Senior finds satisfaction in scaling mountains

The view goes on for miles. His heart is pounding and the blood is pumping throughout his body. A feeling of accomplishment rushes to his throbbing hands and feet. Senior Jeremy Wallin gets this rush every time he climbs a mountain.

Wallin is fairly new to the sport, having been introduced to it just last year by a friend from Harker named Aditya Sastry.

Just a few months after taking on the sport, Sastry invited Wallin to climb 14,179-foot Mount Shasta in northern California. To train for the climb, Wallin and his friend went to Planet Granite, an indoor climbing gym in Sunnyvale.

“We trained about once a week,” Wallin said. “We also went to Castle Rock, another indoor gym up in the hills, and took a couple courses on how to build anchors and how to climb.”

In June, Wallin and his friend completed the Shasta climb in three days — an accomplishment he was most proud of because they managed to do the climb without any help from other climbers.

Furthermore, Wallin’s love of climbing stems from the rush he gets when he reaches the top of a climb.

“I feel like I’m connected with nature and getting to the top is definitely an exciting feeling. It feels like standing on top of the world,” Wallin said.

Wallin successfully scaled a mountain called Stok Kangri in August on a visit to India, which he said was probably his greatest climbing experience.

“That was 20,000 feet. It took about five or six days of actual hiking/climbing and that was pretty cool,” Wallin said.

He said that he has learned various life skills from climbing and that climbing has changed his character. Wallin said that he uses a lot of problem solving in climbing. They have to figure out how to set up their tents and the weight of the loads they have to carry up the mountain.

While mountain climbing is labeled as an unusual sport, Wallin believes that more and more people should get involved.

“I really think that people should become more involved in climbing simply because of how much fun it is,” Wallin said. “Climbing provides me with the ultimate sense of adventure and completing a rock climbing route or reaching the top of a mountain is the greatest feeling and is like no other.”