TBP 255: Emily Harrington, Paige Claassen, and Angie Payne on Motherhood & Climbing

I sat down with current (and past) professional climbers Emily Harrington, Paige Claassen, and Angie Payne to talk about how becoming mothers in the past couple years has changed their lives as climbers. 

Emily Harrington is known for her hard sport ascents (up to 5.14b or 8c), her one-day ascent of El Cap, her ascents of Everest and other big peaks, and her epic skiing accomplishments. 

Paige Claassen is known for her hard sport ascents (up to 5.14d or 9a) and her recent ascent (post baby) of a V14/5.14d in Rocklands. 

Angela Payne is known for her accolades as a competition climber in the 2000's and the fact that she was the first woman to send V13. 

But beyond that, they're really incredible, dynamic, intelligent people who grew up together. Their close relationship and the fact that they all became mothers at around the same time is part of why I asked them to be on the show all together as more of a friendly conversation between old friends.

I wanted to give the world more of an in-depth picture of these elite climbers' lives than we see on social media. 

What We Talked About

• How they all love being a mom even more than they thought they would
• How being a mom has changed their climbing
• What's been harder about motherhood than they thought it would be
• Any long-lasting physical changes they've experienced, and how that's affected their climbing
• Where they are now in their climbing compared with pre-baby
• Some interesting comments they got on social media throughout pregnancy and motherhood
• Some awkward comments they got in person about their bodies, etc
• How they've been affected mentally in their climbing by having a child 
• Whether or not they think their best days of climbing are still ahead of them
• Bonus content on Patreon

There's some bonus content at the end of this episode about how they would've liked to have been talked to by strangers and friends during pregnancy and afterward, whether they want more kids, and how their sponsors responded to their pregnancy. You can find that bonus content and the uncut, ad-free episode without intro or outro on my Patreon page.

I hope you love this conversation as much as I did! It's not only for mothers, but for anyone who wants to understand motherhood through elite climbers' eyes.