Climber Crush Wednesday featuring Stefanie Myr
We are excited to share our 2/18/20 Climber Crush Wednesday feature about Stef @stefaniemyr. She’s a crusher, Route Setter and Head Team Coach at @ClimbTacoma!
What are your pronouns? She/Her
First of all, thank you for being here to share your story. Tell us a little bit about yourself. I’m Stef. I started climbing in college about six years ago. I asked my friend to take me climbing with him and that day I fell in love with it. Six years later, I’m still climbing, working in the industry and I’m not married to that friend who took my climbing. Also, I love pho and have a cat named Petzl.
How long have you been climbing and route setting? 6 years for climbing, setting since end of 2015!
As a route setter with a smaller stature compared to the average climbing population, how do you set for Climb Tacoma? Do you try to set for the average height climber? Since I’m a smaller climber, I find it very important to ensure that I’m setting for the most average size of people, but I also try to take smaller and taller heights into consideration by adding in extra feet and intermediate holds. Sometimes, due to the nature of the route, not everyone will be about to send. That’s how it is outside! That’s just climbing, man. I also will purposely set things that I know I will not be able to reach, or a route that will greatly challenge me. People always say, “you haven’t sent your own route?” I say, “No! I don’t set for ME.”
You’re also the Head Team Coach for Climb Tacoma. How do you like it? What’s your coaching style? I love coaching at Climb Tacoma. These kiddos are so strong and excited to climb and get better. That’s seriously all I need. You can’t teach passion or stoke. You learn it from those around you. The most important part about coaching kids, for me, is to instill in them that at the end of the day, if you had fun, you succeeded.
How do you find the balance in route setting, coaching, and training for climbing? On setting days, I can sometimes be too tired to climb/train that night. I do my best to not push my body past limits that I’ve set for myself. Lately, I’ve been prioritizing rest days, which I truly think are valuable, especially for climbers who are “older”. If my body feels up for it, I’ll leave the gym after setting and go climb at a different gym for some variety.
What is the most rewarding part about route setting? As a route setter, I believe it’s my job to help introduce new and different movement to people. When I first started setting my boss Brian said to me, “our routes should be teaching people something.” And I think that’s so true. When someone finishes a route I set after days/weeks/months of projecting it, that is so fulfilling. I feel like I did my job.
What are challenges in route setting? My biggest challenge now is setting for all heights like I was mentioning earlier. As the team coach, I wanna make sure I’m able to set hard stuff that adult members can climb, but are also possible for my short, 11 year olds who are projecting V7 and up. It doesn’t always happen but I know they appreciate that I try.
What is your advice to ladies that want to get into route setting? My advice for ladies who wanna get into setting is that first of all, you need to believe that your perspective and what you have yo offer in the setting world is valuable and important. Women are creative and innovative. Know, believe, and own that. Keep an eye out for lady-led setting clinics in your area. I’ve seen a few across the country advertised to me on Instagram! Figure out who at your local gym is in charge of setting and network with them. See what their availability is for volunteer setting. Some gyms have plenty of setters and might not accept volunteers (mine doesn’t). Opportunities to set are not overflowing but with the rise in commercial climbing, this opportunities will only grow.
What are your goals this year that you’d like to share? This year, I would love to climb V7 outside to fill my gap between 6 and 8. I would also like to climb another 8. There is also a sport route that I took a huge, uncontrolled fall on last year and injured myself. I would love to climb that route again now that I have the necessary protection in place to climb through that section of the route safely!
Any words of wisdom to share with the climbing community? EVERYONE is welcome in the climbing community. All people are invited to climb and enjoy climbing and that benefits that it gives us. Anyone who actively behaves in a way that makes anyone feel otherwise is an outlier in the community and needs to change. If you don’t actively advocate for that, you need to change your way of thinking. Climbing is beautiful and we all have our own unique journey. Basically, just climb while being kind to yourself, others, and our earth.
