Oregon State Cascades Founder Keeps Climbing During Pandemic

COVID-19 has disrupted numerous sports across a number of leagues, including the rock climbing season at Oregon State Cascades.

We met with the founder of the Oregon State University team to not only talk about his shortened senior season, but also what went into building the campus’ climbing program.

“I love puzzles and riddles, so for climbing, it’s another physical riddle,” says Connor Park, whose love for these physical riddles started out as just a mandatory course as a freshman at Oregon State Cascades.

“About five or six of my friends, we just took it and it was super fun.”

But one class quickly turned into building the University’s first Climbing Club.

“When we started it we just thought it would be like 10 of us, just like us and our friends going, but it quickly outgrew that,” recalls Park. “We became the largest club on campus.”

160 club members and then, “my junior year we started the climbing team and that’s when I started taking climbing a little more seriously.”

Competing against other universities and taking his passion to new heights.

“Most of the thinking happens when you’re not climbing. So when you’re approaching the route, you’re looking at what kind of holds you’re going to be grabbing, what kind of position you need to get into to do a certain move. You might think it can go this way, but once you’re on the wall it doesn’t work so you have to figure out a different solution. When you do get it, it just clicks and all goes together; it’s like this sense of achievement.”

Although his senior season was cut short due to COVID-19, Park’s continued climbing at local Eugene gyms and plans to pursue outdoor climbing, and even has big plans for his alma mater.

“One of the things I’m really looking forward to in the future is a climbing wall at OSU Cascades. We had multiple meetings talking about a climbing wall on campus and it’s something that the school seemed really invested in. We saw pictures and different designs they have of creating this world class outdoor climbing wall at the campus. I feel like this is really cool, in like a decade or two going back to the campus and seeing a climbing facility there and knowing that you had a part in influencing the campus decision to put that there.”

Park has been back in Eugene since graduating, climbing at Elevation Bouldering prior to the freeze.