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Who is WomenClimbing.com?
Womenclimbing.com's content and design is being created almost solely by me, Heidi. I am working in conjuction with a website developing company, ok so it's also my sister's company, TNR Webworks for some of the more techie stuff. She knows her stuff, thanks Tiff!
I have also just started a relationship with MountainWoman.com. This allows visitors the ability to buy the girlie stuff they see on the site. Thankfully they also allow me to tap into their content, which makes this site that much more robust. Leigh has been awesome so far :)
Scott Williams also has contributed time to help me make this actually readable by editing and suggesting content I may have missed. He's also put up with my many long nights of dissing him while I work on this. Hopefully there won't be as many nights in the papazon in the future... Thanks honey you are the absolute best! :)
Why make this site?
A few years back I happened upon something called the internet. Two years later I came into the climbing world. Naturally, I looked to the net for just about any information I could find on climbing. I found a decent amount of general information: glossaries, area summaries (though rocknroad will be greatly misssed), and some history, but not a heck of a lot. Women in climbing information was even harder to come by. I could find the gear, but not the history, clubs, orgs or events. I want to fix that problem and make it easy to find everything instead of having to live on Google for hours on end... (which i've done).
Who's this Heidi chic?
My name is Heidi Haas, and I basically make up WomenClimbing.com. It's my brain child. I have a day job in addition to working on the site; doing guess what? Website design and development.
As for my experience in the climbing world, I started climbing in 1996. I was in college at Illinois State and quickly realized that real rock was absolutely no where near where I was living. Erin (my climbing partner and best friend) and I made due with the best rock climbing gym in the states. There were a few women climbers there, but the majority were men (not that we were complaining). We noticed some cliques but mostly it was a subdued but slightly competitive atmosphere. (we had to try to show up those annoying scouts every now and then)
May came, school let out, and I had a summer to enjoy. I moved to Denver, Colorado (thanks again Tiff!). Denver was a nice change; not much can top having foothills and awesome bouldering only a half hour away. It was there that I met Sari Nicoll, the creator of Stonewear Designs, and Mia Axon one day bouldering at Morrison. To be honest I had no idea who Mia Axon was or that Sari's Stonewear Designs was an awesome clothing company (I soon after found out that Mia had been the 4th woman to redpoint 5.14 and I ended up buying a Stonewear top before I left Colorado). They were very welcoming and rejoiced in the fact that a woman was out there climbing on her own. I hadn't really thought about being out there by myself as a feat, but since then I've realized that maybe it was. We spent the morning bouldering and chatting, then going our seperate ways. I doubt I'll ever forget it.
From there I traveled wherever and whenever I could; Tennessee Wall, back to Golden Cliffs, England's Stannage Grit, Ireland's Dalkey Quarry, and some of the most beautiful sea cliffs at Ireland's Ailladie. I'm again back in Illinois longing to be on the rock. Planning a trip to North Carolina's Linville Gorge in May, the Pathfinder Challenge in June, Long's Peak or for that matter anywhere in Colorado in July, Yosemite, and maybe some bigger peaks if and when I can get some more time off.
As for women-friendly events, I try to make it to as many as possible, but typically money and time are limited. Feel free to sponsor me I'll glady go! ;)
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