Any Chick that’s taken an intermediate-level ice climbing clinic at Chicks with Picks from Kitty Calhoun has undoubtedly tried out the Monkey Hang.
We caught some video of Kim Carlson, a Chicks Complete participant this year, alongside Head Chick Kim Reynolds giving a great demo of the speed and efficiency with which one can climb practicing this technique down in the Schoolroom.
Check it out here – and watch how fast the belayers are pulling in rope – pretty impressive 
This past weekend, several of our Chicks with Picks alumnae gathered for a “Chicks East” reunion in North Conway, NH.
Our lovely Chicks with Picks first ever “graduate,” Cheryl Wallace, ever so graciously shared some pictures from the reunion which we’re sharing here.
Congrats to all the ladies that went out on their first lead last weekend – it’s so THRILLING to see this huge pack of Chicks climbing together, we just LOVE IT
- Kicking off the Chicks East Reunion in North Conway, NH
- “Walk in the Forest” with Chicks on lead!
- Cheryl leading “Upper Hitchcock Gully”
- Jean…not in Africa…not in Ouray Ice Park with this long, snowy approach!
- Chicks alumnae giving their own slideshows at the Nereledge Inn – yes, these alumnae have been to some pretty cool places!
- Jean, Sandy, Joanna, Cheryl, Jessica, and Jodi (Dara must have the camera!)
Thanks again Cheryl and all our other alumnae for sharing!
If YOU have recently experienced a Chicks Sighting, please let us know so we can share it 
Here on the Chicks Climbing Gossip Report you can catch up on all of the great gossip (articles, videos, and other assorted cool stuff) we talked about over the past week at Chicks Climbing! This past weekend was the 16th annual Ouray Ice Fest. Girly Guide Dawn Glanc won the women’s division of the mixed climbing competition, followed closely by NEW Girly Guide Jen Olson. Congratulations to both of you! The Head Chick was out at the festivities – did you see her? If you did, or saw any other Chicks out and about at the Ouray Ice Fest, please share your pictures with us! We love a good Chicks sighting after all So please post them on our Facebook wall, send them to us on Twitter, through e-mail to info(at)chickswithpicks.net, or post them in our Flickr Pool so we can feature you at Chicks!
We had a few Chicks sightings we reported over the last week including Amy J. and Cheryl W. who did some backcountry climbing together in Ouray before the Ice Fest started last week! The two ran into Girly Guide Danika Gilbert and the Head Chick down in the Schoolroom and sent us this great picture as well. The Head Chick spotted Heather Piper Musmanno in the treadwall competition! Thanks so much ladies for the photos and please keep sharing! It is so fun to see Chicks climbing together and having a great time!!
Also on the blog last week we posted a blog from Girly Guide Caroline George about her experience at the Bozeman Ice Fest last month where she got the opportunity to teach some awesome ladies. Caroline won’t be joining us at Chicks with Picks this year as she is on an expedition to Antarctica with First Ascent to climb Mount Vinson! You can follow her progress in Antarctica here on the First Ascent blog.
We also had a guest post from Krysia on how she experienced some “instant karma” while climbing and how it taught her to not rely solely on beta and lose situational awareness. Check it out here on the Chicks blog!
We announced our Chicks with Picks slideshow and auction dates this week – we have ski mountaineering extraordinaire Hilaree O’Neill who will be taking you around the world on skis Friday, Jan. 28 at the Ouray Community Center, and Girly Guide Danika Gilbert on Monday, Jan. 31 talking about her summer trip doing first ascents in Southern Greenland.
Finally, we cleared up some questions folks had about the number of women in the Ouray Ice Festival competition, which raised questions of why there aren’t more women climbing at the M9 level. This is a GREAT topic and discussion to have, one which we’ll be following up with in the future getting input from our Girly Guides on why they choose to compete in competitions like the Ice Fest – or opt to not do so at all.
All of the other articles we linked to this past week through either the Chicks Climbing Twitter account, or on the Chicks Climbing Facebook fan page (and some on both!).
We provide this wrap-up because we come across a TON of great resources each week, but understand that not everyone is online all the time, or even on both (or either) of these social media platforms. So you can check here each and every week for the latest and greatest in Chicks Climbing resources here on the blog.
However, we know WE may have also missed some cool stuff this week, so if there is something of interest we missed that you came across this week please, let us know so we can share with everyone else!
Climbing
- Excellent Ouray Comp coverage stories by Alpinist http://bit.ly/f5Q4h5 and Rock and Ice (@rockandice) http://bit.ly/dUXddu
- Good info. for lead climbers from the American Alpine Institute (@AlpineInstitute) on the dangers of backclipping http://ht.ly/3xETa
- Check out this great ice climbing resource from Petzl (@Petzl): Ice climbing event schedule (all around the world) and info./links 2011 http://ow.ly/3zicB
- Cross-file this one under inspiration! Video of Portia Menlove sending the V11 Sunshine at Hueco Tanks http://ht.ly/3zzEn
- Great resource for ice climbers in the Catskills – do you know of any others for East Coast chicks? http://ht.ly/3AfzK
- Elizabeth (@eliz_rocks) talks about how she worked on managing her fear of heights during multi-pitch climbing this past summer: http://ht.ly/3B6L9
- More work on the mental head game from Jenn Fields (@jennfields) who talks about knowing your own competition (you), something she discovered during a climbing competition this weekend: http://ow.ly/3Bdyy
- Krysia (@ventrsomekrysia) writes a reminder for why you should ALWAYS do your safety checks before climbing! http://ht.ly/3yHJv
- The @splitterchoss guide to climbing etiquette: “Don’t be an asshole” http://ht.ly/3A9dT
- Great tips from Peter West Carey (@pwcarey) on taking better rock climbing photos http://bit.ly/ePj29t
News
- Interesting and newly announced partnership will have Mammut (@mammut) atheletes wearing 5.10 (@5ten) shoes http://ht.ly/3yoXa
- AAI (@AlpineInstitute) shares this week’s outdoor and climbing news: http://ht.ly/3zu6n
Gear
- A very cool way to clean your climbing ropes from a recent NOLS (@nolsedu) graduate: http://ht.ly/3y78Y
- Great review of the Evolv (@evolvclimbing) Rock Star shoe from @geargals http://ht.ly/3yE4E
- Gear review from @thegearcaster on the new Inov-8 minimalist road and barefoot running lines http://bit.ly/ebqUm4
- Great review of the new Elektra 12 Series by Sara (@theclimbergirl) on Pemba Serves (@pembaserves) http://goo.gl/fb/BwWiB
- A very informative post on Ice Climbing Gear 101 http://ht.ly/3ztNa
- Yet more information from Petzl (@petzl) on the proper use of the griprest on 2010 Nomic and Ergo ice climbing tools http://ht.ly/3yNJw
Training and Nutrition
- Great write-up on periodized training and how it can work in your climbing regimen: http://ht.ly/3zWZf
Fun Stuff
- Even the Narc! @climbingarc explains why you should “Give Ice Climbing A Try” http://ht.ly/3ztFS
- Rock and Ice (@rockandice) on “Climbing’s Hardest Job” (I think many will agree they hit the nail right on the head – especially in ice season!) http://ht.ly/3yILP
- Mariel Hemingway has recently taken up climbing – see why she loves to do it: http://on.fb.me/glhrQX
Inspiration
- Very good write-up by Katie Levy (@k8tlevy) on perspective & the value in trip reports of all kinds – big and small: http://bit.ly/hYglzR
Other useful stuff!
- Great post by @alpineinstitute giving an overview of Wilderness Navigation: http://ht.ly/3A4rK
If you have a blog entry that you think would be of interest to the women of Chicks Climbing please let us know! We love getting contributed content from other women – anything from trip reports, nutrition and training tips, to videos. We want to share your resources with the community – much like we do with the Gossip Report and are more than happy to re-publish and share links on behalf of the women’s climbing community!
We’ve got a new Chicks sighting to report!
Amy, Cheryl, Danika and the Head Chick found each other all climbing in the Schoolroom at the Ouray Ice Park on Monday, Jan. 3. What a great way to start the year!
Many thanks to Amy (@TheGearcaster) for submitting the photo to our Flickr pool!
If you have a Chicks sighting, please do so as well so we can report it here
Photo by Ilana Marcus Rock Climbing Instructor and Founder, Thrillseekers Anonymous
We love hearing from our Chicks Climbing alumnae!
This week, alumna Caroline Doucet sent us this fun photo of Santa Claus getting after it on some ice (which we thought was pretty cute), along with a note saying this winter she will be doing her ice climbing with fellow Chicks alumnae Karen, Cheryl, Kate, and Sarah in the Canadian Rockies!
Even when our Chicks take a break from visiting us here in Ouray, we’re happy to see those ladies sticking together in their climbing! Developing a strong climbing network is just one of the many great things our alumnae get out of joining us at Chicks events.
And, speaking of another Chicks sighting, we got a report from alumna Sarah Goldman in South America that she bumped into her roommate from Chicks with Picks (2008) in Argentina! They were both down in South America with the same goal – to climb Aconcagua! How random is that?
We truly believe that one of the best things about the Chicks experience is those lifelong friendships and climbing networks that naturally form during the clinics. It’s only natural to easily relate to other ambitious women climbers that are always up for an adventure – be it in South America, the Far East, or Canada!
Thanks Caroline and Sarah for letting us know about your past and future Chicks sightings, and make sure to share those trip reports with us!
A couple of weeks ago the head chick sent out an e-mail to Chicks alumnae asking for a few words on how the Chicks Climbing program has influenced, inspired, or changed our alumnae’s lives. We’ve gotten quite a few responses (and would love more if you’ve got the time!), including the one below from Jenn Fields. You might already feel like you know Jenn because we anxiously await her Field Notes column each week and love to include it in the Gossip Report. Jenn is an amazing chick inside and out and wrote the following e-mail to us:
Unlike my friend Cheryl Wallace, I showed up at my first Chicks weekend already knowing how to tie in — I went straight into intermediate clinics. So for me, going to Chicks and climbing ice wasn’t the immediately mind-blowing experience that it is for some. Rather, the power of the experience came over time, from the people, like Cheryl, who is one of the strongest and at the same time most grounded people I climb with now (several years after meeting her through Chicks).
Likewise, Piper Musmanno and I met each other at the Boulder Rock Club a few weeks before our first Chicks, roomed together at the Vic and have been climbing together ever since. Piper and I have had parallel journeys in our climbing lives, and it’s been an incredible experience to grow together as climbers…and sometimes be rather competitive with one another. But we always remember that our friendship is more important than which one of us leads ice first or sends the mixed route we’re both projecting. Chicks stick together.
Finally, last winter I took the most important Chick in my life, my mom, to the Betty Ice Ball. Like Cheryl, Mom had never climbed outside before, so she walked out of the Ouray Ice Park with war stories, exhaustion and a massive smile lifting her cold, rosy cheeks. But the icing on the cake was watching all of the Chicks thrill at the idea of bringing their moms out to climb ice. Mom’s tougher than me, so I knew she could do it. But seeing the Chicks embrace Mom, I realized they were also embracing new ideas about how they could help other women in their lives — even their moms — expand on what’s possible.
And that’s the point of Chicks, right? To rethink what’s possible and build a long-lasting supportive community for exploring that. Like my husband always says: Once a Chick, always a Chick.
*Jenn’s friend, Cheryl Wallace, was the first “graduate” of the Chicks program. We are in the process of interviewing this amazing woman and will hopefully get her story up on the blog soon!
Chicks Vera Naputi, Anne Hughes, and Suzi Lee bouldering at Hueco Tanks
We’ve got a Chicks sighting to report!
Chicks Anne Hughes, Vera Naputi, and Suzi Lee all climbed at Hueco Tanks Historical State Park over the weekend.
"Maybe if I don't put my climbing shoes on, I won't be tempted to climb...."
Here’s a first-hand trip report from Anne: “We flew in from L.A .(Suzi) and Madison Wisc. (Vera, her husband Brad Werntz and I) for two days of playing on the most amazing bouldering rock I’ve ever encountered. The Swiss cheese formations took my breath away when I first saw them. Suzi and Vera did strong work on problems like Baby Martini, Mop Boys and Lobster Claw, to name a few. What beautiful climbers! Needing to rest my tweaked shoulder, I kept busy as the main photographer in the group and an ever willing spotter. I allowed myself to play a little on easy stuff a few times a day, but I’m certainly itching to get back as soon as I’m healed.”
So with an injury what else has Anne been up to (since she trying to rest up to come hang with us in Ouray!)? She says: “Without climbing, I’d be cranky were it not for teaching and training — I am teaching climbing at Boulders Gym and cross training at Pat’s Gym while resting my shoulder. I have gratefully adopted Pat’s optimistic attitude, ‘hey, an injury is just a training opportunity’. He challenges me with workouts for my core, legs and grip. Equally important, he has high expectations for me for focus and mental strength, which can only improve my performance as a climber.”
Needless to say, Anne’s got a great attitude! She graciously sent in the following pictures:
Anne, loving the Swiss cheese rock
Suzi on “Mop Boys”
Vera on “Baby Martini”
Suzi on “Baby Martini”
Vera pulling hard
Finally, for another take on the Hueco Tanks climbing trip from the male perspective, check out this great blog Brad wrote about why he’s finally admitting he likes to climb with Chicks here!
Do you have a chicks sighting to report? E-mail us at info@chickswithpicks.net and let us know!
Chicks alumnae Cheryl Wallace (lower bunk) and Kate Higgins (top bunk) demo the new dorm beds at the (strictly unofficial) Chicks’ North Boulder HQ. Stylishly situated in a three-car garage, the “beds” are rustic at best. (Okay, they’re darned hard and quite dusty, having been used previously as storage for kayaks and fly-fishing gear. Get over it.) The garage is unheated, so you’ll need your best foam pad and down bag, but the payoff is the hot tub in the backyard–with awesome views–and a civilized shower.
Cheryl and Kate are no strangers to harsh conditions, having logged countless miles on ice, rock, and gnarly downhill singletrack trails. Their host, Chick Dara Miles, prefers the soft bed in the house by night, but enjoys granite by day.
Thank you ladies for the submission! Have you experienced a recent Chicks sighting? If so, we want to know about it! Submit your sighting to info@chickswithpicks.net or maijaliisa.burkert [at] gmail.com to get it published here!
We had a recent Chicks Sighting!
Four Chicks got together for camping & climbing in the Wind River Range of WY — Vera Naputi, Mattie Sheafor, Annie Hughes and Amy Skinner, plus kids and husbands.
A great testament to how many Chicks from our clinics make lifelong friendships!
Do you have a Chicks sighting you want to report? Send us your pics either through our Facebook page, Flickr, or through e-mail to maijaliisa.burkert [at] gmail.com!
Ladies at the 2010 Chicks with Picks Quickie
Hey Chicks, as we are entering our twelfth year, we are excited to be expanding our clinic offerings to meet even more climbers in epic new locations, but we want all of you to continue to feel like a real part of the Chicks family no matter if it’s been 2 months or 10 years since you last attended a clinic!
So, we’ve got a couple of fun new ways for you to actually be a part of the Chicks Climbing Web site both on the front page and in a regular blog post!
The first thing you may notice is that our main home page has no photo! Well, that’s where we want to put you! If you are an alumna of a Chicks With Picks or Chicks Rock clinic (and soon an alumna of our Girly Gatherings) we want to put your photos from the clinics you’ve attended on our home page! Please submit any and all photos you’ve taken at one of our clinics to our Flickr pool here (ChicksClimbingRockandIce) and we will put up a new photo on the main page of Chicks Climbing each week! All that we ask is you ID which clinic you attended and the year the photo was taken. Then watch the Web site to see which week YOU will be our “featured Chick!”
Another venture we want to promote is the many crazy cool things you ladies are all up to on the weekend! After a few weeks of watching your updates on Twitter and Facebook it’s clear that you are doing amazing and inspiring things all the time, and we want you to submit photos of exactly what adventures you are up to, so we can continue to inspire each other! Whatever it is you did last weekend – ran a marathon, did some multi-pitch at Yosemite, kayaked along the coast of Georgia, or gave local Girl Scouts a class on rappelling we want to see it! With the wealth of women athletes out there we think we could get some great beta exchanges between each other, so we will be posting the photos on a regular basis (once weekly is our aim if we get enough submissions!) on the Chicks Climbing blog. So please keep us up-to-date on what you’ve been up to by posting your photos on our Flickr pool here (ChicksClimbingRockandIce)!
Let us know if you have any questions or issues uploading your photos – you can reach out to us here by commenting on the blog, on our Facebook page, or through Twitter.
We’re looking forward to “seeing” you on Chicks!
The latest buzz