Is a gay & lesbian climbing group still needed and relevant in Toronto

Ken and I talked about this last year. Shawn and I talked about it last year. Roger and I talked about it last year. Since we all climbed with straight friends more than with gay friends and being gay has been widely accepted in Toronto, we all seemed to feel that the need to have a gay and lesbian friendly climbing group was not great.

Hedvig and I talked about it yestoday. She thought that such group is still needed. It is as relevant as many other associations, groups and clubs. People socialize with certain type of people to connect and develop relationships. A gay and lesbian climbing group serves such a purpose.

I mentioned that I had heard some climbers saying that our club was like a dating club providing dating service. One of the supporting evidences was that many people have come to our beginners' nights to check us out and never returned. For years, this phenomenon made Ken feel bad about himself as he was usually the one hosting the beginner's night. He felt that he probably had bahaved poorly towards the beginners.

Hedvig said that it is very normal that based on her working experience in a climbing gym, only 5% of the people taking beignner's lessons actually return to climb again. Ken you can feel good about yourself again!

I went ice climbing today. The person lead this climbing trip is a very nice person. I even bought him a dinner to thank him for showing me this sport in Ontario. (I tried ice climbing once in Banff.) I now feel that I am going to become a mountaineerer. As we talked about that tomorrow's weather (+9C) would be so good for rock climbing outdoors at Buffaloo Crag, I mentioned that I wouldn't be able to go because I had to attend Crag Crux Climber's climbing event. He was not cool about the gay thing. But "lesbians are okay," he said, because "they are girls."

I can imagine that an out gay beginner climber would not have as a great climbing experience with an experienced climber like this person as he would with a nice experienced gay climber. Our group is still needed and relevant.