‘It’s an example of ‘Type II’ fun’, she said. If you’ve never heard of it, Type II fun is something pretty special. Read on: Ella Williams, outdoor instructor, reveals her favourite climbing experience to us and explains why it means so much to her:
Are you new to the glorious world of climbing ? Bamboozled by the numbers and letters that are thrown around by people who sound like they know what they’re talking about? Fear not! Here’s our Handy Guide to Climbing Grades:
For my entire climbing life, I have climbed with an ACL injury. The Anterior Cruciate Ligament is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments in the knee, forming a cross shape with the Posterior Cruciate Ligament. It provides crucial stability to the knee, preventing the knee from twisting and rotating. You can find out more in this Youtube video about what the ACL is and what it does.
In August 2015 Beth Thomas went into hospital to have a repair of torn cartilage (also known as meniscus) in her left knee. This article series is about her journey, from hospital to getting back to climbing. Thank you to Beth for sharing. We would love to hear your comments about her journey – please tell us what you think about her story.
In August 2015 Beth Thomas had a repair of torn cartilage (meniscus) in her left knee. This is the final article in the series that charts her journey from hospital to getting back to climbing. We would love to hear your comments about her journey – please tell us what you think about her story. If you want to read the first parts you’ll find them here: Climbing Injuries // Meniscus Tear Repair: Part 1 & Part 2
In August 2015 Beth Thomas went into hospital to have a meniscus repair for torn cartilage in her left knee. In her last article she talked about the first part of her journey to recovery and the first weeks after her meniscectomy. Today she talks a bit about the realities of her recovery – the workarounds and the setbacks. Tell us what you think. If you’ve not read the previous article you can find it here: Climbing Injuries // Meniscus Tear Repair: Pt 1
By Penny Harvey:
‘An amazing climber who never failed to inspire those she met’
Rachel Slater touched the lives of many people. She squeezed more into her 24 short years than most people even dare to dream about. She wasn’t always fearless, but she was always brave, determined, kind and humble. She believed in many people more than they dared to themselves. Her passion and her character inspired many; those of us blessed enough to call her a friend will never forget her spirit. Here are some snapshots of her life from people who will continue to honour her memory.
Heather Swift, winner of the 2016 Women in Adventure Film Competition with her film Kosmos, gives us some tips for newbie film-makers. The competition will be re-launching very soon, so sign up to our newsletter today to find out about the competition first. So, you are...
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The outdoors can do amazing things for you, if you can find the thing that you really love. We love this film, featuring Traharn Chidley. It shows just how important men are in helping women up, giving support and encouragement when we need it most...
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By Natasha Hirst // I was a fearless child, and my favourite word was adventure. Often to be found up a tree, racing through fields and staying out on my bike all day, I always had an affinity for the outdoors. Sometimes though, life has a way of knocking the spirit of adventure out of you. 2015 has been my year to turn that around and release the active, carefree side of me once more.
By Rebecca Coles // When I began tentatively investigating the options for funding an expedition I was organising independently, I found that there were many more grants offering support than I expected. The expedition comprised a two person team going to eastern Tajikistan and the Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan. Although the destination was a bit wacky, we only planned non-technical (single ice axe) ascents of mountains. I applied for funding, and was blown away when our expedition was actually given some money.
Womenclimb today launch their inspirational Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. The Social Enterprise aims to raise £5,000 to fund startup costs, develop forums on their website and create a model for a sustainable business that women climbers love, making social change part of every day.
Climbing changes people’s lives and their inspirational film trailer gives you a flavour of what climbing has done for the women in the film. With quotes from recent climbing events, the film offers a glimpse into how life changing the sport can be.
If you, like us, want women’s gear and outdoor products to be better, then now’s the time to influence it directly. Adele Doran, Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, is researching just this and she needs you to complete this survey to get women’s ideas and thoughts to help influence outdoor provision for women:
Fill this in now and have your say!
Boulder problems, campus board and gym equipment at PT Hut Stockport
By Emily Pitts // I’ve only ever been to a gym twice in my life and I hated every moment. I felt like a fish in goldfish bowl and a fish out of water at the same time. I couldn’t get out fast enough. In fact the last time, I actually did a runner out of a class at a Virgin Active gym after 25 minutes, because I felt like my life was seeping away, it was so boring. I hate the gym. Hate hate hate it. I hate the idea of slogging away inside, when the weather is nice outdoors. I hate the idea of ‘working out’ with a bunch of muscle bound men who want to gawp at my sweating, heaving, struggling body, while showing off their massive pecs, as I struggle away picking up a 5kg weight.
Tiffany Stoneman posing and cooling down after a long old walk in! before her first multi pitch climb in Mallorca
By Tiffany Stoneman // Climbing is a complex sport. It requires stamina of body and mind, the ability to haul your weight up vertical cliffs, and the mental stability to take on huge challenges that can incur risk. It is a sport/activity/hobby that has been around for longer than you might think, and is slowly but surely coming into the mainstream as an awesome way to get fit and see the world. Not only this, but it can be hugely competitive, and these competitions are gaining an increasingly global audience, recently helped by an attempt to get sport climbing into the Olympics. Overall, climbing is a pretty badass thing to do, and the ones who do it tend to be pretty badass too!
By Jacquie Budd ‘It's important for me to have something else alongside climbing so that when I need a break, I have something else to go to…’ The name Leah Crane has always seemed synonymous with climbing. Through my 18 years of climbing there have been numerous articles...
Read MoreFran Brown is Awesome. Here's a re-post of a short article about Fran from 2013. Over two months ago I was scrolling through Facebook and came upon this post… In a slightly over excited manner I shot to my car and drove to the centre desperately trying...
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By Emily Pitts // Writing a climbing guidebook is not a moneymaking exercise, more likely the opposite. Unless the climbing area is in vogue and has been for a while, the author is likely to make little or no money at all. This is especially...
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One definition for an expedition is ‘a journey or voyage undertaken by a group of people with a particular purpose, esp. that of exploration’. [caption id="attachment_1817" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Images provided by The Expedition Consultancy[/caption] Exploration and discovery are great reasons to embark on a climbing expedition; to...
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Congratulations to Natasha Brooks, winner of first prize and People's Choice Award in the Women in Mountain Adventure Film Competition. The film is a beautiful exploration of her life long love of wild swimming in the lakes of Snowdonia. Thank you to every filmmaker and person...
Read MoreBy Jacquie Budd // Emma Twyford counts as one of the UKs most well-climbed climbers. We've recently written up an Inspirational Women page about Emma and following on from this I've spoken to Emma to ask her a few questions on behalf of Womenclimb readers. [caption id="attachment_1889"...
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Our community is kept alive with your input. No matter what your level of experience, it's likely that you have something useful to share in the community. If you’d like to get more skilled at writing or to share your knowledge, skills or experience...
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Emily // Womenclimb is my passion. I want to do it right. Whatever right is. I want it to be the best - the best information, the best content and the best place for women who climb, because I think that women deserve the best and...
Read MoreAbout a week ago I received a tweet from @WildlifeSamus, with a link to her blog post, questioning the validity of women's clubs and it gave me food for thought. Why do we have women's clubs? Here are my thoughts // by Emily Pitts: Women’s clubs do...
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By Dave & Maiju Lucas // The climbing press and media are full of accounts and images of very impressive first ascents by the climbing gurus of the day, just take a look at the press of recent days and you'll see it splattered with...
Read MoreThe Expedition Consultancy – or TXC – is run by Dave and Maiju Lucas. Maiju is the perfect role model for women wanting to step into the unknown and become an adventurous climber having only started climbing herself a few years ago. Dave has spent...
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By Maiju Lucas // Statistics show that although rock climbing is still a male dominated sport when it comes to the number of people participating in it, the number of women involved is steadily growing. However we at the TXC do not really see this...
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Nominated for Trespass Blog of 2014 in the Climbing category, we need your votes to win: www.trespass.com/blog-awards-voting Womenclimb is run by real women who climb year round. We don't currently receive any income or payment for the blog - it's entirely self supported, so being nominated for...
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After reading an article in TGO magazine early last year I decided to become a Munro bagger. This is not as creepy as it sounds. A Munro is a mountain in Scotland of a height of at least 3,000ft and there are 282!
The article in question was on the Charlie Ramsey Round, a fell run challenge covering 24 Munros in under 24 hours! However I am not a superhuman and neither was the author of the article who wrote about walking it in 4 days. Even this looked like a challenge, a beautiful, tough wild camp challenge. It was a good 12 months before this plan came to fruition when I convinced my dutiful and just as unassuming partner to do it with me.
Day 2 – Just because the tunnel has corners doesn’t mean the light isn’t at the end!
I woke in high spirits and opened the tent door to a view, which made up for our unfortunate start. Directly facing Ben Nevis I squatted over and tried to wee into the wind (a shewee would NOT have been great in this situation! it was far too windy and I fear it would have created a sprinkler effect upon leaving the spout).
Day 3- The hard way may be hard but it’s so much more fun.
The next morning we were both sore and stiff after sleeping on some awkward rocks but got going after a bowl of porridge and sultanas (and a call of nature!). I found the first 3 hours of the day quite hard physically due to my legs being so tired from the day before and starting immediately on steep downhill loose rocks. However, once I found my stride again it was as if my legs we reborn and I was ready for some more Munros!
Womenclimb contributor Bethan Thomas is doing a Masters Degree in Psychology. Her area of study is climbing psychology and gender. Here's the blurb about her research: Exploring the role of gender in predicting the relationship between self-efficacy, death anxiety and impulsive sensation seeking in high risk...
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As you may know Gwen is one of our heroes. She is truly inspiring in her approach to life and climbing achievements. She sent us some beautiful photographs of her climbing to share - an insight into a world of barefoot and nailed boot climbing,...
Read MoreIt's our FIRST BIRTHDAY this month and we have some great prizes to give away...
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Climbing means something different to everyone. Sometimes I come across climbers who can’t get their heads around other people who only climb indoors. Others wonder why anyone would venture outside, when you can stay warm and dry in a climbing centre. Others still are unable...
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