Rock climber Warren Hollinger, a Montreal native who moved to Hawaii
with his family when he was 10 years old, tries out a man-made climbing wall.
Photo by Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin

Well, he does.

"I'm not sure who said it, but it sums it up nicely: `Big wall climbing is hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror," said the 31-year-old Kona resident. "You can't say you're not scared up there. But it's something I can focus on mentally, physically and spiritually."

Sounds good. But what about a few trivial dangers, such as getting hit by lightning.

"We were spending five days on a wall in the remote back regions of British Columbia," he recalled. "We had a full white-out storm the whole day, but it hadn't been electrical. By the time we reached the summit, in just three minutes it became electrical about 100 yards away and we started scrambling.

"Then, boom, it hit the rock and traveled through me. It lifted me off the ground. It blew a hole through my back and 17 holes out my knee. I was paralyzed from the neck down for a little while, but we spent the night up there and 10 hours later we rappeled down."

Despite the potential for disaster, big wall climbing is increasing in popularity - and so is indoor rock climbing.

Hollinger, a Montreal native who moved to Hawaii with his family when he was 10 years old, said he needed a release from his former job as a stockbroker. He tried skydiving, but dropped it after a few tries.

"I was spending so much time on the ground waiting to go back up in the plane," said Hollinger, who was 25 years old then and living in Southern California. "So a friend told me about climbing and I enrolled in a class in Los Angeles.

"I heard of people going up hiking, but I had never heard of vertical climbing. Six months later, I quit my job and decided this was what I wanted to do."

Now he has climbed all over the world, but mostly in North America. His favorite spot so far is Yosemite Valley.

But coming up will be a potential world-record climb - the "Polar Sun Spire" on Baffin Island, which is located north of Quebec and west of Greenland.

Hollinger put on a slide show about the upcoming adventure at Hawaii Outdoor World Climbers Paradise on Sand Island Road last weekend.

"It's so barren there's not a tree on it," he said. "We were the first team to go up there and do big-wall style last year.

"After we checked out the measurements, we found that it could be the largest straight wall on the planet - about 4,550 feet. That would be 200 feet taller than the largest big wall to date - the Great Trango Tower in Pakistan, which is 4,300 feet tall."

Hollinger said that the height of a wall isn't the most important factor though. It's the climb itself - and camping on the side of a rock wall sometimes for days at a time.

"We go more by difficulty. You can have a 3,000-foot wall that you can get up in day, or a 1,000-foot section of wall that can take you 10 days. It's not just height or even steepness. It's how many features you're dealing with."

He added: "You stay right on the wall the whole time. You haul all your gear up there and you set up camp right on the wall. You don't climb to get to the top. We climb to experience the whole feel of the adventure. You want to get to the top to complete it, but you don't have to get to the top to enjoy it."

Hollinger is a teacher and guide in the sport. He emphasized that it isn't just for men, either. In fact, his wife, Erika, is a convert.

"I got her into climbing about 21/2 years ago," he said. "She knew it was a major part of my life. I never thought I would go out with anybody, let alone marry anybody. But she understands - she sees me come back from some pretty tough missions.

"I find that women excel at it. It's one of the sports where a woman and a man can start at the same time and stay at the same level.

"Climbing isn't a pulling sport. It's a pushing sport. You push your legs up. The only reason you use your hands is to keep from falling off.

"The big thing about climbing is understanding the technique, which is like just about any sport. It's not just power. Once they try it, they find out that climbing isn't just a guy thing."

Hollinger - who built a climbing wall in his garage in Kona - said he is surprised at the popularity in the islands.

"It's amazingly popular. What's funny is that Hawaii is one of the few places I thought it would never take off," he said.

"But I've seen a lot of good young climbers here."

And what is the first thought when he gets to the top after a long climb?

"Let's get down," Warren Hollinger said with a smile.