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 Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically an ...

and early competition climber, 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 ...

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 portaledge ...

and

bouldering Bouldering is a form of free climbing that is performed on small rock formations or artificial rock walls without the use of ropes or harnesses. While bouldering can be done without any equipment, most climbers use climbing shoes to help sec ...

Biography

She began sport climbing in Kentucky at the age of 13, and in 1995 at age 14 she won the

X Games The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, ...

and a climbing Junior World Championship in Laval. In 1996 and 1997 she won both the

Rock Master Rock Master is an international climbing competition held every year in Arco, Italy. The event takes place in two rounds: the first is an on-sight __NOTOC__ This glossary of climbing terms is a list of definitions of terms and jargon related ...

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

. In 1999 she clinched a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

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 Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

Half Dome Half Dome is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape. One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smoot ...

, 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 of

Leaning Tower This is a list of leaning towers. A leaning tower is a tower which, either intentionally or unintentionally (due to errors in design, construction, or subsequent external influence such as unstable ground), does not stand perpendicular to the gr ...

. 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 Ba ...

ThankYou Card commercial along with

Alex Honnold Alexander Honnold (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big walls. Honnold rose to prominence in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a f ...

, climbing

Fisher Towers Fisher Towers are a series of towers made of Cutler sandstone capped with Moenkopi sandstone and caked with a stucco of red mud located near Moab, Utah (). The Towers are named for a miner who lived near them in the 1880s. The Towers are world-re ...

near

Moab, Utah Moab () is the largest city and county seat of Grand County in eastern Utah in the western United States, known for its dramatic scenery. The population was 5,366 at the 2020 census. Moab attracts many tourists annually, mostly visitors to th ...

. She also appeared in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. 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, an ...

'' 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 The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature is an annual prize of £3,000 awarded by the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust to an author or authors for "an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature". The pr ...

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