New climbers in NC

Hello all. I live 15 mins from Crowders Mountian in NC. I go hiking pretty often but I've never seen climbers. I seen a family climbing today and went to say hello. They were kind enough to let me give it a try. It being my first time I didn't do so well but I was intrigued regardless. I talked with my brother and he said climbing has always been interesting to him. So him and I are looking at buying some gear, I posted a WTB in the FS section so if you have any gear post it up there.

Like all things that interest me I did a quick search and came across this site.

Basically I'm a complete noob and just wanted to say hello to everyone. I'll prob spend all night reading and learning what I can. If I have questions I'll be sure to post up here.

Thank you ladies and gents for any help and any info you are willing to throw my way.

There is a gym in Charlotte your best bet is probably at least learning the basics there, ask around and i am sure someone would be willing to help you out.

You're in an incredible State for rock climbing - lots of good stuff in Western NC I would like to get to at some point in the future. I agree that a gym is a great way to get started. Outdoors it's hard to get the repetitions in to make quicker initial gains for things like your strength, balance and endurance. When new to top roping I know I spent a lot more time running back and forth form the top of the crag to the bottom than I did actually climbing! Gyms are a great way to get a climbing-specific intensity in. You can also learn the basics of belaying there as well (assuming they teach it right.)

Once you're ready to take it to the crag, get some professional instruction. I took a couple classes through REI's climbing school that I felt helped immensely as well. People knock REI but the guy who taught us was an older trad climber who knew his stuff and was a great teacher. I would highly recommend taking their basic top rope anchors course before heading out to the cliffs. They teach a solid method for setting up top rope anchors out of static line - something that will need to know out here in the East where most of our top-ropable climbs use trees back from the edge of the cliff for anchors. Good luck and have fun!