Chattanooga is to climbing what Vail, Colo., is to skiing, or so the saying goes, and a growing league for young climbers is aiming to get middle and high school students involved.
The Interscholastic Climbing League continues to grow in its fifth season. Participating climbers and schools have grown each year, with 15 schools and 648 climbers participating throughout the six meets last season.
"We saw there was a need for this in the area," said Zack Bopp, Outdoor Chattanooga recreation program specialist. "We saw there had been climbing leagues in the Knoxville area. We have enough schools in the area and enough climbing gyms that this seemed to make sense."
Outdoor Chattanooga, part of the city of Chattanooga's Parks and Recreation Department, created the league in 2014 with High Point Climbing Gym, Tennessee Bouldering Authority and Urban Rocks gym. Competing schools constructed club teams consisting of approximately five members - some schools have multiple teams - and the five-person teams compete on Saturdays from November through February.
League organizers expected the league to grow, but its success surprised even them.
"It's gone better than we expected," Bopp said. "Last year, we added a middle school league, and that really brought a whole lot more interest. We have several middle schools, and the league actually grew by about 25 percent last year."
There was a scare the league would fold during its second season when Hamilton County Schools administrators said it couldn't continue because of the school system's insurance, Outdoor Chattanooga Program Coordinator Terri Chapin said.
"I wasn't going to have that," Chapin said. "We were able to get that figured out, thank goodness."
The group turned to Knoxville, which also had the program and used the same insurance, for help and to show the league could continue.
Meets are now held at two High Point Climbing locations and Tennessee Bouldering Authority.
The league brings in kids from a variety of backgrounds climbing for different purposes. Some students are in their first season and others have been climbing since the league started or longer.
Even members of the same teams have a wide range of backgrounds.
That's the case for the Ridgeland High School club team. The team consists of both first-year climbers and climbers who have been in the league since its inception.
Coby Voyles, 17, now a senior, started climbing his freshman year. He had an athletic background and loved the outdoors but hadn't gotten involved in competitive outdoor activities.
He's seen quite a bit of change during his time in the league, he said.
"The first year, it was really disorganized and not very well coordinated," Voyles said. "But now they have meets at three locations and so it definitely has way more opportunities. We've also had the difficulty level increase. They've even added things like raffles. I won a backpack last year."
His teammate, Dakota Dehart, a 15-year-old sophomore, runs cross country but had an interest in climbing.
He enjoys parkour, an activity that uses movement to navigate through a course by leaping across objects, and thought climbing could be a fun next step. He also has a fear of heights and wanted to use the league to help him overcome his fear.
In the competitions, climbers have an hour and a half to compete. Routes are scored on a scale ranging from 5.4 to 5.13, with 5.13 being the hardest and worth the most points. When the time is up, climbers tally their five best climbs and get their score.
"Climbing is just healthy. It feels really good, and you have to figure out the problem and be a little analytical," Chapin said. " There's a physical, cognitive social aspect to this league, and that's what I really like about it. It gets a lot of kids out there participating, doing something and feeling good about it."
Contact staff writer Mark Pace at mpace@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow him on Twitter @themarkpace and on Facebook at ChattanoogaOutdoorsTFP.