[stoney]

I found it very straightforward finding a partner to climb with when I started. Rock climbing gyms are very friendly places in my experience, and as others have said, most will have some kind of system for pairing up people who are looking for partners.

I'd suggest dragging a friend along to your local climbing place so you can try it out a couple of times and see if you like it. Then if your friend doesn't want to keep going, either speak to the staff at the gym, or if they can't pair you up with someone put an advert on craigslist/gumtree/similar (I got 3 responses to a gumtree ad when I started, which gave me an instant group of people to go with).

As long as you can commit to a regular time once or twice a week, you shouldn't have a problem finding someone to climb with. Once you start going regularly you'll meet other people at the gym, which gives you more pairing options if your normal partner is away or ill or whatever.

Try it. I'm glad I did. I've made some new friends from it and gained a lot of strength.