Wild Ideas Worth Living | Interviews On Adventure, Outdoors, Travel, Health, Fitness, Running, Business, Surfing, Exploring

Beth’s Wild Idea: To become a world class rock climber, and inspire others to find their own drive and definition of happiness and success.  Beth Rodden started climbing in indoor gyms when she was 14. She quickly won national competitions, and then began climbing outside around the world. She became famous for free climbing the nose on El Capitan. She also completed many other first ascents, like free climbing the Meltown, a 5.14c route in Yosemite, where she showed the world women can climb as well as men. It hasn’t all been easy on and off the wall for Beth, though. In 2000, Beth and three of her climbing partners were on a climbing trip in Kyrgyzstan when they were captured by members of the IMU, a militant group. They escaped on the sixth day, but no one at home even knew they’d been kidnapped. A few years later, Beth went through a divorce. After that, she decided to break down her own ideals about perfectionism and being a constant overachiever.  I love Beth’s story because it’s honest, and perfectioni