Cleber Sonu looks down and sees his belayer about 50 feet below him.
The ground? Another 200 feet or so.
“When you’re hanging on the cliff, from two fingers, that’s all you think about,” he said.
What exactly is he thinking about?
“Freedom. Freedom and happiness,” Sonu said.
Sonu, a fourth-year biochemistry student, hurried over to the Rock Wall at the John Wooden Center during his one-hour break between classes to tell me the story of a climb he had planned out for over a month.
And for Sonu, the president and founder of UCLA’s Rock Climbing and Environmental club, rock climbing is not just an activity.
It’s zen.
“Rock climbing is a good balance of mental, technique and physical, so if you want to balance all three aspects of sports, basically rock climbing is the sport that focuses on all of those things,” Sonu said.
Call him the Phil Jackson of climbing.
The sensei of top-roping.
Now, I’ve tried (and failed) rock climbing before at the urging of a friend, but I haven’t before felt what Sonu was talking about “”mdash; maybe because I wasn’t hanging 20 stories in the air.
He assured me, however, that my fears were natural.
“When you start, it can be dangerous,” he said.
Starting up a club
Sonu, who has been climbing for over two years now, has had his fair share of climbing experiences ““ some scary, others not ““ but his main goal for the past few months has been to organize a club for his fellow climbers who frequent the rock wall.
“Everyone knows everyone by name. It’s a really tight community, but outside of that, nobody really organizes themselves to come together,” Sonu said.
When he began climbing, Sonu was surprised at the lack of a climbing organization on campus. So, he started a club.
“I thought it was just wrong not to organize themselves,” he said.
Despite starting the club in spring of 2009, Sonu said he’s been having a hard time getting the club going but is looking to make a big recruiting push this quarter.
With a small corps of leaders including vice presidents Carolina Sonu, a third-year biochemistry student, and Cris Chen, a fourth-year neuroscience student, Cleber Sonu thinks things would be going better with more resources.
But he’s not dismayed with the challenge of organizing the already tight-knit community of rock climbers at UCLA.
Sonu is all about the love of the sport.
“You always feel free when you’re on the wall, so you want to be there all the time. That’s the factor that makes you go all the way,” he said.
Sonu frequents the Rock Wall in the Wooden Center, but his challenging climbs often occur off-site in the wilderness.
As for the feeling of happiness he gets when he completes a challenging climb?
“It’s just kind of magical to me,” Sonu said. “You look around, and nature is beautiful, and everything is just better.”
A personal philosophy
Sonu added that the relaxation he gets from climbing on a near-daily basis helps with his studies. Spending about five hours a week at the Rock Wall, he has developed a level of discipline that extends to his academics and his personal life, he said.
In other physical activities, he explained, you might be focused on just one part of your body, on just one particular muscle. In rock climbing, you need to be aware of your whole body.
“You could definitely extend this to a personal philosophy,” Sonu said. “I don’t see any other sport that’s like that.”
Budget cuts hit the wall
With nearly every department looking to cut costs in the financial crisis, Sonu and his compatriots at the rock wall have been forced to start making revenue for the Wooden Center.
“The rock wall is under pressure to make some money,” Sonu said.
As a result, they began charging a quarterly fee for shoe rental: $10 for five uses or $25 for unlimited use. Also, they have introduced a $15 Rock Wall Orientation, a two-hour introduction to rock climbing, which used to be free for everyone who came to the wall.
“It definitely puts a new pressure on new climbers,” Sonu said.
Sonu went on to explain how the budget cuts may keep the climbing club from growing, deterring potential new climbers.
After all, there is no reason to pay to pick up rock climbing when one could play racquetball for free just next door, he said.
But I think the UCLA rock climbing community can get through this one. Twenty five bucks isn’t that big a deal and most serious rock climbers seem to have their own gear.
“We stick together,” Sonu said.
If you’ve ever been hanging from two fingers on the top of Royce Hall, e-mail Mashhood at fmashhood@media.ucla.edu.