encourages underrepresented climbers to reach new heights

“Icertainly would say that I am afraid of heights,” said Mari Hardel, president of the North Shore VertiGals, a group of rock climbers from the northwoods of Minnesota and Wisconsin, “although that height at which I’m uncomfortable has been increasing the longer I’ve been climbing.”

VertiGals informally began around March 2017 when co-founders Erin Hammes and Molly Wick started hosting monthly climb nights at Vertical Endeavors to foster a community of women climbers.

Through word-of-mouth and social media, the group grew in popularity and created a board in June 2018.

“It’s an intimidating sport for people to start out,” Hardel said. “You really can’t do it by yourself, so you need somebody or a group of people to mentor you, or belay you, or to go out with you.”

The goal of VertiGals is to “strengthen our climbing community through fostering diversity and supporting climbers of all ages and skills by creating a safe space to climb, learn, and grow,” according to their website.

Diversity is important to the group, which now has 250 members on Facebook, and they make it clear in their mission statement that VertiGals is open to all women, cisgender and transgender, trans people of all genders, and gender nonconforming folks.

“We wanted this group to be inclusive of anybody who doesn’t feel like they fit in with that male-dominated culture that the sport often feels like it is,” Hardel said.

Hardel tried climbing as a freshman in college, but it didn’t stick, partially due to her fear of heights. A few years later, she met her now-husband, who was an avid climber

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