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| Article Part 1 Kid Rock
Scott Cory is working his way up a route at a climbing gym east of San Francisco, the first of three quick warmup climbs during an afternoon workout, when his father, Jim, notices that his son hasn't bothered to tie his shoes. "I'd tell him, but it wouldn't matter," Jim says while belaying his son. "He doesn't tie them until it gets hard." Activity at the Touchstone Gym had stopped when the 13-year-old Scott walked in. When he starts climbing a wall that no one else even approaches that day, other climbers, ranging from age 15 to 40, put down ropes and harnesses to gawk as he attacks route after route, taking just minutes to complete climbs they only dream of ascending. It's probably for the best that none detects the untied shoes. "I don't know," Scott says when asked what it would take for him to lace them up. He is munching on pretzels between climbs, oblivious to the climbers (including several teenage girls) watching him and to the Bob Marley music playing in the background. He ponders the question and shrugs. "It would have to be something ... harder." Determining what will challenge the eighth-grader at Bristol Middle School in Brentwood, Calif., is becoming more and more difficult. Like LeBron James and Michelle Wie, the teenager has put a youthful charge into his sport. Scott is already the darling of sponsors such as The North Face, MET-Rx and Bollé, and if he completes the climb that's next on his schedule, his evolution from cute curiosity to bankable star will be complete. Later this month or by mid May, when the snow has sufficiently melted in Yosemite, Scott and Hans Florine, a world champion speed climber, will attempt to scale both the Nose of El Capitan and Half Dome's regular northeast route within a 24-hour period. "Only 14 people have done the linkup," says Florine, 39, who has done the double before and owns the speed records for both routes. The Nose is traditionally a four-day climb, and Half Dome usually takes three days. Scott has completed both -- each in a day -- but the double will cement his status as climbing's Bobby Fischer, the young grandmaster of Yosemite's granite. "It just seemed like the next step," Scott says while sitting on the couch at his home. Later he admits that when he first spent a night on the Nose three years ago, he was scared and had to pretend he was in his own bed to fall asleep. But since then his climbing has developed to the extent that the elite climbers whose posters hang in his room (Tommy Caldwell, Beth Rodden, Liv Sansoz) have become peers rather than idols. Scott first tried rock climbing seven years ago during a family trip to Squaw Valley, Calif. "We went up there to go ice skating, and where you buy the tickets there was a climbing wall, and I tried it," Scott says. "I loved it right away. It was like the first time you caught a ball. It brought joy to me." His father began driving him to Mission Cliffs climbing gym in San Francisco, about 50 miles west of their home. Jim, an electrician who was already commuting to the city for work, would drive back to pick up Scott and then cross the Bay Bridge again. Some nights, they wouldn't get home until after 11 p.m. "I would overhear parents say, 'How can they keep that young kid here so late?'" Scott's mother, Jennifer, says. "They didn't realize, we had to drag him out of there." Though climbers at Mission Cliffs marveled at Scott's ability, his parents didn't realize his potential until his first major outdoor climb, at Red Rocks near Las Vegas. The difficulty of climbing routes is rated from one to 15, with rankings 10 through 14 having a, b, c and d distinctions (15a is tops). "We went to Red Rocks just before he turned eight, and he on-sited an 11d on lead," Jim says. "Then he did a 12a on his second try down there." Sponsors started hearing about the four-foot phenom (he's now up to 5'5"), and soon he was traveling the country and the world for photo shoots, being homeschooled during trips like the one in 2001 to Thailand. After Yosemite, Scott will travel to Peru for a month, hoping to be on the first American team to climb the hardest free route on the 17,470-foot La Esfinge. In September he plans to compete in his first junior world championship, in Scotland. (Fourteen is the minimum age.) Afterward he is likely headed to France (on his sponsors' dime) for a photo shoot. He is aware that he has the climber's dream life, but he gets bashful when the subject is his dreaminess in the eyes of eighth-grade girls. Recent articles in magazines such as Weekly Reader resulted in a slew of e-mails from girls who got his web address (www.kidclimber.com). "He had a girlfriend about a year ago," Jennifer says. "He said he didn't like that he was thinking about her all the time and not thinking about climbing. He said, 'Mom, I am not going to have another girlfriend until I am 18.' I said, 'Yeah, right.'" Having spent so much time on walls with older climbers, Scott is comfortable talking with adults. So when a weighty subject like why teenagers are finding success in sports at such young ages comes up, he jumps in. "I was watching the news, and I heard about how there are more hormones in the cows now, and that is putting it more in the beef and the milk, and it is making the kids mature faster," Scott says. "But I don't know." He also isn't sure that the Yosemite double -- 4,900 feet of climbing -- is going to prove that difficult. "I've climbed the routes before, so I guess the endurance part, that might be tough," he says. Florine notes that after climbing the Nose, the pair will face a "brutal" hike during which they'll gain 2,000 feet of altitude before beginning to climb Half Dome. "For Scott to achieve something like this at his age would be quite an accomplishment," Florine says. "But he is hugely ahead of the curve." That's obvious to the climbers gathered at Touchstone in early April. One adult climber, Dave Chen, who has known Scott since the youngster first came to Mission Cliffs, walks over to Jim and says, "He used to be this kid who'd ask if he could second my routes. Now I go around telling people I know him." Almost on cue, Scott, from atop the wall, yells to his friend, "Hey, you want to second my route?" Chen shakes his head. "I can't keep up with him anymore." For more news, notes and features from the world of adventure sports, call toll free to order SI Adventure at 1-888-394-5427. Issue date: April 19, 2004 |
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