Be Climbing

05/08/2026

This song and this footage makes me feel what I felt in that moment every time 🙏
I’m so incredibly grateful for that day, everyone involved, the support and my determination that just about mustered the courage to keep climbing after down climbing to a height I was happy to fall in on my first try.

I am so proud of myself and this is a moment I will never forget!
Thank you so much to and for capturing the day, and for being amazing buddies to climb with and for putting on an epic event!

15/06/2026

It is such a privilege to have this opportunity to support my friend and amazing athlete Rachel Māia at the up coming Paraclimbing world cups.
Everything we do is self funded and volunteer based so if you are able to donate to her page it will really help towards our flights to the competitions in Japan and Korea this October 🙏💐

Help Rachel Māia represent NZ in Paralympics para-climbing

After a climbing accident at 16 and an 18-year break, Rachel Māia returned to climbing “as a way of rebuilding my life — navigating trauma, raising three children, and learning to live again in a body shaped by pain, amputation, over 20 surgeries, and ongoing mental health challenges.”

The RCP featured Rachel on our front page in August 2018, 15 months after she had returned to climbing. She had already done well winning the New Zealand championships that year as well as getting 4th in the USA Adapted Climbing Championships. She was off to Austria in September to the International Federation of Sport Climbing World Championships.

Now, Rachel is working toward representing New Zealand in para-climbing at the Paralympics. However, she needs critical funding to reach two World Cups this year, in Japan and Korea, in October and November. She says “I currently have no sponsorship, so this path is entirely self-funded. I’m saving hard, have refinanced my mortgage, and I’m working on some art to sell too.”

Despite battling chronic pain every day and ironically having a fear of heights, she is determined to get to the debut paraclimbing event in Los Angeles in 2028. She trains from her garage because there are no climbing facilities in Whanganui.
She says, “This fundraising goal covers my core costs — but even having someone to belay me in training at international events (hold the rope) means raising additional funds to bring a coach or support person along.

My goal is simple: to stand on the world stage and show what’s possible when resilience is built quietly, over time — and to bring my community with me, from the Whanganui River to rocks to rings.”

On her Givealittle page she adds, “This journey is about showing that strength doesn’t always look loud — sometimes it looks like getting up again, and again.
If this resonates, you can also support by sharing this page, following along on social media, or booking me as a speaker for your school or business.”

https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/from-garage-training-to-the-world-stage

16/07/2024

Time for another Women’s Climbing Symposium 😁
Hope to see you there!

08/04/2024

As some of you may know by now my coaching obsession is not just with lazy bums, jolly giraffes and try hard turtles - I’m also pretty keen on feet!

For me climbing is a vertical dance and it is my mission to teach you all the moves to this wonderful diverse dance so you can enjoy the feeling of climbing to its fullest.
As all good dancers know, it all starts with the feet - funnily enough it’s very often the same in climbing!

🎯Footwork: it’s not the most fun part of climbing but fundamentally so much of climbing starts at the toes. Get your foot placements as accurate as possible and the rest of the body stands its best chance of performing efficiently and effectively.

Awareness into the feet is one of the most common missed aspects and the first weak link in the chain that I see.

Think feet first during your warm up climbs for a while and see what happens 🤔