(Copyright Best Health. Originally published in Best Health, October 2011)

Three times a week, 39-year-old Tracy Cowie, a Coquitlam, B.C., high school teacher, climbs the walls—literally. She heads to a local indoor climbing centre, buckles on a safety harness that’s attached to a climbing rope, passes the climbing rope to a friend on the ground and starts scaling a 45-foot wall studded with hundreds of multi-coloured climbing holds. 

The friend with the rope, called a “belayer,” might be Alison Koci or Kay Wong, both of whom Cowie met at the climbing centre. The belayer controls the rope tension, preventing a nasty plunge should the climber slip and fall. “Building the relationship with the belayer is huge,” she says. “You are literally trusting them with your life.” That trust is built on communication as well as a lot of fun times together. “I love the camaraderie and the socializing,” says Cowie. “People tend to go climbing at the same times every week, so you get to know them since you’re seeing them for several hours at a time. Everyone is really easygoing and helps each other out, sharing information about how to deal with the challenges of different routes.” 

Cowie started indoor climbing in 2003, after a friend asked her to come to a three-hour introductory class, which covered knots, how to belay and some different climbing techniques. “I got hooked on it right away,” she remembers. “It was new and totally challenging. I had always thought of rock climbing as an extreme sport and it was amazing to realize that anyone can do it.” She now goes twice a week for several hours, and a third time for about a half hour.

The intense concentration that a climb requires is a big stressbuster. “Even after a tough day at work, or if I’m worried about something, I have to let that go because I have to focus on every single move during the climb,” she says. Indoor climbing is also an incredible workout, burning about 775 calories per hour for a 155-pound (70 kilogram) woman, and working muscles big and small throughout the body, right down to fingers and toes. As you reach, balance and hold your whole body weight on the small molded climbing holds that protrude from the wall, you’re combining a lot of different aspects of fitness: strength, endurance and flexibility, says Colby Appleby, a climbing instructor at Cliffhanger in Coquitlam. There are a huge variety of possible routes and ways to approach them, so you never get bored. 

Plus, it’s fun. Says Cowie: “Every time I go climbing, I get an awesome workout, and we just have tons of laughs together.” 

Box: Want to climb? 
Indoor climbing’s popularity is on the rise as more and more climbing walls open across the country. People gravitate toward its ever-changing physical and mental workout, all in a handy indoor location where it doesn’t matter what the weather’s doing outside. There are dozens of climbing facilities in Canada in almost every province. Visit www.climbfind.com and click on “places” to find one near you. Wear stretchy shorts and a T-shirt that allow you to move freely. Most intro classes will lend you the climbing shoes, harness, belay device and chalk that you need.