“I started rock climbing about two years ago at the rock gym with my partner. Climbing in the gym feels very comfortable – the ceilings aren’t incredibly high, the gym associates do a belay check on you and your partner, the climbing path is clearly marked by following a set of matching colored plastic rocks to the top, and there’s an ocean of pleasant blue foam padding covering the floor. I am slightly afraid of heights, and that blue ocean is like a smiling friend. I didn’t join the rock gym with expert climber ambitions, I joined because climbing is a fusion of a social hour and fitness. At the end of a session, I had the added benefit of a completed workout.  The first time I climbed outdoors was unpleasant. I went climbing at Smith Rock State Park in Central Oregon. The rock there is volcanic tuff, a porous rock formed by the consolidation of volcanic ash. It looks like a black solidified sea sponge, but the tips of the air bubbles are prickly spines instead …