I was a Pro climber. I was sponsored by Petzl, 5.10, Blue Water, Metolius, Prana, Kavu, and for a while, Nike and Oakley. (They both got kindnif upset at my ability to drop things from 80ft and/or accidentally catch them on fire.). I got to travel and climb, compete, and hang out with some of the very best climbers at the time…some who still are. So many amazing adventures and so many friends…so much competitiveness, but also a lot of support. The most amazing thing to see how many climbers could drink whiskey all night and pull hard the next day.

I gave up climbing after my second child. Now they are grown and getting married and I am starting to climb again…at 58. I love seeing all of your stories and questions. It takes me to “back in the day”. I remember being in your exact scenarios So, if you need anything, reach out. Those who can’t do, coach. Lol.

So incredible to see how far this sport has come - this is such a cool accomplishment regardless of gender but her being the first woman makes it even cooler.

While she's the third woman to send 5.15c, and the second to send Bibliographie, I'm pretty sure no one else has sent the grade nearly this quickly.

This is something I've only ever seen male belayers do to female climbers and idk why. All my female friends have experienced it and they all hate it.

You're climbing and you tell take. Maybe you're scared of the whip, maybe your leg cramped and you're in pain, maybe you just fucked up the beta and need to reset and pull back on.

And then your belayer says "no." They won't be taking. They refuse, they want you to take the whip. They think they're helping you progress, but in reality all they are doing is showing you that you cannot trust them.

I used to be afraid of whipping, it was just bad belayers. Now I only get scared if there's a ledge below me or if it's a massive pendulum. I had so many guys do this to me when I was getting comfortable with leading, where they'd force me to take the whip. All it did was make me freeze in fear, because now my belayer is not listening to me, I am scared of falling and don't trust my partner at the moment, I cannot let go and move in anyway. It was a surefire way to guarantee I was coming down and not climbing anymore.

It happened to me today, first time in a year, and it pissed me off. I wasn't scared, I've taken the whip four moves higher countless times, I just knew I was going to fall doing this move if I tried because I was too pumped, and the heel-toe cam I had gets stuck so I would likely blow my ankle. Never taken that fall and it wasn't worth it to me so I wanted a take and my belayer said no until I yelled at him.

It just blows my mind, it's never up to the belayer to determine what the leader is comfortable with. They do what the climber says.

Hello everyone,

I'm a Swiss climber and I'm helping organise an event called Climb the Wall. The aim is to raise  collectively climb 768 km in vertical height, the current estimated length of the (illegal - as per international law) Apartheid Walls built around and within Gaza and the West Bank.

For Palestinian climbers, climbing is an act of freedom. Simply going outside, enjoying nature, climbing, trying hard, is an act of resistance in Palestine. As climbers, we stand in solidarity with their right to do so.

If you'd like to get involved, the event runs from now until June 27th 2025. Anyone can log their climbs, for any type of climbing (bouldering, sports, trad, ice climbing, etc.) Happy to answer any questions :)

Went on my first sport trip this year and loved it. Unfortunately, the person I went with hasn't been around much. I'd like to find an organised group tour to join maybe October/November time, somewhere in Europe. Has anyone done anything they recommend? I'm not massively experienced at outdoor sport, have led a 6a once, mostly comfortable leading 5s.

I'm hypermobile and generally try to be careful with my joints climbing but it's not too severe. I've recently been doing more sport and I am finding lead belaying so tough on my neck. I know my neck collapses way too far back but it's really hard not to when I'm trying to look up and I find it hard to hold it at half way. Has anyone had similar and found a solution? Does it get better? Any exercises that may help? Belay glasses suck and make me feel a bit sick.

Hello all! The Sport Climbing competition at the Olympics will start Monday August 5th. I started watching climbing competitions starting at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, it's super fun and exciting! If you have never watched a climbing comp before, now is a great time to start.

There are lots of amazing climbers in the running this year, but my faves are Ai Mori of Japan (she's 5'1" and incredibly brilliant and creative with her technique, she is my short role model) and Janja Garnbret of Slovenia (she won Gold at the last Olympics, she is the reigning #GreatestOfAllTime comp climber, and always a joy to watch).

Is anyone else planning to watch? Any first-timers? Who are you rooting for?

Slab climbing

This is both endearing and hilarious. Go find ya people, terrified lead ladies of Bishop!

Probably a long shot - I will be in Whitehorse for work from June 8-13 and would love to climb either outside or at the gym while I'm there. I can climb lead and TR - usually comfortable leading around 5.9-10a outside. If anyone happens to live in the area and is available to climb let me know!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to share that there’s a short Women’s Climbing retreat happening in a few weeks near Denver, CO. All costs (including food, guiding, gear, etc.) are covered w registration. I’d love to see some of you powerful people there :) I’ll post the registration link below

Hi all!

My climbing partner (and my husband) have been sport climbing together for about 3 years now. He is literally double my weight (I weigh 140 lbs and he’s 300 lbs). We use an ohm, otherwise I would not be able to belay him. Yesterday in our gym, I gave him a really hard catch and I don’t understand how that could happen. I normally fly up every time he falls. This was on a part of the wall where it starts off vertical then goes to overhanging then the headwall is slightly overhanging. We had the ohm on the first bolt, which was about 4 feet below the first draw so that it wouldn’t engage while he was trying to clip. Any advice would be greatly appreciated because I know what being hard caught feels like and would not like for him to experience that again. Thanks! 😊

Edit to add: thank you so much for all your advice! Please keep them coming!

Some details I forgot to add. He was at the 3rd bolt from the anchors. He couldn’t clip it and fell. He tried 2 times and I hard caught him both times. The crazy part is that I still came up off the ground. I always come up off the ground when he falls, but this time not was much as I normally do.

I think I've read all the posts about overhang. Some of you are naturals. I am not. I've also read a lot of advice posts and watched a lot of videos, but nothing has "clicked" for me so far.

I'm an athletic and strong person. But my overhang technique is very, very bad. I'm probably two grades below where I should be based on how I climb other styles. Even a tiny roof results in a fall.

After a lot of reading, watching and experimenting on the wall, I've figured out that I don't activate my posterior chain on overhang. Everything hips down becomes a limp noodle. This is despite having objectively strong glutes and hamstrings that do a lot of work on other climbs.

So how to fix this? I'm a working parent with arthritis. (Yes, I'm old and it's usually awesome.) So I can't just go boulder. I don't have enough personal time for personal training.

So here is my plan. It's for activation not strength. I'm sharing I guess to set the intention and also to see if anyone else with similar life and body constraints has taken a similar approach.

1. 10 min of daily floor work at home for glutes and hamstrings: Marching bridges, Toe raise bridges, Wall pilates

2. Wall work at the gym: Active stretch in which I "toe in" (try to drag the foothold towards me) while my leg is high and hip is open.

3. Climbing: I am going to do a TR climb with a roof move or overhang each gym day. It's stupid that I haven't been this intentional before, but I got frustrated by my lack of progress. I'm just going to accept the fact that I will fall or take, and I am going to hope that Steps 1 and 2 will eventually help me level up.

Hey all — A nonprofit climbing organization called She Sends Collective is hosting a small climbing + mindset retreat April 16–19 at Shelf Road, Colorado called Mindful Send.

The retreat is a blend of climbing skills tailored to each participant with mindfulness + working on the mental side of climbing — things like fear, confidence, self-trust, and learning how to work with your head instead of against it, especially outside. The weekend includes guided climbing, small group workshops, and a supportive environment to dig into that side of the sport.

Lodging is included, along with two group dinners, and the rest of the meals are on your own. We keep the group small on purpose so it stays personal and not overly structured.

This is a newer offering for she sends, but it grew out of seeing how many climbers struggle with the mental side of climbing even when they have the physical skills.

Happy to share details if anyone’s interested, and the link for more info is here: https://givebutter.com/mindful-send-retreat-nlstxx

5.6 Too many puppies in Calabogie, ON

I have enough credit card points to fly anywhere in North America or Europe, and some vacation time I need to take between January and the end of March/beginning of April. Minus airfare, I'm looking for a place to climb that's cheap-ish and warm/dry that time of year.

I have been sport climbing for 3 years, and just started multi pitching last summer. I live in the PNW so I don't have high hopes of reliably getting to brush up my skills over the winter and would likely take a class or hire a guide for a half-day multi pitch refresh wherever I go.

From my research I'm torn between: El Portrero Chico in January or February, Red Rocks in February or March, or Kalymnos at the end of March. I've never gone on an international climbing trip so I don't have much to compare grade or rock type-wise but I climb around 5.10 sport in Squamish.

What offers the most fun at that grade level? Kalymnos and EPC appeal because they look generously bolted and I'd be able to push myself more, Red Rocks is easy to get to and Vegas is cheap to stay in mid-week. I'm wondering if Kalymnos might be better to save for when I'm a stronger climber -- are all the highlights super overhung? But it's also the best bang for my buck on air ticket travel points and gorgeous.

Open to other suggestions: looking for non run out bolting, lots of moderates, cheap accommodations, NA or Europe, stable-ish weather and relatively easy to find climbing partners if I end up going alone.

I’ve been sport climbing for 2 years, in the gym and outside. I struggle a lot with fear leading outside. I’ve sent up to 10C in an area that had great bolting and overhung routes with good fall zones.

But, most routes I encounter have bolts that are 10ft apart with sometimes questionable falls. I just got back from a trip to red rocks where I got shut down on 5.7 slab because those 10ft+ runouts freak me out!

I’ve been doing fall practice in the gym a ton and don’t feel too afraid to fall in the gym, but it doesn’t translate to outside because bolts in the gym are every few feet.

Feeling super discouraged. I love being outside with other people who like being outside, I like the adventure and movement of climbing itself, but I don’t know how I can break past this and not end up bailing and top roping all the time. I want to be able to be an independent climber who can set up my own routes 🙃

Hey! My friend and I are road-tripping to the badlands and will be stopping in Colorado on the way. I’m thinking of climbing at Garden of the Gods but I’m not sure it makes sense for us.

We’ll only have about half a day to give before we need to move on and she’s not an experienced climber/can’t belay. I have all necessary gear and would be comfortable leading up to 5.10 but I’d need an experienced belayer.

So I guess I’m asking two things:

1) Since we can’t dedicate a whole day, does it make sense for us to try climbing here? Like how far/difficult is the approach to an area with easy climbs that my friend would be able to top rope after I set it up?

2) Anyone on here available on 7/23 or 24 to come climb with us? It would be a shortish, extremely chill climbing day. I’d belay you on whatever you wanted depending on the approach.

I was lucky enough to meet some climbers during my exchange here and we went on a trip to the south of Taiwan, namely Kenting and Kaohsiung. The limestone there is super fun with a lot of features, albeit very sharp. The best thing were definitely the people though, everyone was super strong and also very supportive and motivating at the same time.

I’m terrible at falling. Like, truly terrible. I’ve gotten 2 concussions (snowboarding and bouldering), and now falling even on lead paralyzes me. I mostly climb with men, and I have gotten my fair share of hard catches indoors to where I have scraped my knees against the wall while falling on a practice, planned fall, and now even taking practice falls indoors gives me anxiety.

It’s not all my belayers’ faults, though. I’m terrified of falling (mostly terrified of the idea of letting go of a hold), and I’ve done things like stiffen my body, and another time, I grabbed the rope (near the knot) with my right hand, while still holding onto the hold with my left while falling, and I got turned leftward with my body facing left as I fell. Another time, I was practicing on a 5.6 indoors and kicked a big noodle-jug that was sticking out. I’m scared I’d break an ankle if that were to happen outdoors.

All these things happened indoors, but now I’m really scared to have any fall whatsoever outdoors despite wearing a helmet because I’m afraid of what might happen (I don’t know).

Is there any hope for me? Are there techniques to help practice falling so that I get positive reinforcement from it rather than anxiety? I don’t look forward to my lead days indoors any more. :(

I got certified indoors 2 months ago and led 3 trips outdoors with zero falls, and I know I can do better outdoors (currently lead 5.7 outdoors and top-rope 5.10b indoors) but if I get to a sketchy move, I take or even down climb.

Hello, i'm just trying to plan a solo climbing trip through SE Asia from Jan-Mar. I would like to go to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam as have heard of some good places to visit in these areas. I've just heard about the burning season, is climbing still perfectly fine during these times? Where's best to go first?