Wes Schweitzer, the New York Jets offensive lineman, still experiences a brief but intense feeling of fear every time he rock climbs.
When he’s climbing, moving his hands and feet up the rock, he sometimes loses his grip and falls a few feet before landing safely.
“The rope can hold 20,000 pounds, so you’re totally safe, totally fine,” Schweitzer said after a recent practice. “But every time I fall on the rope, I scream. I’m like, ‘Ahhh!’ You feel like you’re going to die for a second, you know?
“And people look at you funny, but then you realize other people are screaming, too, because it’s just a natural thing. You’re living in the moment and you’re trying not to fall and then you fall, so it’s surprising. So, yes, I still get scared.”
Schweitzer loves the thrill and challenge of rock climbing. Despite being a 6-foot-4, 325-pound football player, rock climbing has become a big part of his life.
“I’m kind of in uncharted territory,” Schweitzer said. “I get messages every day about how much I’m inspiring people. And I’m not trying to do this to be like that for others. But it’s really cool that people are looking to me for that because climbing is, well, really hard.”
He climbs at indoor gyms and enjoys bouldering, which involves climbing on small rocks or artificial walls without ropes, using only ground pads for safety.
Schweitzer has also tackled well-known outdoor climbs like Castle Rock in California, Rocktown in Georgia, and the Shawangunk Mountains in New York.
He uses climbing as a way to stay fit during the football offseason and often shares his climbing experiences on social media.
“I love it,” said Jets offensive line coach Keith Carter. “I don’t have social media, but I hear about them all the time. Just picturing him climbing up a rock wall is impressive.”
Schweitzer has informed his team about his climbing passion— “No one’s told me to stop quite yet” — and emphasizes that he always prioritizes safety.
“I think the biggest part of it is they can see my performance on the field,” he said. “And they were like, ‘Oh, if it’s working for him, then keep doing what you’re doing, as long as you don’t get hurt, obviously.’ It’s not any more dangerous than anything else, as long as you’re doing it the right way.”
Schweitzer, who will be 31 next month, had a problem with his elbow early in his NFL career after being picked in the sixth round by Atlanta in 2016. Traditional rehab didn’t completely fix it, so Schweitzer tried climbing a rock wall after a trainer suggested it.
“And within five minutes, I was pain free,” Schweitzer remembered. “Something that bothered me for a year.”
So, he kept climbing.
“I gained like 15 pounds of muscle and my play started to get better,” he said. “Now I’ve been doing it for years and years and I’m going outside and I’m doing harder and harder stuff. I’m climbing 200-foot routes and it’s built my confidence up because every day you’re going to get challenged to the maximum.
“This sport of climbing challenges everything that football challenges and also has made me such a better player. I can’t recommend it enough to everybody.”
Schweitzer, who signed a two-year contract with the Jets in March 2023, is a flexible player on New York’s offensive line as a backup and spot starter who can play both guard positions and center. Climbing is a key part of how he gets ready for each season.
“The benefits are through the roof,” Schweitzer said. “The most basic thing is that you grab onto holds and they get harder and harder to hold on to. When I grab shoulder pads now, it’s like I’m holding onto handlebars compared to when I was grabbing on something that was much more difficult to hold on to.”
“It’s core strength, but I have to produce power through all my limbs. And then you’re on your toes, so it’s also calves, hips, glutes.”
Schweitzer has talked about climbing with his teammates and even taken some of them along. “But usually they’re exhausted in 10 minutes and they don’t come back,” he said with a laugh.
During the season, Schweitzer sticks to climbing indoor rock walls as a way to complement his regular football workouts.
His goal after football is to someday free climb—using your hands and feet to find handholds and footholds while using a rope tied to a harness—El Capitan, a 3,000-foot tall rock formation in Yosemite National Park in California.
“If you’ve been there and you see that thing, it’s a mile tall and you’re like, this is as cool as it gets,” Schweitzer said. “I’m always an ambitious dreamer, but we’ll see. I just want to push the sport.
I want to lose weight to 300 (pounds) and then I want to set benchmarks for, like, no other 300-pound person’s going to be able to do what I’ve done.
“I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to do what I’ve done already, but I want to make it so that it is firm, like, this is the limit. And then I want to cut as much weight as possible and see what I can do.”
Until then, Schweitzer will keep trying to help the playoff-hungry Jets reach new heights on the football field.
“With teammates, climbing’s a talking point,” he said. “I think now at this point in my career, it’s like a selling point. It makes me a little bit different. And I’m proud of it.”
