How are the professional climbers reacting to all of the
new climbing population? To be honest, the majority of them bring the new
climbers into the sport.
Professional climbers such as Sasha Digiulian(19) and Ashima Shiraishi(11)
have brought the most attention to climbing due to their young age. They aspire many young women to want to
train and become stronger than the boys.
Girls have seen this accomplished at such a young age and want to beat
the boys. The professionals love
climbing so much that they want everyone to understand their passion, but
climbing is such a hard passion to explain. Some people live and breathe climbing, most people do not
understand why anyone would want to live off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
and live of out a van for the rest of their lives, just to climb everyday. Now all this attention they bring to climbing is causing more and more people to start. They are encouraging people to start climbing, but are they teaching them how to properly start? Do they know anything about climbing ethics? Probably not. We could fix this predicament if all the experienced climbers provided a good example and taught others what they learned already. The Access Fund has already begun to teach the "gumbies" by creating comical videos.
Over the past few years climbing has exponentially increased in interest amongst kids, teens, and adults. Due to this increase, some climbers were outraged that so many people were joining the sport and not being considerate of the outdoors. This blog was to created to give their voice some of the spotlight.
Sasha Digiulian
In the past year, Digiulian was the first and youngest
American woman to climb 9a(5.14d), beginning with Pure Imagination at the Red
River Gorge in Kentucky and about 6 months later with Era Vella in Spain. Once her video of Pure Imagination released, she gained more popularity. It showed that she not only can climb 5.14d(9a), but she is also attending Columbia University. She continues to inspire young men and women to dream big all over the world and encourage growth in climbing. She did an interview with Seventeen magazine discussing how to look good while working out and encourage women to go out and climb.
Interview:
Sasha DiGiullian: I started rock climbing when I was seven at my brother’s birthday party. We went to a local climbing gym and I just really liked it. Going higher and higher was so exhilarating! I think it also helped that I was better than my brother.
17: How did you keep rock climbing after that?
SD: I joined the local climbing center in Alexandria, Virginia where I live, and just started gradually going there at first once a week, then twice a week, and gradually more often. One day when I was nine, I walked into the climbing center and a competition was going on — a regional championship. I had no idea there even were climbing competitions! Even though I hadn’t done the previous competitions to qualify, the judges let me compete, and I won in my category! Then, I started investigating competitive rock climbing and started training more seriously.
17: Do you work in a team?
SD: There is no team. It’s an individual sport and that’s what I really like about it. Your success is driven by yourself and you’re not dependent on anyone else.
17: How do you train for competitions?
SD: I climb, run, and do ab workouts. I do basic strength-to-weight ratio workouts like pull-ups and push-ups. Climbing really works your upper body and core, so you want to have really strong abs and strength-to-weight ratio.
17: Do you climb both inside and outside?
SD: I do most of my climbing outside. My biggest accomplishment was doing an 80-feet-steep climb in the Red River Gorge. The route was graded a 9A, which is the hardest any female has achieved.
17: What do you eat to give yourself the energy you need?
SD: Some of my favorite breakfast foods are bananas, oatmeal, and eggs, and I bring energy bars to eat when I’m climbing. The night before a competition, I eat a big pasta dish to carb up so I have energy to climb. The most important thing to have after a workout is protein. My favorite form of protein is fish. I love salmon. The way your body reacts to what you eat makes it worth it to eat healthy. A lot of it is just listening to your body and knowing how to fuel your muscles and giving yourself the energy you need to perform your best.
17: You’ve got such long hair! What’s your go-to hairstyle when you work out?
SD: The French braid. It is so key! It actually holds better when your hair is a little dirty, so after working out you can put your hair in a French braid and you look totally put together.
17: What beauty products do you stash in your gym bag?
SD: Even though rock climbing is pretty rugged, I’m actually quite girly! I always like to have my nails painted, even when I’m climbing. My favorite color is hot pink.
17: Do you like guys that are as sporty as you are?
SD: I go for sporty guys. I like guys who are self driven and confident in themselves.
Digiulian, Sasha. Interview by Seventeen Magazine. http://www.seventeen.com/health/sasha-digiulian-rock-climbing. Web. 1 Nov 2012.
Sam Speed
Local climber that moved to the Red River
Gorge in Kentucky to accomplish what he could and completely throw himself into
the sport. So far he has climbed
with many professionals such as Adam Ondra, Daniel Woods, and Tommy
Caldwell. He is a inspiring local
climber that has truly followed his dreams, even though he has only been
climbing for about two years. I was lucky enough to get an interview with him...
Interview:
Interview:
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