Nina Williams (climber)

Williams was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and started climbing in New Hampshire in 2002, after trying ballet, soccer and horseback riding.[1] Early climbing haunts included regional New England climbing meccas Rumney, Lincoln Woods and Pawtuckaway. Williams joined a Rhode Island based competitive youth climbing team in 2003.[2]

In 2017, Williams wrote a personal essay for Rock & Ice magazine about being exposed as a cheater as a young teenager, after falsifying her results in a USA Climbing regional qualifier competition.[3] As a result of her actions, she was banned from competition for the season. In a 2016 interview with Chris Weidner, Williams said that the intense pressure she put on herself to win and a lack of confidence led her to cheat.[1] Returning to competition climbing required Williams to reshape her mental approach, writing that rather than seeking external approval, she would "climb because I love it".[3]

Williams is one of the strongest female boulderers of this generation, according to Gripped Magazine. In 2015, she completed her first V13 (8B) in Rocklands, South Africa on the Ray of Light problem. This was the first female ascent (FFA) of this route.[4]

Williams is especially noted for her accomplishments in highball bouldering, in which the climber attempts a very tall boulder problem without rope protection, combining the physicality of bouldering with the mental discipline of free soloing. In 2017, Williams successfully completed the first female ascent of the Ambrosia route in the Buttermilks of Bishop, California. The V11 route tops out at 50 feet, so tall that the lack of ropes creates a formidable mental challenge for the climber. It has been conquered by only a handful of climbers, and her ascent was heralded as "one of the hardest free solos ever done by a woman" by Climbing magazine.[5] Williams has also completed two other difficult routes on the same boulder, Evilution Direct (V11) and Footprints (V9)[6] to complete the "Grandpa Peabody Trifecta", the first woman ever to do so.[7]

In February 2018, she became the first woman, and only the fourth person ever at the time, to send Window Shopper (V12) in Boulder, Colorado.[8]

In March 2019 she made the seventh ascent (and FFA) of Too Big to Flail (V10) a 50 ft highball in the Buttermilks.[9]

Williams has climbed up to a 5.13 in sport climbing and worked on improving her trad climbing skills. In February 2018, Williams was in training to free climb El Capitan in Yosemite, California, telling Outside Magazine, “I’m hoping to build a reservoir of power that will carry me through the rest of the year as I shift my focus from bouldering to traditional climbing.”[10] In 2016, she sent Final Frontier, a 5.13b multi-pitch trad route in Yosemite, along with Father Time (5.13b) in 2018.[11]

Williams worked as a climbing coach for Team ABC in Boulder, and participates in climbing clinics and events.[12] Williams has multiple sponsors, including The North Face, Scarpa, Organic Climbing and Black Diamond.[13]

Williams was featured in 2019's "The High Road," a short film that was selected for the Banff Film Festival and shown during the REELROCK 14 tour. The film focused on Williams' method of practicing on rope in preparation for highball bouldering, and chronicles the intensity of challenge inherent in climbing into the "no-fall zone", culminating with her successful attempt of Too Big to Flail (V10), a 50 ft highball in the Buttermilks of Bishop, CA.[14]

2015, Speed of Life V10, Farley, Massachusetts[15]

2015, Footprints V9, Bishop, California[16]

2015, Ray of Light V13, Rocklands, South Africa—First female ascent[17]

2016, Final Frontier 5.13b, Yosemite, California[11]

2016, Evilution Direct V11, Bishop, California—First female ascent[18]

2017, Ambrosia V11, Bishop, California—First female ascent, first woman to complete the Grandpa Peabody trifecta[5]

2018, Father Time 5.13b, Yosemite, California[19]

2018, Window Shopper V12, Boulder, Colorado—First female ascent[8]

2019, Too Big To Flail V10, Bishop, California—Seventh ascent, first female ascent [9]

• Official website