Hardwear Sessions

First, just a cheesy question to help our readers to get know you. Where are you from? What's your hometown?

I currently live in Boone [North Carolina]. It's a big bouldering area in the Southeast. I'm originally from Greensboro, I grew up there and moved here for the climbing and for school. When I'm here, I pretty much climb in town or at Grandmother Mountain.

I don't take that many trips for bouldering. Now I do one trip to Hueco every year, or every other year. When I was younger, I used to go to Hueco several times a year. I take trips to do bigger things, routes, mostly, either sport or trad. I definitely like to mix it up. I wouldn't say that I'm a boulderer. When I first got into climbing, bouldering was the thing. My first trip out west, we went to Bishop and Hueco, all the best areas, so I became very spoiled. I think of myself as more of a route climber. I like to do multi-pitch routes, outside. Bouldering is more like my time to hang out with my friends, get stronger, get ready for those other things.

These days, I've been climbing a lot at the New River Gorge, climbing trad routes there. There are so many routes, I have a long way to go before I exhaust them.

How did you start competing?

My first competition was in my gym. It was not long after I started climbing. I should add that I started climbing when I was nine. I was definitely one of those kids that ran around bothering everyone, asking them to belay me or just getting in the way. I became interested in competitions very early, and my parents told me that I could start if I waited two years.

I waited two years, and then I started to compete. I did well on the national circuit, in the junior division, and then I started getting burned out. I also aged out of the junior competition circuit. Then I quit competing, for a while. I just really wanted to get outside.

This year I got talked into doing the Triple Crown! Chad and Kurt convinced me. But I'm definitely going to do some more.

It's really easy to get burned out on the competitions. When I was active on the circuit, I would talk to my friends about their weekends, and they would always say things about where they went, where they climbed, what they saw. And then there you are. You went to a gym five hours from any climbing!

My training schedule was very regimented. I would go to the gym right after school. I was eating five times a day, doing all my exercises, taking lessons at the gym, practicing, and then coming back home to do homework. Between school and the training, it gets old very fast. So I just burned out on it all, and I took a break for a while.

Competing does make climbing feel more like a job, and that makes it less fun. For me, climbing is all about having fun, having a good time, and the competitions take away from that. I do them, because I need to do them. I'm just a poor college girl. I need to pay the rent!

How did you train for Triple Crown?

I started training in August, mostly to keep my fitness level up and also keep injuries away. I do a lot of push-ups, core and ab work. My shoulder has been acting up, so I also need to do rubber band exercises to keep it healthy.

I have another competition, Horse Pens, coming up in two weeks, so this weekend I will go out and climb myself into the dirt. Then, I'll take a rest day, climb two more days, and rest before the competition. I'll watch my food, make sure I'm not eating candy, junk food, the kinds of things that weigh me down before a competition. I'll also drink a lot of water, and keep myself hydrated.

I have to make myself eat during my climbs. I'll be climbing and climbing, and all of a sudden, I'll realize that it's 4 o'clock and I haven't eaten anything all day. Then I'll think, "No wonder I'm climbing so badly!"

I'm also a real high energy person, so I have to force myself to rest.

I get jittery. I get performance anxiety, so I try to chill out and block everything out. Right before the competition, I try not to let the other girls get to me. I tell myself that today, I'm going to be the best possible climber that I can be, and I block out the other climbers, just focus on visualizing getting to the top, seeing myself complete the problem.

So you have Horse Pens coming up - what will you do in the meantime?

This weekend, I'm heading out to Horse Pens, just to try out a few circuits, practice, make sure that I'm strong and climbing well. Horse Pens is a really hard area. It has the coolest set-up ever, though. The boulder field is close to the camp ground, and they have concessions right there, so you don't even need to bring your own food. You can just get up, climb, walk over and get a sandwich for breakfast, get back to the rocks...walk back and get a hot dog for lunch. You just keep climbing and climbing. In the evening, you can hit the boulders with your headlamps, and do a little bit of night climbing, then chill out with a beer. It doesn't get much better than that.

Do you have any training tips for our readers?

"Warm up properly!" That's the number one all time best training tip that I've ever received.

Also, remember to work opposing muscle groups. In climbing, we do a lot of pulling, right? So you should be doing a lot of push-ups, and also a lot of ab work to build up your core.

Warming up and stretching are both key. Warming up properly, and stretching, protect your fingers and tendons. Warming up and stretching will lengthen your climbing career. You look at some climbers, who can climb hard right away, and then their fingers are blown out, or they tweak a tendon. You see some careers get cut short that way. You can do long-term damage to yourself, especially your fingers, without knowing it.

Remember always to do your finger stretches, and your arm and shoulder stretches.

What is it like, being a woman in a masculine sport?

Oh, that's a good question! Yeah, it's been hard. Having been a climber for a long time, I've mostly been around boys. When I go out to climb with a girlfriend, I'm always super excited. Here in the Southeast, I don't see that many super-motivated women climbers who want to climb hard and push themselves. For a lot of girls, it's about hanging out with their boyfriends, or doing something social on the weekend with friends, and that's fine. But for me, I'm out there to get things done.

Climbing with the guys all the time, you can get a little bit of a testosterone overload.

The guys definitely push you. It can be great, because it helps to push my performance. When I hear the guys yelling, you know, or when I hear Pat [Goodman] telling me that I can do something, it really pushes me. Or sometimes I just want to show them that it can be done, that a girl can climb hard.

Tell us one unexpected fact about yourself?

I can't really say drinking, can I?

We hear you like tequila. Any tips on choosing the right tequila?

Yeah, I have a weakness for that. I'll pretty much drink anything that gets the job done!

Lately, I've gotten into riding the skateboard. But I'll only ride it down the road in front of my house. I'm afraid to take it anywhere else, because I'm afraid I'll hurt something and then not be able to climb for a while. So I just ride it down the hill, pick it up, walk back, and do it again. I only do it when I feel really bored.

Foosball is a big thing around our house. We have foosball tournaments every weekend.

I'm pretty much just a dirt-bag climbing bum!