Page 16 - 2019 AMA Summer

GUESTWRITER
participate in these adventurous activities than in sports like tennis. Some of those that did were feminists and suffragists. There’s a photograph of Fanny Bullock Workman taken in the Himalayas in 1912. She stands on the Siachen glacier at an altitude of about 6,400m holding a newspaper with the words “Votes for Women” clearly visible. Some women were not interested in politics and just wanted to climb. Either way, women who went climbing and mountaineering was just as much a statement of progression as women in leadership roles.
In 1953 Britain gained a first female mountain guide, Gwen Moffat, and what a character she was. It would be difficult to find another woman who put her middle finger up to the status quo as much as Moffat did. Not only was she a climber when women weren’t supposed to be, she also deserted the army (not an action to be taken lightly) and chose to live rough as a transient for much of the 40’s and 50’s, climbing bare foot and living frugaly.
After becoming a mountain guide, she took to writing and wrote 35 novels many of which included tales of climbing and her connection to the land.
Gwen pioneered the idea that women could be as individualistic and as much masters of their own fate as men could be. However, women like Gwen were still a rarity and despite the growing numbers of women participating in climbing and mountaineering, they still lagged behind men in terms of performance and there was a general feel that although women could do it they’d never be as good as men. This all changed in 1994 with Lynn Hill’s first free ascent of The Nose. With this ascent, Lynn broke all the norms and
‘It was the life itself that was frightening. The very fact that it seemed to be the quintessence of everything I had ever wanted: adventure,
freedom and rejection of authority.’ – Gwen Moffat in ‘Space Below my Feet’
expectations regarding what women could and couldn’t do in relation to men because she climbed the hardest route in the world at the time, before every other woman and man.
Women today are able to turn to many other female role models for inspiration and these women aren’t inspiring because they climb, they are inspiring because they occupy an elite space alongside other men and women in
the sport. Growing up, I looked up to Lucy Creamer, Lynn Hill, Steph Davies, Catherine Destivelle, and Beth Rodden all of whom are/ were at the top of their game
comparable to men.
Climbing is an unusual sport because the strength needed to ascend is always relative to body weight. This levels the playing field somewhat because women are lighter than men, despite
being less powerful on average. The current gap in performance between men and women is not huge with Adam Ondra climbing 9c and Angela Eiter climbing 9b.
In the UK specifically we have great reason to celebrate women in climbing. In 2016 Shauna Coxsey became Britain’s first ever bouldering world champion. With climbing entering the Olympics there is great hope that we have an Olympic champion in the making. If we have a look at all of the supported professional climbers in the country it’s not obvious that there are more men than women. In fact thinking about those climbers who are entirely supported my their sponsors I believe there to be more women than men.
Despite the fact that indoor climbing is growing and trad climbing is often seen as more of a fringe pursuit, women are still up there with the men. In 2011 I was the first women to climb E9 at a time when not many women were climbing E8. However, since 2011 I have had the pleasure of watching two of my female friends Madeleine Cope and Emma Twyford also climb E9. Given that the hardest trad route in the UK is only two grades higher than this, the gap between men and women in the weird realm of headpointing is clearly not that big.
Currently my own goals lie with bigger routes such as those on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley California. Ever since seeing the films of Lynn Hill climbing The Nose, it was my dream to Free Climb El Capitan. I have succeeded in freeing El Cap 4 times now, but my infatuation with that piece of rock has not diminished. I would love to climb a route up there with a female friend (thus far all my partners have been male) and I would also love to free climb it in a day. In 2017 I established a new route in Squamish called Tainted Love which I gave 5.13d R (E8 6c), this was an incredibly rewarding process which has inspired me think more about establish- ing my own routes. We don’t see many women taking the lead when it comes to first ascents and route development, however with so many women becoming strong trad climbers I can only imagine we will see more of it.
That said, I have noticed that the biggest gaps between men and women are in
Photo: Jon Griffiths
16 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER