Tips for a New To Climbing Girl
Hi Steph,
I have actually just “discovered” you!…How great to be such an accomplished climber (among other things)…I am 20 yrs old, and fairly new to climbing…and finding it a little hard to really “find my place”. I have never been climbing with another girl before! So its been hard for me to learn…knowing that my body, and my strengths are so much different than the guys’ and watching them…I love meeting new people while out climbing…but it seems as though most of the girls i meet out are either at the extreme granola side of things (no shaving, or bathing for that matter…haha) or the prissy girls from the city with ALL of the most expensive gear, who dont really know what they are doing….haha…I do my best to not be judgemental, but it seems as though there isn’t a lot of in-between types here. (I live in Central WA, so there is a ton of great climbing around!)…And while i know that climbing has got nothing to do with the numbers, there’s always a few number chasers around that make me feel pretty lame for that 5.8 i’m struggling to get up. But regardless…Do you have any tips for a new to climbing girl to overcome the gender differences in the beginning? It would be amazing to have a chance to climb together some day, just to gain insight!
Hope to hear from you soon,
Anastazia
Dear Anastazia,
Thanks for writing to me! I hope you are having a good time with climbing. And yes, please (please!) try to ignore numbers, number chasing and number chasers COMPLETELY. If there’s one thing that destroys climbing, it’s this unfortunate creep towards competitiveness that climbing just can’t resist spilling into. Remember that climbing ratings did not originate as some kind of tally of achievement or system of ranking personal merit. People started rating climbs purely in order to give information about routes, mostly to help future parties keep from getting in over their heads. Remember too that any lizard or spider can climb circles around any human, literally, so it’s a little ridiculous to get all puffed up about any sort of climbing “achievement.” Most squirrels can climb much better than humans too, and none of them seem to get all hung up about which rock they happened to dart straight up and down on.
So with that being said, stay true to yourself when you climb, and don’t let yourself get sidetracked or emotionally affected by what others are doing around you! The place you find yourself in right now is a unique opportunity to get to know yourself even better.
The other advice I have for you is to take your time when you are climbing. Try to climb sections of routes until you get to a place you can negotiate a rest stance, and then hang out in that rest stance for as long as you need to recover first physically, and then mentally. Once your muscles have relaxed, and your brain has slowed down, look up at the route and try to formulate a plan for the next section above you. If you climb in this style, your mind will be more clear and you will have a much better chance of regathering strength for a difficult section that you are suddenly confronted with. Just break it down into manageable pieces, as you climb. If you have to suddenly bust a move, by all means do, and then just try to maintain and keep it together until the next rest where you can regroup and recover. Climbing in this way can take a lot of the urgency and stress out of a challenging route, and is something you will keep doing for the rest of your climbing life, once you have learned the habit. I learned this from a friend of mine, Lise Noel, one of the most amazing sport climbers I ever climbed with, and it has been perhaps the most valuable habit I’ve practiced.
Good luck!!
Steph
The less you worry about others around you, the better you climb. It took me a while to learn that all-important mind-set and how to keep focused in maintaining it. My tool is instrumental music, gets rid of stress and unnerving noise.
Hi Steph! Can I ask what other sports you do? Do you run, bike, swim? I’m curious because I would like to get an idea of what other women climbers do to train. With a job that takes up 50+ hours a week, I need to find an efficient approach. Please don’t tell me you just climb a lot or I may have to quit my job! Thanks so much for the inspiration and advice.
Sincerely,
Cody
Hi Cody, wow!! You are motivated!
I like to do lots of different things to train. I lift weights and do pullup workouts in the gym (usually in the winter months, I just started that again two weeks ago). I climb on my climbing wall, setting long, route-length problems for myself that I try to complete. I do fingerboard workouts, sometimes.
I trail run 1-3 times/week, usually for about an hour. In the winter, I replace that with skate skiing (which I am nuts about!). If I need to really TRAIN, I have been known to carry a pack full of water bottles up steep hills with my snowshoes on….but not so much right now 🙂 In the summer, I sometimes lap swim, usually for about a half hour. Swimming is an amazing workout.
If I am feeling less energetic, or traveling, I do some simple stretching, situps and a few yoga poses, and some sitting meditation, and consider that a good alternative.
In between all the training stuff, I am always hiking up hills in order to climb or base jump, and also climbing and base jumping.
Pretty much, I just do whatever I can depending on time, weather and available setups.
Awesome post! I always love hearing about new climbers and what they experience and how they deal. I was kind of relieved to hear that the same type of climbing crowds elsewhere (I live in Virginia) with regard to the ends of the spectrum and not much in between.
It’s also cool to hear that someone (especially someone new) recognizes the differences between male and female climbing. New male climbers look at a route and see handholds that they can do pullups on (and pump out) and women look at it more how it should be looked at; as a puzzle to be solved.
Being relatively new to climbing myself (less than six months) I can attest that you have the right attitude concerning not worrying about difficulty grades. Your safety is a matter between yourself, your gear and your belayer. Your performance is a matter between your own mind, body, and of course, the rock. Nothing else matters. The cool thing about climbing is that it doesn’t revolve around ticket and merchandise sales and wins and losses. It truly is about fun and discovery and nature.
Look at it this way, at least you’re getting into it at 20, instead of 34 like me. What I wouldn’t give to have discovered such a grand lifestyle 14 years ago. Keep climbing.
Love this for so many reasons. One a new climber girl…. welcome and hope you just have loads of fun and chilled time. another is that its so great to read such balanced approaches to climbing and life. Am a weekend climber and go with my friends at wall and every other month to the crag.
Its so lovely to climb with people who are supportive and only want you to do well. No matter what they are doing. You know on saturday we just did some really chilled bouldering and clapped each other when we got it.
Being in it for you is best and having great supportive friends who go for the right reasons.
Plus totally agree that having someone who is pushing the frontiers shows whats possible (thats you Steph), is so great.
One of the best parts of the day is sitting under a boulder out of the wind in Portland by the sea having lunch with great people.
Yay to us all….xx
Are you looking for people to go climbing with in Central WA? I live in Seattle and like to keep my gear clean and sorted out, so I may be one of the “city girls” you don’t want to hang with, and I don’t shave so maybe I’m too dirty for you. But I’m always in Central WA when the weather turns wet on this side, and always looking for new climbing partners. But if you’re not looking for women to climb with, that’s cool, I won’t be mad 🙂
About the gender differences — I don’t think they’re important. How you want to climb, what you should try to get better at, etc. is more affected by being new to the sport than any differences between men and women. Beyond that, there’s not really a male or female way to climb, it’s way more individual than that — Steph can do more pullups than your 5.10 climber male friends and Sharma has better footwork than your 5.10 climber female friends 🙂
Great post as usual Steph!
Anastazia, just wanted to say Welcome to climbing! Even though I started climbing a long time ago I can still get frustrated with ratings. As Steph says I just try to remember that they were originally there for information. I also agree with taking each section of a climb for what it’s worth and getting the most out of rest stances.
In terms of the kinds of climbers out there, I’ve found it helps to climb with folks of all levels. I can learn how to pull harder moves from those who climb better but I can also learn to slow down and focus on my own technique if I’m climbing something easier than I usually climb.
Good luck and have fun with your climbing journey!
Echoing Jake’s comment, I’d like to suggest to Anastazia that the gender differences in climbing is less to be overcome than to be celebrated! One of the first things I learned as I started climbing was to try as hard as I might to climb like a girl. Because of body mechanics and weight distribution women seem much more attuned to picking up good climbing technique earlier in their experience.
Beginner guys will tend toward “muscling up” the wall and tend to plateau when they find climbs that exceed what their strength alone can hack. They do well to watch the beginning women who more easily rely on lower weight distribution, the use of leg strength, and the use of body mechanics to gain leverage or increase reach. Check out a friend’s blog on the topic:
http://hirvimaki.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-climb-like-girl.html
-D
Thanks everyone for advice and reminders and good words. I don’t know too much about body mechanics, but I’ve watched many experienced climbers lead up a short section–10 or 20 feet–down climb, back up, and repeat until they’ve made the climb. Now if I could only figure out how to be truly motivated and remain truly patient at the same time I’d be happy:)
Thanks
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