The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
‘Armed with little baby steps, you can do anything. I’ve proven that over and over’
Dierdre Wolownick, learned to climb when she was 60 so she could be closer to her son Alex Honnold, the most famous free solo climber in the world. At 70, she became the oldest women to ascend El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park, one of the largest granite rocks on earth
I grew up in a house of grey smoke; both my parents smoked. My father always had a cigar in his fingers. I used to be out of breath just getting out of my chair, then I found running and at 55 I ran my first marathon. It wasn’t until years later that I tried climbing.
Around 12 years ago, I had been reading an article about my son Alex Honnold. He was still living at home and would get these articles in magazines mailed to him. I was dealing with deaths in the family and working full time, I didn’t have any time to sit and ponder what he was actually up to. I didn’t know anything about climbing.
He was home one day, and he couldn’t climb, due to an arm injury, but he could belay [secure the safety rope for a climber]. So I asked him to take me to the climbing gym, so I could get familiar with some of the climbing jargon in the articles I was reading. I’ve taught foreign languages all my life but this was a language that I didn’t understand a word of.
I got on the wall and I loved it. I was attached to this rope with the strongest belayer in the world on the other end. I climbed something like 12 walls that day. I had an amazing time.
I had been a climber as a little girl. I’d always loved it. But I wasn’t supposed to do it back then. I was supposed to wear dresses and behave myself. Girls lived at home until they got married. End of story. Boys were king, and girls were chore people – you know all that nonsense about little girls back then.
After my first climb, Alex left and went on another adventure. But I wanted to go back to the wall. It took me more than a month to pluck up the courage to return to the climbing gym, not knowing anything or anybody.
I went back one day after work, and I just kind of ambled about watching the other people. I was totally out of place, like a fish out of water. It was extremely intimidating, but I desperately wanted to try it again. I found a group with an odd number of people. One person was standing on the ground waiting, so I walked up to him and said: “Would you like a belay?” and I started making friends at the gym.
Age wasn’t really part of the equation at the beginning at all, I just knew that I wanted to try it. I didn’t announce how old I was to anybody. No matter what it is that you want to try, age is absolutely meaningless. As long as your body cooperates, age is just a number. There are old people in their 40s and there are young people in their 90s. It’s all mental.
After the gym, I studied up online, it was just a question of commitment. I wanted to do it. I was gonna go do it. I climbed for years, then on my 70th birthday I climbed El Capitan’s 7,573ft vertical rock face – it was one of the proudest moments of my life.
One thing I really love about outdoor climbing is that you get to go to these unimaginably gorgeous places around the world and the only way to see the mind-boggling views on offer is to climb. It’s life changing.
Over the years, I think Alex and I have both inspired each other. I was a climber when I was a little girl in New York. We would climb from the tree outside our home onto the garage roof, up the streetlights and buildings, so I think he got that genetic tendency from me, but he took it to a completely different level – a superhuman level.
I learned that you can’t second guess yourself. I’ve learned that you can do anything if you break it down into teeny-tiny little baby steps. All you need to do is find out the baby steps required for anything that you want to accomplish. Armed with this knowledge, you can do anything. I’ve proven that over and over again.
Read more about Dierdre Wolownick’s story in her book ‘The Sharp End of Life: A Mother’s Story’. A film about her life is due to be released next year