Foxy ladies
Fans of Jimi Hendrox convened in Bishop last month for women’s climbing festival.
On February 19, 150 women met at Mountain Rambler Brewery in Bishop to register for the first Flash Foxy Women’s Climbing Festival. Participants gathered for a weekend of climbing clinics, yoga, gear demos, talks by pro athletes, and the No Mans Land Film Festival. There were multi-colored leggings as far as the eye could see.
According to festival organizer Shelma Jun of Brooklyn, NY, “The real hope of the Women’s Climbing Festival is to provide a safe space… for women who might never have climbed before, or never have climbed outside to learn from other women.” She noted that tickets sold out within 4 hours of registration opening online on December 2. “We weren’t sure how popular it’d be, but it’s been a great success so far.”
The festival was sponsored by Flash Foxy, a social media platform owned by Jun that promotes women climbers. Clinics and workshops were run by professional female climbers with the help of female employees from Sierra Mountain Guides. On Saturday evening, pro climbers Katie Lambert, Colette McInerney, and Kelly Fields spoke about their experiences as women pioneers in the mountains. Julie Ellison of Climbing Magazine covered the event and also spoke that night.
When asked about the traditional climbing clinic she led, Lambert said “the women who were in the clinic had never really crack climbed before. The majority of them were from out of town… It was pretty cool that all these women came together from all over the place to climb.”
