Jul 07 2015

Climbing With Kids: Anxieties in Motherhood

Climbing, Kids, Motherhood
by Beth

I've written a bit about my prolonged physical recovery from childbirth, but not as much about my battle with my many anxieties in the aftermath of Theo’s birth. Part of the reason for this avoidance is because I’m embarrassed about it all. The physical stuff—bouts of mastitis, a painful cystocele, weak joints, etc.—all seemed somehow to be out of my control. It just happened. But the mental stuff—well, shouldn’t I be strong enough, sane enough, capable enough, of controlling how I feel? I'm a professional climber, I should be in...

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Apr 08 2015

Climbing With Kids: Emily Harrington Interview – Decisions About Having Kids

Climbing, Interviews, Motherhood
by Beth

Emily Harrington is one of my best friends. She also happens to be a total badass athlete and adventurer. Her profession has taken her around the world, and her resume includes big mountain ascents (Everest, Ama Dablam) and hard rock routes (first female ascents of 5.14's). As a professional climber myself, I was curious about her thoughts on starting a family with such a busy lifestyle. As a mother, I was equally curious about her thoughts on starting climbing/skiing as a kid. She was part of the generation that started...

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Mar 24 2015

Climbing with Kids: Susie Christensen Interview

Climbing, Interviews, Kids, Motherhood, Pregnancy
by Beth

breastfeeding issues, and the thought of doing the Nose in a day blew my mind. Susie was kind enough to do an amazing, informative, and humble interview. I hope you all are as inspired as I am!!!After I did my interview with Jim Herson, he mentioned that I should interview his friend Susie who had just done a lactating ascent of the Nose. I was still pretty early postpartum and dealing with   Tell me a little about yourself and your history with climbing.   Let me just start off with my favorite quote...

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Mar 10 2015

Climbing With Kids: Injuries and trips

Climbing, Injuries, Kids, Motherhood, Travel
by Beth

As the Dawn Wall excitement exited the Valley, Theo and I got back into our quiet routine in Yosemite. California’s dry and warm weather unfortunately continued, allowing me to keep climbing and start ramping it up. My body slowly felt like it was getting back into my all too familiar climbing rhythm - albeit at a much more reduced level. I actually was able to climb with people during the “climbing” part of their day, not just the “warm up” part. It felt beyond incredible to feel like I was...

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Feb 27 2015

Climbing With Kids: The Dawn Wall, Yosemite’s Only Winter Storm

Climbing, Kids, Motherhood, Yosemite
by Beth

Once Theo was able to sit up by himself and commando crawl through the dirt and pine needles of Camp 4, it became a lot easier for me to take him bouldering and do my little slab circuit. He’d end each session covered in dirt, but pretty happy as well. I’ve been trying to heed Jim Herson’s sage wisdom that, “You can’t make kids like climbing. You can only make them NOT like climbing.”   Indeed. Climbing and Contentment. Two of our most basic, natural states as human beings. To not be...

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Feb 17 2015

Climbing with Kids: Breastfeeding

Kids, Motherhood, Pregnancy
by Beth

I’ve received so many questions about my breastfeeding issues that I thought it’d be worth talking about in a dedicated post. (Sorry, guys, this one probably isn’t for you!) Breastfeeding certainly hasn't been an easy road for me, and I've learned that it isn't necessarily an easy road for every mom. Had I known that others struggle with this, I wouldn’t have been so hard on myself. I didn’t do a ton of research about breastfeeding, thinking this aspect of motherhood would just “flow” naturally, so to speak. When I...

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Feb 09 2015

Climbing With Kids: Going It Alone in Yosemite

Climbing, Kids, Motherhood, Yosemite
by Beth

When you’re climbing all the time, and climbing really well, it can feel easy to get hard routes done. You can just throw yourself into a project and work on it exclusively. There are no other distractions. Nothing else matters.   Balance is what’s actually hard. That’s something I’ve really begun to see and appreciate in motherhood. When I had all the time and energy in the world, success was omnipresent. But how would I do when I had to handle the needs of many others, including my own? I was finding...

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Nov 20 2014

Climbing With Kids: Jim Herson Interview

Climbing, Interviews, Kids, Yosemite
by Beth

For any bay area climber or climbing parent, I'm sure you are familiar with Jim Herson, Anne Smith and their awesome kiddos Kara and Connor. However, for anyone who isn't familiar with them, here's a great interview as an introduction. They can often be found in the Sierras climbing up things with multiple kids and parents in tow. They also have one of my favorite climbing blogs out there that always leaves me laughing and inspired.   I first met Jim and Anne when I was a teenager doing the local competition...

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Nov 13 2014

Climbing With Kids: Becca Caldwell Interview

Climbing, Interviews, Kids, Motherhood, Pregnancy, Travel, Yosemite
by Beth

For any of you out there that buy Patagonia kids clothes, you've probably seen the adorable kiddo Fitz Caldwell. Most likely those pictures were taken by his talented mom, Becca. She does an amazing job at documenting all the adventures that Fitz goes on (from her Instagram feed to their family blog).   In his short 18 months of life, Fitz has been down to Patagonia, on a three month trip across Europe and road tripped around the United States in their Sprinter van.   When I found out I was pregnant, I knew...

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Nov 04 2014

Climbing Pregnant: Medical Study

Climbing, Pregnancy
by Beth

When I first started blogging about climbing while pregnant I was contacted by a host of people. A lot of messages were from women wanting advice on when to stop climbing, was it safe to climb, would they recover, potential risk to the baby, etc. I tried to do my best to aggregate what other women had done, but quickly found that there were no medical guidelines to climbing while pregnant - unlike other sports like running, yoga, etc. Two doctors that are climbers also contacted me during my pregnancy...

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