Package: Sisters Bond Through Rock Climbing

The color. That’s the most noticeable thing upon walking into the Cave Bouldering Gym, located 10 stories beneath the ground in Kansas City’s Downtown Underground. Blue, orange and yellow walls are constructed in the middle of the floor at different angles, with a kaleidoscopic  collection of holds and grips secured with bolts. Brightly, multicolored tape marks the routes for the climbers. Electric blue mats surround the structures, waiting to catch a weary climber.

People of all different ages cling to various portions of the walls in the Cave, legs shuddering, arms trembling and muscles bulging. Bouldering, a type of rock climbing, requires the climbers to use techniques, such as switching feet, and strategy to reach the top. Upon finishing the ascent, the climber tries to descend using the same holds, but can elect to jump to the waiting mats.

In the middle of it all are freshman Zoe Scofield and sophomore Hannah Scofield, both dressed in black. As the sisters take turns climbing, they cheer each other on and make suggestions on the routes. When Hannah hesitates, Zoe tells her where to put her foot. When Zoe falls, Hannah helps her up. When they boulder, the sisters are a team.

“It was really hard at first,” Hannah says as she eyes a route. “You get so tired so quickly. If you learn the right techniques and if you go frequently enough, it gets easier.”

Across the room, Zoe approaches an entirely different terrain. Instead of the walls forming slight overhangs or underhangs, the wall curves up from the floor until it runs parallel with the blue mats. With her finger, she points to the curved wall directly above the heads of the climbers, indicating where she’s going to drop. Starting at the base, Zoe begins climbing up the wall, until she’s horizontal. With her back mirroring the floor and her blond ponytail swinging in the open air, her movements are both controlled and abrupt. As she reaches the end, she hangs from her chalk-clad fingertips, and then drops to the floor.

“It took me a long time to be able to do that,” Zoe says as she rubs her calloused hands together. “There are a couple parts where you have to switch hands real fast.”

Sitting down on the edge of a mat, with her black climbing clothes speckled with chalk, Zoe watches as her mother, her mother’s boyfriend and his son walk into the gym.

“They climb, too,” she says. “It’s because of my mom’s boyfriend’s son, who’s basically my little brother, that I started climbing. He started climbing a little before school started last year. I started spending so much time here that I wanted to come, too.”

Zoe began climbing in October of last year, and Hannah joined in December. On Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, the sisters are dropped off by their parents and climb for hours. It isn’t a rare occurrence when the sisters decide stay for the entire day, with the occasional pizza delivery.

Moving away from the wall, Zoe approaches the slackline. The tight-rope-like piece of equipment is designed to test the climber’s balance and strengthen his or her muscles. Stretching 20 feet across and three feet above the floor, climbers are supposed to walk the two inch wide line from one end to another.

As she nears the slackline, Zoe looks doubtful. She’s used to the thicker one, not the slack line that’s only one and a half inches wide. She steps up. She moves forward. She wavers, then quickly steps off.

Back by the walls, Hannah is asking Elsa Bleeker, the owner of the gym, if she would show her and her friends how to do a certain route. Originally from South Africa, Bleeker opened the bouldering gym in order to fund an expedition up Mt. Everest. However, as she begins scaling the wall barefoot and points out positions to Hannah, her passion for teaching is revealed.

“[My favorite part is] coaching the kids,” Bleeker says as she lightly bounces on the soft mats.  “Seeing how they change, seeing how they grow, that’s what I love.”

One of the things Bleeker taught the sisters was to get back up if they fall down. When Hannah and Zoe try a route and can’t complete it, it’s the first one they attempt when they return the next day.

“That route is in the back of your head,” Hannah said. “It sticks with you while you’re at school or at home. You just want to go back and finish it.”

Since the sisters started bouldering at the Cave, they’ve both joined the Cave’s climbing team. Meeting twice a week for group practice as well as for individual training, the sisters are currently in training for their first competition this summer. Zoe and Hannah will be timed as they climb a route and touch the taped box at the top, and will be judged based on their time and technique. They will compete against other teams from other gyms, at regional and national competitions.

“It’s a sport you improve quickly with,” Zoe said. “You actually see your improvements because you either get a route or you don’t get it. In some sports you can’t see the improvement, but you really can with bouldering. If you don’t get a route, you’ll go home and the next time you’ll come back. It’s addictive.”