstairs in a dark, cavelike room somewhere in Ballard, Shane Chelone stretches his right arm as far as it will possibly go and grabs hold of the phone. Grabs it urgently, with all he's got, like it's that important phone call he's been waiting for all day. But instead of picking up the handset, he just holds it. Hangs on to it. Literally. Holds it and hangs on as if his life depends on it. Which, it kinda does.

For the phone (navy blue, by the way) isn't a real phone but rather an indoor rock-climbing hold. We're at Ballard's Stone Gardens and Chelone is making his way mind-bogglingly across the low ceiling of the rock-climbing gym's new 2,000-square-foot upper bouldering area, tagged the Dojo. (Bouldering is a type of rock climbing done relatively close to the floor or ground so that a rope and a belay are not needed.)

It's mind-boggling because, as Chelone proceeds — his limbs fully extended to their limits as he toes and grabs yellow and green and orange and blue holds — his body is mostly flat against the wall. Like a spider crawling across the ceiling in a house. Gravity appears to hold no sway. Tilt your head sideways and Chelone appears to be climbing up a vertical wall.

"Nice!", "Super, super, absolutely super," "Dynamite!" offer Chelone's three friends — Leah Seaver, Blue Hargreaves and Jesse Huey — in the way of encouragement.

Chelone goes as far as he can, to a point where the ceiling tilts upward at a 30-degree angle and there are no more holds, and then lets go, dropping to the Dojo's padded floor. He breathes heavily and rubs his hands, the only giveaways to the fact that fighting gravity like that is extremely strenuous.

"That was tough," Chelone says. "Especially since I've been doing nothing during the holidays but eat."

Out of the weather

During the last few weeks of 2008 and early ones of 2009, all of Western Washington was bombarded by a blitz of snow, wind, rain and ice, but in the Dojo Chelone and friends were in T-shirts, tank tops, and lightweight pants. Until just before his ceiling climb, in fact, Chelone was climbing shirtless, as if it was July in Leavenworth.

Indoor rock gyms such as Stone Gardens and Vertical World — which has four branches throughout the Puget Sound area — are great places to pursue some out-of-the-weather recreational opportunities. But they're not the only ones. There's curling at the Granite Curling Club. Indoor skateboarding at the Skate Barn or Inner Space. Or how 'bout yoga? Winter's dark, oft-dreary months are the perfect time to pursue a new indoor passion or refine your skills in an already established one.

In the swing, on the mend

Downstairs in the Realm, another of Stone Gardens' bouldering rooms, Seattle's Jackie Helton swings back and forth on a pair of gymnastics rings suspended from the ceiling. It looks like fun. An avid climber who hits the rock gym three times each week when it's too wet to climb at Exit 38 or Leavenworth, she's rehabbing a shoulder suffering from repetitive use injury.

"Wow, I wish I could do that," says 8-year-old Sarah Teschlog of Monroe, taking a momentary breather from her bouldering to eye Helton swinging through the air with the greatest of ease. "Maybe if I was taller I'd be able to swing like that."

Later, Helton hangs from the rings upside down, tensing the muscles throughout her body so that she's suspended head below feet, perpendicular to the floor. Dips and pull-ups hurt her shoulder, she says, while swinging and hanging don't. But there's a mental component, too.

"Swinging helps you get over your fear of falling," says Helton, who's training for a springtime rock-climbing trip through the Southwest. "Hanging like this gets you used to being upside down, which sometimes you find yourself doing."

Changing "problems"

Stone Gardens is a vast, well-rounded rock-climbing gym with numerous top-roping and lead-climbing routes, including a 65-foot-long lead-climbing route boasting a roof overhang. Outside there's a 40-foot-wall that in winters is adapted for climbers who want to practice climbing with ice tools. Other features include a weight room, stationary bikes, and a pro shop.

Every 45 days, climbing routes at Stone Gardens are rerouted and reset. And because the gym is so big, that means that on any given day, there's always a section of wall somewhere that's being tinkered with.

But what is perhaps Stone Gardens' calling card is its bouldering, of which it offers more routes — or problems, as they're referred to in bouldering parlance — than any other gym in the state. Four rooms at the gym — more than 8,000 square feet — are devoted to bouldering.

"A lot of people really like the simplicity of bouldering," says John Goicoechea, 24. He's a noted Seattle climber who works at Stone Gardens setting routes. "There are no ropes, no harnesses; you just need shoes and chalk and that's it. It's just you and the wall."

Bouldering builds strength and power and makes longer, outdoor climbs seem easier, says Goicoechea, who's got a number of first ascents under his belt at climbing hot spots throughout the West. For others, bouldering is a pursuit in and of itself. The destination, not the journey.

"It's kind of like the way there are different kinds of art — photography, painting, sculpture, whatever," says Huey, one of Chelone's climbing compatriots. "There're different kinds of climbing, too — sport climbing, alpine climbing, big wall climbing, bouldering — there're a lot of different kinds."

Solving puzzles

Back up in the Dojo, Chelone and friends study one of the new walls like archaeologists trying to decipher hieroglyphics they've never seen before. Watching them in such deep concentration trying to solve its puzzles, one can understand why they're called bouldering problems, not routes.

They're skilled boulderers who are here three times a week. When they're climbing, they spider across these walls as if their arms and legs are made of rubber, reaching for, and grabbing, holds that appear impossibly far apart. They gobble up whole sections of the wall in four or five moves, or about half of what it would take a novice. Still though, they're modest.

Says Chelone: "Compared to some of the really good climbers who come in here, we're kind of like the JV squad."