Brown belaying
Brown climbing in Red Rocks

Katie Brown (born 1981)[1] is an American female rock climber and early competition climber, who also made notable ascents in sport climbing, big wall climbing and bouldering.[2]

Biography

She began sport climbing in Kentucky at the age of 13, and in 1995 at age 14 she won the X Games[3] and a climbing Junior World Championship in Laval.[4] In 1996 and 1997 she won both the Rock Master in Arco, Italy as well as the X Games. In 1999 she clinched a World Cup victory in France.[5]

In October 2008, she completed an onsight ascent of the northwest face of Yosemite National Park's Half Dome, and afterward, along with climber Lynn Hill, made the first female free ascent of Leaning Tower.[6]

Brown was selected as one of the 2009 "Hot 20 under 40" by 7x7SF Magazine,[7] and is the author of the book Girl on the Rocks: A Woman's Guide to Climbing with Strength, Grace, and Courage. Around the same time, she was featured in a Citibank ThankYou Card commercial along with Alex Honnold, climbing Fisher Towers near Moab, Utah. She also appeared in Rolling Stone and The New York Times.[5] She was once described by former world champion Lynn Hill as "the best female climber in the history of the sport."[5]

She left the sport behind and has lived in the Boulder, Colorado area. In 2007 she started a newspaper column about climbing for the Boulder Daily Camera and is currently working on a memoir.[5]

On October 11, 2022, she released the book Unraveled: A Climber’s Journey Through Darkness and Back detailing her struggles and the fallout of her time as a prodigy,[8] which won the 2023 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.

References

  1. ↑ Whiting, Sam (2009-03-13). A star climbs the walls in Berkeley. San Francisco Chronicle, 13 March 2009. Retrieved on 2012-02-11 from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/13/DD1R15P890.DTL.
  2. ↑ Brown, Katie (2022-10-07). "What Ever Happened to Katie Brown?". Climbing. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  3. ↑ "Women Climbing: History: Timeline: 1990-1999". Archived from the original on 2012-01-10. Retrieved 2011-12-26.
  4. ↑ "UIAA Youth Worldchampionship - Laval 1995 - Result: female youth B lead". ifsc-climbing.org. 6 October 1995. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Wicked Gravity: Fallen star, Katie Brown, shines new light". Boulder Daily Camera. 2020-01-21. Retrieved 2020-03-14.
  6. ↑ Douglas MacDonald (10 October 2008). "Katie Brown: Half Dome All-Free Onsight". Climbing. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Hot 20 2009: Katie Brown, Top-Ranked Climber". 10 July 2007.
  8. ↑ Miller, Delaney (2022-10-10). "Katie Brown's Book 'Unraveled' Broke My Heart. I'm Glad I Read It". Climbing. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
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