Sophomore Jianli Windorski loves everything about rock-climbing. For him, it is an emotional outlet. “If I feel stressed out, I can just discard everything that happened at school or the rest of my life. I can just go climbing and clear my head,” he said.

Windorski first started climbing at age four at a summer rock-climbing camp, where he became hooked. After many summers of climbing camps, he joined the Vertical Endeavors Minneapolis rock-climbing team five years ago and began competing.

Since joining the team, rock climbing has become a significant time commitment for Windorski.

“I’m not spending nearly as much time with friends, playing video games anymore. I’m more so just training all the time. My weekends are very full because I’m going out of state to do competitions, or I’m just going out of state to climb with other friends,” he said.

Windorski has also made many of his closest friends through the sport and on his team. “It’s very fun, because we push each other to be better.”

Outside of his team, Windorski practices avidly. He uses the school’s weight room and even spends some of his free periods climbing the rock at the middle school. To improve his skills, he does hangboarding, which involves hanging from a small edge to build his grip strength and endurance.

Windorski competes frequently; this year, he placed first at regionals, qualifying him for divisionals in Illinois in mid-April. He also placed in the top seven, qualifying him for nationals at the end of June, where he hopes to reach the finals.

Despite his frequent success in competitions, he admits that his day-of mental preparation is messy, as well as his nutrition.
“I drink half a gallon of strawberry milk and a bunch of potato chips,” he said. “And because I’m a teenager still, my metabolism is able to keep up with that amount of sugar and that amount of carbs,” he said.

In comparison, Windorski admires those who have mastered what is an area of growth for him.

I look up to a lot of the pros in my sport, but I also look up to just other people on my team, because their work ethic is a lot better than mine,” Windorski said. “I’m very impressed, or in awe, of people who are able to keep their cool under pressure, because that’s something I struggle personally with.”

Rock climbing made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021). Windorski is excited about the growing attention the sport is receiving.

“I like more people getting into the sport, because that means I get more friends to climb with, even if they’re not as good as me

His advice for beginner rock climbers is to keep trying and go climbing a lot if you want to get better. “The harder you’re able to climb, the more climbs you unlock,” he said.

Although one’s skin is likely to hurt at first, Windorski promises it gets more fun.