Page 17 - 2019 AMA Summer

Photo: Jonny Baker Photo: Jon Griffiths
the areas of climbing that require the strongest skills in mental management and tolerance of risk. Alpine climbing, high altitude mountaineering and adventurous trad climbing are areas still underrepre- sented by women whereas women are very well represented in sport climbing and bouldering which arguably demand less of a strong psychology. It’s hard to know whether this is because women are innately more risk averse than men or whether the differences are due to social conditioning and gender-stereotyping. Women are still encouraged less to be brave than men are. Either way, we must only understand that being comfortable with risk is just a matter of training. If we concentrate on our on individual development nothing can stop us from doing what we want to do. For instance, if you want to go alpine climbing but you are afraid to, go slow, seek guidance and push the limits of your comfort zone gradually.
Four years ago I started a business spe- cialising in mental training for climbing. I work with men and women on their internal barriers to success such as fear of heights, fear of falling, fear of failure and performance anxiety. The most satisfying
part of my job is showing people that we can all grow and improve no matter what our gender and no matter how limited we may perceive ourselves to be at first. Climbing is the perfect activity for engaging in personal development no matter who you are because climbing is challenging in a way that many things aren’t. I feel like cliffs and mountains are an equaliser because we all get challenged in these environments and we can all feel afraid and out of our depth. This is why these environments are the perfect
place to work on developing ourselves as individuals. We learn the most in challenge, in fact we can’t learn without challenge and mountains are some of the most challenging places we can ever be. I hope that women and men can continue to respectfully use these places to better themselves and learn from each other. With this in mind I’m sure we’ll start to see any gaps between men and women closing and we can truly celebrate women occupying an equal space in the world of climbing an adventure.
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