#boulder babe

When I received a message from my friend Mario asking me if I wanted to go on a climbing trip, being the princess of the crag wasn’t really my goal.

But sexism in climbing is an ongoing feud, with many magazines and articles reporting on majority of women having unsolicited beta sprayed on them, while only a few men. Then there’s the creepers who just can’t keep they’re peepers on their project to observe another climbers assets.

But what isn’t reported is the fair game. The guys who make you feel like family, and treat you like an athlete. When I went on this trip, I was not genuinely a climber. I climbed, but I had no one really pushing me, and I was basically using climbing as a social mean to meet people in my new home where I knew no one. So, being asked to go on a trip with the “hard” climbers at the gym, I didn’t even hesitate. I knew I was only going as an attractive woman for a camera, not to sound full of myself. I knew there weren’t many female climbers at the gym, and being one of the younger, single, females…when the pickings are slim, right?

I knew the boys would cater to me, offering to carry the heavier gear, over spotting me, a few questionable comments…but I expected it just the same as the boys at the gym rush over to tell me I sent something incorrectly because my movement differed from theirs, I never expected it to be such a learning experience. You see, there are genuine climber guys who view women all the same. Sure, they treated me like a lady, offering a hand for high steps, but they treated me just the same. Being a little more cautious for me because I was the baby climber, not because I was the only girl. As we hiked to our climb in Sitting Bull Falls, I was pleased to lead the single trail…and leave the boys behind. They made sure I could handle my own on trips, and made sure that I wouldn’t tolerate any sexist treatment from others. Making me carry my own gear, shake it off when I swung out and missed the crash pad, and suck it up and deal with the lack of privacy when it came to restrooms.

While we rant and rave about men treating women like eye candy, we really should take a moment to highlight and praise the men who are just trying to be helpful. Ladies, if a guy approaches you at the gym, don’t immediately assume he wants in your harness, hear him out first, he may just be looking for a decent climbing partner…and if not, then tell them to get bent.

Our feet are one of the tiniest pieces of our bodies, and yet they support all our body weight all day, even when we do horrible things like cramming them into tiny climbing shoes. If they are such tiny muscles with multiple nerve endings and sensitivity, why would our feet be such a focal point of climbing? Wouldn’t it make more sense to let them relax while the big muscles do the work? Get out of here with your logic and reasoning, this is rock climbing!

I personally am a tiny beta climber, being a woman my body is naturally stronger in my rear and legs, that’s just genetics. Men are built with a muscular structure prone to upper body strength, that’s hunting/gathering evolutions, where woman are more lower body oriented because we were created as child bearers. The wonderful thing about the sport of climbing is that both of these work to the climbers advantage! However, footwork is a necessity to all!

What are some different ways to develop good footwork? Let’s continue off of our last topic to start, down climbing. Because of the opposing movement of down climbing, you’re actually being forced to focus your feet more, exclusion being campus training. Because to maintain a static control as you lower down, one absolutely must have stable feet.

Ok, but down climbing can’t be the only way? It’s certainly not. Climbing without hands helps too! Wait a minute, no hands? Isn’t that kind of the point of climbing? Taking inspiration from Johnny Dawes, who sends entire projects without using his hands, a little balance mixed with strong muscle control in the lower extremities goes a long way.

A more common method amongst climbers is slack lining, a sort of high wire practice at varying heights and cords of different widths. You not only have to have precise foot placement, but it works your balance, which is controlled at the core.

Or, if you’re too tired to climb, hands are achey, or whatever, try dancing with old school tap steps. No, you don’t have to become an amazing Best Dance Crew member, but following a pattern on the floor will help you to think about your foot placement. First, third, toe, or heel, it doesn’t matter. The point is to get your brain to understand that your feet determine where you go.

How to determine which shoe is appropriate for you.

“Head over Heels,” is typically the position we want to be in on the wall, even in bouldering as fun as it may be to be upside down. The idea of inversion is fun, and it’s great, but Gravity is a force that no man is immune to. While you would think gravity would help in the instance of flipping the body over, it actually hinders because all of the weight is being pulled down, which when in reverse is STILL DOWN though the body is up. You just can’t defy the logic, or else we’d float away every time we did a handstand.

So, with that logic in mind, down climbing.

How often do you hear, “oh yeah, down climbing will make you strong!” After you just did all this work moving upward, against the pulling force of gravity, down climbing is the training regime that increases strength? Accurate.

But WHY?! You would think, if I let go and fall I am going down, climbing down should be easy, right? Incorrect. Because Gravity is a little bitch like that, pardon my language. Ok, so the scientific reasoning is eccentric vs concentric movement.

This is that push/pull effect. Once again, opposition work being a key factor of climbing!