China’s climbing mecca is nestled within lush, emerald-green paddy fields and dotted with majestic karst towers soaring into endless sky: this is Yangshuo. It is one of the most beautiful places you will ever visit on Earth, and famed in classical Chinese paintings for its incredible karst scenery.
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Become BFFs with Your Performance Plateau
One of the reasons why rock climbing is so darn addicting is because we love to see progression. Whether it’s massive gains in confidence or improvement in technique, there’s nothing quite like gracefully sending your latest climbing project.
But what if you don’t send it, and you find yourself not-so-gracefully peeling off the walls? Congratulations, girlfriend, because you’ve just hit the performance plateau!
A performance plateau in climbing is exactly what it sounds like – a flatline in your climbing performance, where progression slows down or even comes to a complete halt. Suddenly (or slowly – then suddenly) improvement becomes imperceptible, and you find yourself frustrated as heck.
This is my frustrated climbing face.
Be the #GIRLBOSS of Your Bouldering
I recently picked up a copy of Sophia Amoruso’s #GIRLBOSS and read it all the way through in just over 48 hours while traveling across the country. Bouldering Babes, I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t already, because the #GIRLBOSS vision for empowerment and autonomy is much like our own: bold, brazen, and badass:
A #GIRLBOSS is in charge of her own life. She gets what she wants because she works for it.
How to Build Power and Endurance for Climbing
I’ve often viewed climbing as a metaphor for life, and this especially comes to life when we think about power and endurance. This week’s edition of BB celebrates the ability to endure and power through when the going gets tough, and it’s all too tempting to give up and let go.
When we rock climb, we put ourselves out there, and we may not always send or summit. Falls are inevitable, but we endure and power through it all.
Powering through an overhang @ Denver Bouldering Club this past weekend
How to Cross Train to Enjoy Bouldering Stronger, Better, Faster, Longer (and Stay Injury-Free!)
One of my new students asked me the other day, ‘what should I be doing to cross train for climbing?’
Great question! While the best training for climbing is climbing itself (ideally 2-3x a week, with rest days in between), there’s certainly strength to be had in cross training.
Steph Davis, one of the top female climbers in the world, sums it up super nicely in her blog post, Training When Not Climbing: core strength and turnout flexibility. Turnout flexibility is increasing your turn-out in your hips, so you can climb with your pelvis sucked up against the rock or wall so you have less weight on your feet and have to pull more with your arms.
Working on my turnout flexibility on Babar, v4
An Urban Woman’s Guide to Outdoor Bouldering
New to bouldering in New York City and not sure where to start? Check out this super handy guide!
Rat Rock in Central Park never seems to get old, even after all these years. It was here where I’d first fallen in love with climbing outside, and where I’d discovered the joys (and pain) of traversing and topping out.
Ladies’ Bouldering Retreat
A couple of years ago, my climbing partner Lori and I escaped New York’s wicked winter weather to soak in some Caribbean sun and rum, and climb some of the British Virgin Island’s most spectacular boulders:
Bouldering Babes 