My rookie era: peer pressure brought me to bouldering, then I found calm in ‘the way of the wall’

‘I approached the wall with the confidence of someone who’d watched at least five to seven tutorial videos’: Mike Hohnen on his first time bouldering. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

At first, I didn’t notice it. When it became too big to not notice, I ignored it. In my ignorance, I even mocked it. It wasn’t until it had completely subsumed my inner circle that I was forced to accept reality: my friends can climb up walls like mountain goats.

Bouldering is the art of ascending short “climbs” using time-tested techniques. As much a problem-solving exercise as it is a physical one, it pleases parts of the brain left dormant for millennia. What began as a way to train rock climbers has blossomed into its own culture replete with specialised gear, terminology, community and Italian brain rot memes.