I think it's one of the perfect sports/activities for programmers, but like you said, nobody talks or knows much about it!
Some guy at work kept asking me to go, he had a free guest pass. One day I said why not, and went. I didn't know that there were routes on the wall, and game-like rules.
When you see pictures of rock walls, you assume the climbers are just grabbing onto any hold and going up the wall -- which is really not that interesting. What people don't know is you only have certain holds you are allowed to grab, and have to figure out how to get to the top with strategy and skill.
I hate biking, running. Pilates/yoga is okay. Bodybuilding was okay. But climbing, is awesome. You are basically playing a game, getting stronger, getting in shape, and getting more skilled at something. I almost don't want to tell people about it though, because I want to keep the gym membership somewhat small ;)
Keep with it but be careful--climbing is addictive. You might find yourself quitting your job and living out of a van in Colorado to climb every day...
That sounds terrible, why would anyone do such a thing?
Brb, quitting job, buying van.
I think it appeals to programmers for a lot of reasons...there's an element of problem solving, it's beneficial to be skinny and almost everyone only competes against themselves.
But there's another hidden benefit to programmers that you'll only discover as you get into it. When I started climbing, I was beginning to feel RSI-type pain in my wrists. My computer ergonomics is pretty terrible and I was starting to investigate ways to improve that in the hope that my pain would subside. 2 months into climbing, all that research into how to improve my posture stopped. My pain had completely subsided and I can now spend my 8+hrs/day using the worst possible posture with no ill effects.
For me, I've discovered that RSI injuries are not about doing one thing too much. Instead, they're about not doing other things as much. Climbing exercises and strengthens my wrists in so many different ways (slopers, mantles, crimpers, cracks, etc) that no amount or poor habits can compromise the benefit I get from ~6hrs/week of climbing.
This benefit isn't unique to programmers, but since we spend a large percentage of our time at the keyboard, it's definitely applicable to us.
The guy that invited me is quite a bit heavier than me. I'm about 15lbs heavier than I want to be, and he could probably lose 50-60lbs. He climbs way better than me.
Weight is an issue, and he and actually has a personal trainer who is focusing on his weight and diet, but just being a little overweight is no reason you can't climb. I've seen some a few "fat" people there doing wall climbing.
Climbing exerts a lot of energy and you will burn calories doing it, while building muscle. You can pick the easy routes and go up and down them over and over.
I was particularly impressed because as far as your average non climber is concerned there are things you can walk up and things that are impossible. It's hard to grasp what "very difficult" means if you have no frame of reference. You can grasp what "very dangerous" means though.
It's a pretty mainstream sport now.
But Honnold and others that push the boundaries of the sport are a special case that get a lot of attention even from other climbers. The NYTimes isn't that interested in plain ol' bouldering probably because anybody that's in reasonable physical condition who spends a few months training can pull a V3 somewhere. Hell, with modern equipment, 5.10a is approachable by novices in a lot of places.
Talk about amazing things people can do... do you know how many amazing athletes are in the street begging for change? Whether they be breakdancers or doing magical acrobatics. Practically homeless, amazing skills. People think the novelty of niche sports is interesting for about 45 seconds but don't give a shit about the details. I'm not even sure how anyone has ever been made to care about a sport. Seems impossible from where I stand. Maybe because beer and sitting on your ass daydreaming is the majority of being a spectator and people are happy to do that on the weekend without argument.
[1] Eat and Run by Scott Jurek and Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox. Two very amazing endurance athletes.
There are some standards for newsworthy topics. Regular rock climbing isn't newsworthy. You can't fault the New York Times for not covering every regular guy as he climbs a regular rock.
It's the reason that Americans tend to ask me "you don't do any of that free climbing, do you?" whenever I tell them I'm a climber. Yes, that's all I do. But you're probably thinking of "free soloing", which is much less common, and would take a lot of explaining to make you understand why it's really not as dangerous as it looks. But anyway, that's not what climbers do for the most part.
I guess for the New York Times, regular hard rock climbing and bouldering is just not that exciting. Yes, this guy is hanging by two fingertips, 30 meters off the ground and doing things with his body that most folk wouldn't consider possible. But he's not about to die so this isn't really all that interesting. Certainly not interesting enough to push a photo of a celebrity getting out of a car off of page C6.
In Europe, most regular people I meet tend to know some basic things about climbing and bouldering. In America, nobody seems to have ever heard of the sport. It's all either Mt. Everest or Crazy Free Solo Guy.