Climbing as a Career
- June 2012
- Hi Steph Simple Living Climb
Hi Steph,
I’ve been reading the articles on your website for a little while and am continually amazed by your passion and the fact that you get paid to do what you love. You’re inspiring, as a fellow vegan, female climber, I love seeing other vegan athletes performing well. For the last 10 years, I’ve been floundering through office jobs because, well, that’s just what I thought you were supposed to do when you graduated from university. It never occurred to me that there were all kinds of jobs out there that I could be doing that would light a fire inside of me. I had always wanted to be a gymnast, but my knees ended my career early. I recently found climbing (about 1.5 years ago) and absolutely love it. I climb at a local gym about 3-6 times a week. I’ve been outdoors once (which was amazing!!!), but haven’t been back out since then because I don’t have crash pads yet and they can be expensive. I mostly boulder and have gotten good enough to make the gym’s team and will be competing this weekend.
So I’m wondering, how does someone go about getting a job related to climbing? What types of jobs are there? Can you make enough money to support yourself and your family? Does it require a lot of travel?
I would absolutely love spending my days climbing and getting paid for it. I do enjoy helping others learn how to climb, although I feel somewhat funny teaching people when I’m pretty new to the sport myself.
Any thoughts or advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a bunch!
Andrea
Hi Andrea,
Climbing has certainly changed a lot in the 22 years since I started. A few very famous European climbers made money, but generally speaking “sponsorship” implied getting a free chalkbag if you were lucky. Being a climbing guide was the only way to actually earn a living, and you had to prove yourself by being the best climber in the area to get a job doing that. Coming from the dirtbag generation, I’m still surprised to see how much climbing has changed, as a lifestyle, sport and industry. It has grown a lot. Now it is possible to make a living through climbing, in many different ways–and this means everything from being a designer to a writer to a photographer to a coach to a professional athlete. Generally speaking, the outdoor industry is not the place to get rich, though. What I’ve seen with most of my friends who make a living with climbing in some form is they just pursue their interests, and then find a way to match that up with climbing. And I think the people who are happiest and most successful have skills that they could apply in other fields, if they chose to.
Hope that helps!
Steph
