First Female Ascent of Black Mamba (5.14b/8c): Interviewing Mary Eden

In today's podcast, we have one of our athletes, Mary Eden, also known as @TradPrincess joining us with Tom Randall. She has recently achieved the first female ascent of one of the hardest roof crack climbs in the world, Black Mamba (5.14b/8c) in White Rim, Utah.

This route had its first ascent in 2019 by the Wideboyz, but it remained unrepeated until this year. The climbing powerhouse, who mentors many new crack climbers, wanted to take it a step further and attempt this gnarly route.

They talk through  Mary’s approach to climbing and training, highlighting how she has never thought of herself as a ‘talented’ or ‘natural’ climber. They delve into the lifestyle challenges that accompany training and climbing when pushing higher grades.

Key topics covered include:

• Mary's climbing journey and her limited knowledge of training methods in the early years
• How she embraces the concept of learning through failure and the impact this has had on her climbing
• How her approach to climbing and training differed as she progressed to 5.12a/f7a
• What training strategies did she adopt that propelled her into the 5.13a/f7c+ grades
• Sharing top tips she has learnt over five years of focusing on pushing her climbing performance

Want to hear more from Mary Eden and Tom Randall? Head over to our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more!

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.