“One Saturday when I was in high school, a couple of friends and I had the urge to try it and went to a nearby gym that had a climbing wall. I was hooked immediately,” says Doshi, a biomedical engineering major who has since turned that sudden urge into a serious hobby.
One recent short-term goal was to qualify for the USA Climbing Collegiate Nationals at the Olympic Training Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. To do so, Doshi had to climb at a qualifying event in Syracuse, where his competitors included students from the University of Connecticut, Army, and other Northeast schools. He had to place within the top eight climbers in what are called bouldering and lead climbing. Doshi made the grade and immediately began to train for the national event in Salt Lake City, which takes place during the first week of May.
Although a relative newcomer to the sport, Doshi is as immersed in it as if he had been doing it for years. “I can’t imagine my life without climbing now,” states the native of Wethersfield, Connecticut.
With the help of another student, Diana Isaacs, Doshi began the UHart Climbing Club last semester. “We’re still trying to grow our membership. We go climbing indoors twice a week and have a few outdoor trips planned.”
Recent trips included Pinnacle Rock in Farmington and Plainville to rope climb, and a boulder called Frankenrock near New Haven. Pinnacle tops out at 600 feet; Frankenrock at 404. Doshi also constantly researches boulders to conquer throughout the Northeast. Other popular Connecticut destinations are Hubbard Park in Meriden and West Woods in Guilford. Two gyms in West Hartford and Glastonbury give Doshi and his climbing compatriots plenty of indoor action and practice.
Although his specific career goal has not yet come into focus, he is thinking about a possible concentration on helping to develop medical devices that athletes can use to push their own limits. It’s not hard to reach the assumption that Doshi himself may actually be one of those athletes.