Gear manufacturers have realised that lots of women like the outdoors and they're different shapes from men. Here's what's out there, and where you can buy it.
Climbing
If you love climbing, check out these resources that cater specifically for women climbers and mountaineers. Remember, if you know of a great resource that isn't listed here, contact GO! Girls Outdoors and fix the problem!Organisations
Wild Women on Top is based out of Sydney, Australia and specialises in adventure fitness for women. With Di and the team you pick a climbing, trekking or mountaineering adventure goal, then get assistance with training for and accomplishing your goal. Read the GO! Girls Outdoors profile on Di and Wild Women on Top here!
Women's Mountain Adventures - mountaineering and climbing adventures for women, guided by women, in the Canadian Rockies.
Babes in the Backcountry - an organisation that runs a wide variety of outdoor adventure trips for women, including climbing and mountaineering. Based in Colorado but with trips all over the world.
Passages Northwest run extremely popular and successful rock climbing programs for girls in Seattle, and their Program Director Erica has some interesting things to say about the benefits of rock climbing as a teaching tool.
People
Brigitte Muir is an Australian mountaineer who was the first woman to climb the Seven Summits and the first Australian woman to climb Mt Everest. She lives in Victoria, guides and climbs in Australia and overseas and was one of the first ever profiles on GO! Girls Outdoors!
Heather Swan is currently the only woman in the world to combine BASEjumping and high altitude mountaineering. She holds a number of world records for her jumps and talked to GO! Girls Outdoors about peer pressure in the highly male-dominated sport of BASEjumping.
Priscilla McKenney works for an organisation called GirlVentures in San Francisco, and has an extensive background in Outdoor Education and guiding, including owning her own business guiding mountaineering in the Himalayas.
Robyn Bertram is a recreational rock climber from Ontario, Canada and shared what she thinks makes the sport challenging for women with GO! Girls Outdoors.
Joanne Stamplis is also a recreational climber who works so she can take time off to climb! She lives in Oregon in the USA.
Communities & Websites
Women Climbing website - features biographies, resources, history, links and more. Based in the USA.
She Climbs - a climbing organisation. You can join and go climbing with other groups of members and they also publish a quarterly newsletter. Based in the USA.
Women Climbers Northwest - a loosely organised, outdoor activity group for women based in Seattle, USA. They also publish the Women's Adventure Journal to inpspire and entertain. You can also join the Listserve or become a member.
RockGrrl - a blog and website about women climbing. Entertaining reading!
Women in the Mountains - a useful list of resources, including a detailed list of organisations that run women's climbing trips in the US.
Rockclimbing.com has a particularly active forum, including a Ladies Room where you can go to ask questions or discuss issues with other women climbers.
If you're into Twitter, you might like to befriend the women's climbing community - they're easy to find (search #climb) and choose to follow the ladies. Then ask questions, comment, etc and you'll soon find yourself included.
Books and Papers
Leading Out - Women Climbers Reaching for the Top. A book that tells the stories of a whole lot of climbing women, edited by Rachel Da Silva.
Leading Out: Mountaineering Stories of Adventurous Women - the next in the series by Rachel Da Silva.
Breaking Trail by Arlene Blum. A highly recommended read about mountaineering and science adventures in a time when women just didn't do that sort of thing.
The Wind In My Hair by Brigitte Muir. The story of Brigitte's dream to climb the Seven Summits, a journey that took nine years and four attempts at Everest.
Women Climbing: 200 Years of Achievement
by Bill Birkett & Bill Peascod. An older book (1989) by a brace of blokes called Bill! A woman climber featured in each chapter and the stories go all the way back to the 1700's. Girl on the Rocks: A Woman's Guide to Climbing with Strength, Grace, and Courage
by Katie Brown. A climbing guide for women, by a woman!"Stepping around things": gender relationships in climbing. A paper by Queenslander Jackie Kiewa, published in the Australian Journal of Outdoor Education. [5(2), 4-12.]
You can also go to the forum at GO! Girls Outdoors and start a climbing discussion.