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Our Back Story
How a pile of paper scraps became a full-blown crag problem
Climbers Against Gravity didn’t start in some corporate boardroom.
It was started by Jeff Robson, a climber with a passion for fun, in a climbing gym… fuelled by pizza, chaos, sweat and chalk.
Jeff regularly runs Climbing Gym Crashes for the Climbers Association of WA (CAWA) ... nights where we take over a gym, climb like maniacs, eat way too much pizza, then attempt physical challenges we immediately regret, and give away prizes to the winners.
At one of these events, Jeff brought along a very scientific, highly polished prototype of a climbing party game: prompts written on slips of paper, without any logos, pictures or branding.
Just floppy bits of paper that gradually disintegrated throughout the night, passed around between climbers with chalk-covered fingers.
And it absolutely sent!
People were almost crying with laughter. Friendships were tested. Reputations were damaged (accurately).
A couple of weeks later, Jeff stuffed the paper scraps into his bag and took them on a climbing trip to Kalbarri, Western Australia.
He and his climbing buddies played it on the first night.
Everyone loved it so much… they played it again the second night too!
Same 'cards'. Same people. But nothing ever comes up the same way twice (even with just a small subset of today's packs).
And that was the moment.
Somewhere between “OMG ... that's so wrong” and “just one more round” he realised:
This is a thing!
From Paper Scraps to Giant Deck
For a while, Jeff did everything himself — organising the cards, refining the jokes, testing them at gyms and crags, and pretending not to care how much this was costing him ("It'll all be worth it someday")!
Then he was joined by my friend Lara Morlacchi — who introduced some great suppliers, helped navigate the world of real printing (turns out slips of paper aren’t scalable!), and supported the initial orders so this thing could go from “chaotic crag experiment” to “actual product you can buy.”
And now here we are.
Why We Made This
Because climbers are weird.
Because climbers are fun.
Because climbers take breaks (occasionally) and need something to do.
Because climbers can't stop talking about climbing.
Climbers Against Gravity exists to:
Bring climbers together off the wall
Celebrate the ridiculous side of the sport
Laugh at ourselves & our friends
It’s not polite or serious.
It's not normal or politically correct.
But it is relatable & fun.
And that’s exactly the point.