Chock-full of bouldering and belaying, a new sport is climbing onto the list of Brown’s club athletics offerings this semester: competitive climbing.
The Brown Competitive Climbing Club — a 17-member organization split into training and competitive teams — was created to give students the opportunity to train consistently and represent Brown in the USA Climbing Collegiate Series, the main circuit for college-level competitions in the United States.
The club aims to fill a gap in Brown’s climbing scene, said Cecilia D’Hondt-Gorbea ’28, the club’s co-captain and co-founder.
Before the new competitive team was formed, the University hosted undergraduate student group Brown Climbing Club, which helped organize Sunday Night Climbing, or “SNC” — weekly trips to local climbing gyms.
Some members of the club, which is still active today, competed in USA Climbing’s North East Collegiate Division, according to the organization’s student activities description, but could not do so under Brown’s banner.
“We have a great rec club that a lot of people are enrolled in,” D’Hondt-Gorbea explained. “But there was no ability to compete for the University, and there was also no consistent group training.”
D’Hondt-Gorbea wanted to bring the same community and structure she experienced when climbing competitively in high school to College Hill.
“I loved competing, (and) I loved having teammates,” she said. “I want to make sure that people are able to do that.”
To establish climbing as a club sport, D’Hondt-Gorbea, alongside co-captain and co-founder Dylan Heinstein ’26, followed the club sports application process starting last spring. They drafted a constitution, proposed a budget and delivered a presentation to the club sports staff and student officers.
The team had a rocky start, especially when it came to funding. As a new club sport, the team has yet to receive any financial support from the University. Instead, it took advantage of Bruno Gives Back Day, an annual fundraising event for athletic teams that took place on Oct. 8.
According to Isaac Bitran ’29, a member of the team’s competitive division, the club raised more than $16,000, well over their original goal of $3,000. “That gave us a huge amount of momentum,” Bitran said, adding that the team plans to secure a coach for the spring season.
“I’m so proud of my teammates and so proud of how much we raised,” D’Hondt-Gorbea said.
Members have already participated in several local events. The team’s first official collegiate competition is scheduled for Sunday in Littleton, Massachusetts, and a second is scheduled for Nov. 16 in Boston.
Bitran joined the team after rediscovering his love for climbing last spring. Before that, he had trained to compete on sports competition reality show American Ninja Warrior and wrestled throughout high school.
“After the wrestling season ended, I became absolutely obsessed (with climbing),” he said. “I built a rock climbing wall with wooden holds in the bunk of my summer camp so I could train and not get weaker over the summer.” After learning about tryouts via the group’s Instagram page, Bitran was set on joining the team.
Since its founding, the team has embarked on several outdoor climbing trips, including a recent outing to Lincoln Woods State Park, a well-known climbing spot in Rhode Island.
“It was cool getting to see people get on real rock because I’d only seen them in the gym,” D’Hondt-Gorbea said.
Looking ahead, D’Hondt-Gorbea hopes to expand both the competitive and training sides of the team.
“We had a lot of folks try out who were great climbers, but we were very limited in terms of how many spots we could handle this year,” she said.
The team is also hoping to send a handful of members to the Collegiate National Championships in the spring. But above all, D’Hondt-Gorbea wants to create a lasting community.
And for some teammates, including sixth-year Ph.D. student Zacharias Escalante GS, that community is already taking shape.
Since this is his final year at Brown, Escalante — a member of the team’s competitive division — decided to try out after learning graduate students were eligible to join. Escalante had previously served as the vice president of the Brown Graduate Climbing Club, which is now on hiatus, and saw the new team as a chance to stay involved in a sport he loves.
“In climbing, you can make some lasting, meaningful friendships,” Escalante wrote in an email to The Herald. “I will happily lose my voice cheering for my team 100% of the time.”
