Lisa climbs harder than most women — and men. With gritstone ticks up to E8 (R-rated 5.12+/5.13-) and boulder problems up to V12, she has become a climbing icon, but you wouldn’t get that impression from meeting her.
Lisa is a humble, friendly, and refreshingly eccentric person who has not let fame and success go to her head. In the Rocklands, she is every bit as concerned with my projects as her own, doling out crucial advice on focus, technique, and breathing. And I’m all ears, because Lisa has honed the mind-body-spirit package. Her technique is excellent, her fingers are stronger than bat hooks, her core strength is that of a gymnast, and her passion runs deep.
Sometimes, though, it takes a moment to decipher what she’s saying. She spends several months in England each year with her husband, Wills, and, as a result, speaks in an oddball So-Cal/British patois. “That’s a minging crimp,” she’ll say, or, “I almost had a whitey up there,” or, “That problem is well-hard.”
One well-hard Lisa tick has to be her first ascent of Pinotage, a perfect V11 highball and perhaps the best line at the Sassies. Pinotage climbs ultra-thin crimps to a dynamic finish on the proudest face of the showpiece Ongo Boulder, in the heart of the boulder field. Still, for all her composure on this mighty FA, she’s petrified of riding in the Lightning. In fact, she probably expends more adrenaline white-knuckling to the boulders with me than headpointing fearsome gritstone routes.
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