This is a climber testimony about the influence of the Washington State University’s Bouldering Gym and how that has effected Marc’s time at WSU. One thing about Marc this guy has the most stoke for climbing out of anyone I have ever met.

I attend the climbing wall 5 days a week for about 2 to 4 hours and 6 depending on the psych. My primary motivation for coming to the wall as often as I do is my girlfriend Rachel. [This is the nickname Marc has named the wall and he feels he has a very strong relationship with her.]. She encompasses what a climber should be; dedicated, rock hard body, and stoked 24/7. I believe with enough time spend with her we’ll morph into one and I will have attained the epitome of psych, what I like to call “The Eternel Psych” (Mt. Dew does this for me too). Aside from Rachel, I aspire to disintegrate rock with my crimp strength in my future. Girls dig crimp strength more than anything else it’s proven in an unofficial survey.

Most of my friends at WSU come from the climbing wall. With as much time as I have put into climbing at this wall, I have come across people on all sides of the spectrum, which I think is awesome. From my perspective at WSu I have never seen a more diverse culture all with the same love and that love is climbing. Climbing has really been a vehicle for me to meet other people that I would not normally have come across in my walk of life.

The climbing wall and community has impacted me tremendously. I came to WSU from San Francisco without my hometown friends or my mother and father, which is a huge step for me. Taking that leap I had no idea whether I would make friends or what I would do to pass the time. But the climbing wall and that community has been there for me since day one. And as most people say “strength comes in numbers,” the confidence that I found through climbing is uncanny and it has allowed me to strike up friendships at WSU that will last a lifetime.

The climbing wall has inspired me to pursue climbing as a lifestyle. In my pursuit of climbing I have seen two possible opportunities for my future and that is working half the year doing whatever is to fund my climbing lifestyle and traveling to the best spots for climbing or being a climbing instructor either way if it has climbing I know I will be content.

There is no better word to describe my mental, physical, and emotional persona than the word “DOPE!” Climbing has made my life in college a hundred times better, without it I’d be sitting at my apartment just watching Netflix all day.

Marc also asked that I include his climber profile.

Climber Profile:

Marc Wai

Gender:  Male

Ethnicity: Full Chinese with a hint of awesome

Age: 19

Weight: 145 lbs

Height: 5’6” and a half

Ape Index: 4+

Pinch Strength: 40 lbs

Crimp Strength: Sick

Pysch out of 100: 89.2