a closer look I've always held a distant but powerful admiration for rock climbing and its practitioners. It's a sport I've wanted to try for years, but never had known how to get started. Perhaps it was a vague unease with heights or the sense that it was gear-intensive and required some magically obtained technical skills to enjoy.

A recent trip to Peak Experiences, the Richmond area's only indoor rock climbing center, dispelled those qualms in fewer than two hours. Now I'm kicking myself for waiting this long to get into the sport.

In fact, Peak Experiences can put you on the path to scaling new heights in much less time. I took the introductory class, Learn the Ropes, where I was taught the basics of equipment, knot tying, safety and belaying for another climber. If you'd rather go right in and climb, you can do that, too. I have a feeling you'll be booking your return trip before you leave.

Rick Molique, the gym's director of instruction, described a conversation he had just the night before with a recent climbing convert.

"The guy said, 'This is the ticket. I'm canceling my gym membership and just coming here,'" Molique remembers. "It's much more enjoyable than just [lifting weights]. You can challenge yourself and move beyond the challenge, rather than just doing reps."

During my class, instructor Mark Caudle taught us all the safety fundamentals, how the gear works, how the belayer - the climber's human safety net - and the climber communicate with each other.

Then we practiced what we'd learned. One person climbed the 25-foot wall (the gym has walls up to 50 feet), while another belayed. Another was the backup belayer. We tested our new skills and each other with announced and unannounced falls off the wall. Catching the climber couldn't have been easier for the belayer. When you trust the belay system, your fear of heights evaporates. You may be 25, 30 or 50 feet in the air, but you know your partner is down there to catch you, so you climb with confidence.

Peak Experiences offers numerous classes, from Climbing 101 (focusing on technique) through Climbing 301 (designed to help you transition to climbing outdoors) and others. They have a bouldering cave as well as thousands of square feet of wall space. They sell gear and rent gear to climbers inside the gym. In other words, if you ever wanted to try rock climbing but couldn't get up the gumption, you no longer have an excuse.

Said Molique: "I just read a quote from Hunter S. Thompson that people who know where the edge is are the ones that have gone beyond it. Climbing gives you that opportunity. You get to set a challenge for yourself, then move beyond. I think people are motivated by that."

COMMON KINDS OF CLIMBING

Top-rope: In top-roping, a rope runs from a belayer at the foot of a route to an anchor system at the top of the route and back down to the climber's harness. This is what you have at the Manchester Wall and Peak Experiences.

Sport: Sport climbing (also called lead climbing) is ground-up climbing that relies on permanent anchors (such as bolts) fixed to the rock for protection. As the climber ascends, he or she attaches to the bolt and continues climbing. In sport climbing, a belayer below is roped to the climber on the rock face.

Traditional: "Trad" climbing is similar to sport climbing but uses mostly removable protection, such as cams or nuts, and tends to minimize the usage of preplaced protection such as bolts. Trad climbing emphasizes the skills necessary to establish routes in an exploratory fashion.

Bouldering: Bouldering is typically practiced on large rocks. Climbers don't use a rope and the climbs normally are short so that a fall will not result in serious injury. Its focus is on individual moves or short sequences of moves, unlike traditional or sport climbing, which generally demand more endurance over longer stretches of rock. GETTING STARTED

One of the great things about climbing is that it doesn't take a huge capital investment or a ton of complicated gear to get going. If you want to boulder, says Molique, you really need only climbing shoes, chalk and a chalk bag. For the other climbing types, you'll need the above, plus a harness, rope, a few carabiners, runners and a belay device. And since climbing is done in pairs or groups, you'll often have someone to split costs with you.

Peak Experiences sells a beginners gear setup for the equivalent of a couple of tanks of gas. That compares quite favorably to someone just getting into fly fishing, kayaking, mountain biking and just about any other outdoor activity. WHERE TO GO

Richmond's topography doesn't strike fear into the hearts of experienced climbers. But even skilled veterans had to start somewhere. Beginners can take their skills outside to two places: the Manchester Wall and Belle Isle. These popular haunts are within walking distance of each other. The Wall is located in the shadow of the Manchester Bridge on the south side of the James River. Belle Isle's climbing routes are on a rock face on one side of the island's quarry pond. At either place, you can top-rope and sport climb.

Once you've conquered those two, says Molique, you'll have to get in the car to expand your climbing horizons.

West Virginia boasts dozens of climbing areas. The two that Richmonders most often frequent are the New River Gorge and Seneca Rocks.

According to Molique, New River Gorge (a sport climbing venue, with bolts already mounted in the rock) is the most visited because there are more than 1,500 routes to choose from. Seneca Rocks (top-rope climbing) doesn't have as many routes but also is popular. A little closer to home, there are a few places to climb in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Old Rag Mountain has climbing and bouldering but, says Molique, "It's not a beginner's area because the approach is pretty long. A lot of people like it for that reason - there's solitude." A LITTLE LIGHT READING

Peak Experiences recommends a couple of climbing books for beginners who want to dig a little deeper into their new hobby (obsession?).