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Joanne Stamplis - rock climber
Are you sitting at work at the moment, looking outside at the beautiful weather and wishing you were out there taking advantage of it? I know I am. There’s also a fair chance that in Oregon in the United States, Joanne Stamplis is doing the same thing!Joanne is a rock climber who is currently living in Oregon, and has just taken a year off to tour the United States and climb every day. She says that she doesn’t much like her working life, and after a year it’s pretty tough to get back into it again. However, she’s committed to her work - because that’s what will help her save up enough to take another year off so she can climb and travel again!
Joanne got started in rock climbing when she moved from Michigan to Oregon. She describes herself as an athlete who loves to climb, and doesn’t mind sharing her knowledge with newbies by helping out at local climbing classes.
Joanne started climbing with her husband, who is also her climbing role model. She says that her husband is so calm and fearless when he climbs, and that she has to work hard to get to that state. She would love to be able to dedicate her attention to purely climbing and not worry about falling, but hasn’t quite got to that stage yet. In Joanne’s experience, climbing is a male dominated activity and suggests that this might be because it’s natural for women to be more conservative and therefore limited with regards to participation or getting better at the sport. aHowever, she does say that she thinks more women are getting into climbing, and it helps to have very strong and famous women climbers like Lynn Hill and Beth Rodden as role models.
Joanne has climbed in many states and has experience in many different styles or climbing and rock types. She says that her strongest achievement is the Pervetical Sanctuary, Longs Peak, in 15 hours from car to car! Her advice to other is to enjoy the outdoors and have fun - and remember that you can’t go climbing all the time. Sometimes you have to work so you can go climbing!
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