Katie Brown (born 1981)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. is an American female rock climber and early

competition climber A climbing competition (or comp) is usually held indoors on purpose built climbing walls. There are three main types of climbing competition: lead, speed, and bouldering. In lead climbing, the competitors start at the bottom of a route and must c ...

, who also made notable ascents in

sport climbing Sport climbing (or Bolted climbing) is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors (or bolts), permanently fixed into the rock for climber protection, in which a rope that is attached to the climber is clipped into the anchors to ...

big wall climbing Big wall climbing is a type of rock climbing where a climber ascends a long multi-pitch route, normally requiring more than a single day to complete the climb. Big wall routes require the climbing team to live on the route often using portaledges ...

and bouldering.

Biography

She began sport climbing in Kentucky at the age of 13, and in 1995 at age 14 she won the X Games and a climbing Junior World Championship in

Laval Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxem ...

. In 1996 and 1997 she won both the Rock Master in

Arco, Italy Arco is a ''comune'' in Trentino-Alto Adige in northern Italy. The town is faced on one side by sheer limestone cliffs jutting up like a wall protecting it and its ancient hilltop castle. King Francis II of the Two Sicilies died here in 1894. ...

as well as the X Games. In 1999 she clinched a World Cup victory in France. In October 2008, she completed an

onsight __NOTOC__ This glossary of climbing terms is a list of definitions of terms and jargon related to rock climbing and mountaineering. The specific terms used can vary considerably between different English-speaking countries; many of the phrases d ...

ascent of the northwest face of Yosemite National Park's Half Dome, and afterward, along with climber

Lynn Hill Carolynn Marie Hill (born January 3, 1961) is an American rock climber. Widely regarded as one of the leading competitive climbers, traditional climbers (and particularly big wall traditional climbers), sport climbers, and boulderers in the ...

, made the

first female free ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they ent ...

of Leaning Tower. Brown was selected as one of the 2009 "Hot 20 under 40" by '' 7x7SF Magazine'', 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 Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

ThankYou Card commercial along with Alex Honnold, climbing Fisher Towers near Moab, Utah. She also appeared in '' Rolling Stone'' and '' The New York Times''. She was once described by former world champion

as "the best female climber in the history of the sport." 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 The ''Daily Camera'' is a newspaper in Boulder, Colorado, United States. It is owned by Prairie Mountain Publishing, a division of Digital First Media. History Frederick P. Johnson and Bert Bell founded the weekly ''Boulder Camera'' in 1890, and ...

'' and is currently working on a memoir. 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, which won the 2023 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.

References

External links

IFSC profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Katie Living people American rock climbers American female climbers X Games athletes 1981 births 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen Boardman Tasker Prize winners Sportspeople from Kentucky