When you're interested in taking up rock climbing as a hobby, you should look for a climbing gym that you can visit in your community. These gyms typically feature multiple climbing walls and have instructors who lead group classes for people of all abilities. While you might eventually aspire to climb outdoors, learning this activity in a gym makes a lot of sense. In addition to providing an environment that is a moderate temperature, an indoor climbing gym also offers these three advantages.

Dry Conditions

When you're rock climbing, anything wet is the enemy. Climbers constantly apply chalk to their hands to keep them dry, as wet hands can make it difficult to hang onto anything on the rock wall. A big advantage of learning how to climb indoors is that you'll have a dry environment. While you'll still need to take measures to keep sweat off your hands, you'll appreciate being able to hang onto the climbing holds and know that they're not wet because it has recently rained or that it's excessively humid. The dry conditions can help to give you a better sense of stability when you climb.

Specific Routes To Take

When you climb indoors, you'll often see specific routes that you can follow up the climbing wall. Typically, these routes are marked in different colors. For example, a route that is designed for novice climbers will have one color of climbing holds, a moderate route will have another color, and an expert-level route will have another color. When you're climbing outdoors, this color-coded situation isn't necessarily the case — which may occasionally leave you feeling confused about how to proceed. Knowing exactly what climbing route you'll follow because it's colored-coded will give you a higher degree of confidence as you climb.

Integrity Of The Holds

When you're climbing a natural rock wall, you always need to be cautious about the integrity of anything that you grab. For example, when you grab a chunk of rock, you may expect that it will hold your weight — but you can't be certain of how strong it is, given that rocks can sometimes crumble to some degree. This won't be a concern when you climb in an indoor environment. Each of the climbing holds that you grab is securely fastened to the climbing wall, and you can expect that instructors and staff members regularly assess the wall to ensure that everything is stable.

If you want to try rock climbing, contact a local gym to see what is available.