Book Talk: Zofia Reych - Born to Climb

“Born to Climb: From Rock Climbing Pioneers to Olympic Athletes” is a cultural history of rock and competition climbing, interwoven with poignant personal stories and inspiring tales from the community.

The book goes beyond individual dates and events, instead tracing the sociopolitical context which made climbing into the discipline we know today. Fast-paced stories of adventure and breakthrough ascents are merely pieces of a broader narrative revealed to the reader across twenty chapters that critically explore the development of modern climbing. As Olympic climbing establishes itself as a mainstream spectator sport, recurring voices bemoan the loss of the discipline’s countercultural heritage and rail against its popularisation; nearly every climber over 20 years of age remembers a time when crags were empty and gyms were a secret hangout of a nearly clandestine society.

In their talk, Reych traces the connections between the emergence of a modern capitalist society, mass media, and more than two centuries of climbers’ antics on rocks, proving that climbing is, after all, not that dissimilar to football. Reych takes another look at the good and the bad of climbing’s mass appeal, from increased diversity to sustainability challenges, and argues that while the sport’s place within the mainstream is now more obvious than ever, the relationship is as old as the discipline itself.