Comments on: Women in Climbing

By: Lynn Johnson

Lynn Johnson — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:58:20 +0000

Wow…I’m a super short woman, who is often told–repeatedly–by the guys climbing in my town, that I am WAY more interesting to watch climb. The shit you have to do to make up for that lack of reach and testosterone fueled muscles??…not interesting or impressive at all, I’m sure…me thinks Don’s hiding some deeply sheltered feelings?

By: dwm

dwm — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:28:06 +0000

With women in climbing, you’re watching history unfold, the evolution men’s climbing went through years and years ago when it was being established. It is historically recent that women were “allowed” to climb. Even as late as the 1970s women were being denied mountaineering permits, and couldn’t vote in Switzerland. So yeah, guess what, there’s some catching up to do. That being said, the evolution of women’s climbing has been lightspeed in comparison. When women are putting up as many routes as men do things will even out. Why? Because a V15 put up by a woman will be very different than one a man put up. By definition a petite woman will have an incredibly hard time sending a V15 put up by a 6 foot dude. But said 6 foot dude would have a hard time sending a problem put up by 5’1″ Lynn Hill because he wouldn’t be able to jam his giant digits in places she can and scrunch his huge man-frame into the places she can.

I see the exact same issues in my field of work: physics. Far fewer women because, guess what? They didn’t let women in the club back when Newton and Einstein were grabbing the easy stuff. And much like the argument about women never being physically comparable to men, does that mean women aren’t as intelligent? And what about minorities? How many African Americans have sent V15, and what does that mean for their athletic ability? It’s laughable to try and draw a conclusion about ability based on low representation as is obviously the case when we extend the argument so far. It is clearly illogical. Otherwise that would mean white dudes are the smartest, strongest people on the planet. Ha ha.

By: campusman

campusman — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 01:52:42 +0000

@ don
first off, a few of the things you said are right.
however, you are seriously wrong about female competition overall.

women have proven to go back and forth consistently with who the top climber is…As far as rock, its Angie Payne and everyone knows that. However she doesnt win comps all the time…So think about who you just offended, then put Angela aside, and realize that you offended everyone with what you said.

still doesn’t make sense?

With the men, this is just not true at all. Its either Daniel Woods if he is there or its some weak mo that isn’t even close to his strength.

good day sir

By: Vijay

Vijay — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:57:46 +0000

I see no problem in stating that there is a gap between men and women in climbing. This gap is a long appreciated fact of life in almost (I would venture to say every) mainstream sport on the planet. I don’t think this gap should offend anyone, either. Rather we should be as impressed with sends like Angie Payne’s as we are of other next level sends like The Game. I think that in assessing the impact of a send, one should appreciate that there exists a distinct division in the sport between men and women. We are all conscious of it, otherwise we wouldn’t feel the need to post like crazy when a woman does a V13. We segregate genders in climbing competitions, we should segregate them in assessing the impact of new achievements. And in that respect, I would guess women are by all means progressing at an equal, if not greater rate than men. But my problem is I have no specific data to validate that, so maybe you can help. Do you know the dates, (even just the year would work) of the first male V10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15? And then do you know them for women? If you can post them up, I’ll plot it on a graph and email it to you and we can easily settle this just by calculating the slopes of the lines. No more subjective debate.

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:53:01 +0000

@ Don: You can’t see it, but here’s my middle finger.

By: B3

B3 — Thu, 06 May 2010 03:17:54 +0000

I am surprised this is what you read in the article. Nothing could be further from the truth.

By: really??

really?? — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:42:55 +0000

I am a guy who loves to rely on the shoulders and finger strength that I am lucky enough to have.

That being said I am shocked that this article was written. This is my first time to this website cause I got here via climbing to look at some DG interview out of a trailer.

I am just curious as to why this is even an issue unless the author just watched some girl beat him out on a problem.

Grow up and go climb….who cares about comparing the two genders. I am guessing the author just got dumped by a girl who can crank and is just taking it out on the world.

What a douche bag

By: JamesO

JamesO — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:57:31 +0000

Haven’t any of you heard of trolls?

By: sharon

sharon — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:55:45 +0000

Don,

So tell me which females make it to the top in 2 years, since it is so easy as you say? I am not aware of any in competition. And don’t tell me about someone that has climbed for 1 year, and sat under a soft V whatever and did it on day 65, try 200, way different then a competition. The top 5 females this year at ABS nationals have competed for 5 plus years and they all train very hard to get and stay at the top.

I would say in all fiercely competitive sports, (as you call the Male side of climbing), you would train hard, eat healthy, not engage in drug use that is proven to lower performance, and not engage in unhealthy weight loss techniques. Any of the above are proven to help or hinder performance and wow, in a fiercely competitive sport, it could really help or hurt you! That is, if it truly is fiercely competitive.

By: cardboard_dog

cardboard_dog — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:10:52 +0000

Anyone going to mention Claire Murphy?? She definitely deserves mention when talking about woman who are pushing the envelope. Didn’t she climb Sarah? and Chablanke? As early as 2006? And her ascent of Chablanke wasn’t even the FFA. There are woman out there who were climbing hard long before the Alex’s .. just saying.