On Thursday, October 22nd 2015, many of the rad women of the Seattle-area climbing community joined SheJumps at The Seattle Bouldering Project (SBP) for a ladies only climbing night. This was the first SheJumps rock climbing event to happen in Seattle, and a great chance to introduce the mission of SheJumps, to increase the participation of women in outdoor activities, to a community with such strong roots and participation in the outdoors.
PC: Phil Schneider
The Seattle Bouldering Project, one of the top-notch bouldering gyms in the country, kindly lent the use of their newly built first floor climbing area for the evening. Starting at 7pm, SBP closed off the first floor to women-only, giving all the ladies a chance to finally dominate the space on the crash pads and walls.
PC: Phil Schneider
It was amazing to see that instantly, the vibe of the climbing area downstairs had an extra sense of stoke and community, as women climbed with their best lady friends, cheered each other on while trying fun and difficult problems, and many women had a chance to make friends with new climbing partners.
PC: Phil Schneider
Meanwhile, KIND Snacks was giving out samples of their delicious and healthy protein bars, while Krave Jerky setup a tasting table with a variety of flavors of their awesome beef, pork, and turkey jerky. Plenty of women stopped by to fuel up on Krave and KIND protein between climbing sets. Climb to Fight Breast Cancer from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center also came out to participate in the event and talk about their involvement in getting women outside and climbing mountains to directly benefit breast cancer research here in Seattle.
PC: Phil Schneider
At 8pm, a keg of Summer Ale was tapped from local Seattle microbrewery Fremont Brewing, and cans of Dry, Citrus, and Semi-Sweet Cider from Seattle Cider Company were available for ladies looking for a refreshment after finishing their climbing for the evening. Throughout the evening, the ladies of SheJumps Seattle were selling SheJumps Girafficorn hats and tees, in addition to raffle tickets for a gear raffle. The prizes for the raffle included sweet gear like harnesses, chalk bags, chalk, tees, trucker hats, and more!
PC: Phil Schneider
All raffle prizes were kindly donated by a number of local and national partners including The Seattle Bouldering Project, Feathered Friends, Second Ascent, Ibex, KIND Snacks, Krave Jerky, Friction Labs, Black Diamond, and Five Ten! All proceeds from the raffle will go towards funding future SheJumps events, such as Get The Girls Out, Outdoor Education, and any youth events geared towards helping young girls to learn skills to become comfortable in the outdoors.
PC: Phil Schneider
Over the course of the evening, around 100 lovely ladies joined us at the event, and we were stoked to get so many women out climbing on a weeknight! Since the event, we’ve received some great compliments and feedback, and we hope that we can throw another similar social climbing event in the future with the goal of getting more women in Seattle to meet each other to have a base of women to climb and get outside with.
PC: Phil Schneider
In partnership with SBP in Seattle, we have two upcoming Outdoor Education Technical events in November and December of 2015: an all women’s beginning bouldering clinic on November 17th, and an all women’s intermediate bouldering clinic on December 8th. We hope you ladies can join us for some educational fun and a chance to improve your bouldering skills with some of the best instruction you get from the coaches at SBP!
PC: Phil Schneider
BIG thanks to all the companies who made this event happen!
Krystin Norman
10/28/2015