Good morning team,

Lots of fun links on the topic of climbing this week. I hope you enjoy them and that you are winding down for Christmas now.

We start with an excellent subscriber-submitted link (thank you!) – it’s an intersectional feminist review of climbing books! Very useful if you want a climbing book that represents a diverse range of people, and if you don’t, here’s a nice pullquote on why that matters:

other climbers will typically approach my climbing partner to ask questions about the route, even when I'm clearly geared up as the lead. Why don't they see me? Then I stumbled upon an explanation. Typically, the people with whom I interact in outdoor arenas are white. Similarly, the industry's media tend to showcase scientists, activists, or athletes as white and usually male. No wonder people don't see me; I am not what they are accustomed to seeing in our field. But I am here, and so are other women

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web17f/wfeature-feminist-review-of-climbing-how-to-guides

You might have seen this lovely story about raising a teenage daughter, with annotations by said teenage daughter. The whole thing is well worth your time. There’s lots about climbing here, too:

https://story.californiasunday.com/raising-a-teenage-daughter

Also a teenager, here’s an article about Ashmina Shirashi, champion boulderer (I am sure there is a better word for this):

She was using toeholds that didn’t seem to exist. For a moment, she was caught in the corner, reaching up toward the ledge, and then suddenly the implausible was made to seem routine. I thought of a phrase that a champion climber named Sasha DiGiulian had mentioned to me, about certain climbers having “a voice on the wall.” Ashima’s was distinctive, purposeful, fluid.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/11/the-wall-dancer

Have a great weekend and TUNE IN NEXT WEEK for my books of the year!

Alex x.