Galina Parfenov(pictured above) Rock-climbing coach, New Haven, Connecticut
Do you commute here every day from New Haven? No, I kind of hop around a bunch of different gyms all over Connecticut and the city, depending on the day.
When was the first time you climbed? I was 12, in seventh grade. I was taking art classes outside of school, and my art teacher asked me if I wanted to go climbing with her. I was like, “Sure, why not?” I was wearing a pair of skinny jeans, and I remember thinking, This is probably not the best outfit.
How did you become a coach? I was a biochemistry major, but I think it was my senior year when I was just like, Wow, I really don’t care about any of this. I finished school, went back to Connecticut, found a very small gym super-close to my parents’ house, and literally wrote the owner an email asking if I could sit and watch and learn a little bit about coaching. He emailed me back, and he was like, “Yeah, you’re really not qualified, but I found your YouTube” — I had a couple of viral climbing videos that everyone knew me for — “and you seem kind of badass, so come by.”
Justin Signo
Unemployed, Williamsburg
Climbing must be hard on the body.
Yes. The first time, my hands got shredded. I was trying to get TSA PreCheck one day after I climbed, and they were a little bit sussed out because I didn’t have any fingerprints — because when you climb, you lose your skin and stuff.
Jaï Chablat-Yates
Model, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Robert Kydd
Controls engineer, East Village
Terry Fay-Hamilton
Screen-printer, Jersey City
Tatiana Fenner
Filmmaker, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Allyson Bagalay
Nurse, East Village
Caleigh Roach
Emergency medical technician, Williamsburg
Alexia Adana
Creative director, Bushwick
Kate Rhodes
Health-care fundraiser, Park Slope
Do you come a lot?
Oh, I do my work here, I climb here, do yoga here, just hang out. It’s open 24/7. I’ve changed into clothes to go to a friend’s wedding from this gym. I was so embarrassed because these people have never seen me in normal clothing. The walk out the door in my dress felt like the longest 100 feet of my life.
Taylor Axdorff
Designer, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Jake Deakin
Product-design manager, Williamsburg
Julianna Wilson
Audiobook producer, Upper West Side
Do you look around while you climb?
Yeah, it’s so funny. People look like monkeys, and all the time they’re falling off the walls — I think of them like squirrels in Central Park. I run in the park all the time, and you always see squirrels falling out of the trees. This is that, but it’s a bunch of adults.
Matthew Lew
Designer, Prospect Heights
What else do you do?
I’m also a ceramicist. I just sanded ten bowls yesterday. The way I think about it, with climbing you’re on rocks, and with ceramics you’re using a soft material that becomes heated up into a rock. So all around, I work with rocks.
Tammy Tan
Software engineer, Lower East Side
Moses Chavez-Gray
Law student and Vital employee, Flatbush
Conchobhar Keegan
Vital employee, Greenpoint
Adnan Aga
Graduate student, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Rae Haas
Artist and musician, Greenpoint
Did you try something new tonight?
So each color on the wall represents different grades from V1 through V8 — extremely difficult. I got 75 percent up this V8, which was a really big step for me. And I’m fairly short — my wingspan is negative-2, which is not ideal for a climber.
Photographs by DeSean McClinton-Holland
Justin Signo
Unemployed, Williamsburg
Climbing must be hard on the body.
Yes. The first time, my hands got shredded. I was trying to get TSA PreCheck one day after I climbed, and they were a little bit sussed out because I didn’t have any fingerprints — because when you climb, you lose your skin and stuff.
Jaï Chablat-Yates
Model, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Robert Kydd
Controls engineer, East Village
Terry Fay-Hamilton
Screen-printer, Jersey City
Tatiana Fenner
Filmmaker, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Allyson Bagalay
Nurse, East Village
Caleigh Roach
Emergency medical technician, Williamsburg
Alexia Adana
Creative director, Bushwick
Kate Rhodes
Health-care fundraiser, Park Slope
Do you come a lot?
Oh, I do my work here, I climb here, do yoga here, just hang out. It’s open 24/7. I’ve changed into clothes to go to a friend’s wedding from this gym. I was so embarrassed because these people have never seen me in normal clothing. The walk out the door in my dress felt like the longest 100 feet of my life.
Taylor Axdorff
Designer, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Jake Deakin
Product-design manager, Williamsburg
Julianna Wilson
Audiobook producer, Upper West Side
Do you look around while you climb?
Yeah, it’s so funny. People look like monkeys, and all the time they’re falling off the walls — I think of them like squirrels in Central Park. I run in the park all the time, and you always see squirrels falling out of the trees. This is that, but it’s a bunch of adults.
Matthew Lew
Designer, Prospect Heights
What else do you do?
I’m also a ceramicist. I just sanded ten bowls yesterday. The way I think about it, with climbing you’re on rocks, and with ceramics you’re using a soft material that becomes heated up into a rock. So all around, I work with rocks.
Tammy Tan
Software engineer, Lower East Side
Moses Chavez-Gray
Law student and Vital employee, Flatbush
Conchobhar Keegan
Vital employee, Greenpoint
Adnan Aga
Graduate student, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Rae Haas
Artist and musician, Greenpoint
Did you try something new tonight?
So each color on the wall represents different grades from V1 through V8 — extremely difficult. I got 75 percent up this V8, which was a really big step for me. And I’m fairly short — my wingspan is negative-2, which is not ideal for a climber.
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