The “Texas Lady Crushers” Provide an Important (and Much-needed) Space for Climbers
Emilie Hernandez and Texas Lady Crushers are bringing diversity to climbing, one women-led clinic at a time.
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Texas Lady Crushers (TxLC) began as a simple meet-up group for rock climbing women and non-binary and non-gender conforming individuals who live and travel throughout the state.
TxLC has hosted many events since its January 2018 inception, from free, members-only meet ups to its first retreat, at Hueco Tanks in March 2020, where Hernandez saw the value of professional instruction. While pay-to-play events provided “top-notch education in a more controlled environment,” she says, “this alienated most of our members, and I wasn’t a fan of that.” Hernandez says that high costs, access, and a lack of mentorship are recurrent themes in the climbing world and, to better serve her community, she resolved to create her own guiding company.
“TxLC became an LLC in November 2020 and we’ve been working to change the course of Texas climbing HERstory ever since,” Hernandez says.
“Thanks in part to the dedicated leaders who stepped up to help me over the last four years, TxLC has provided community-based and educational opportunities for our members and the entire climbing community. I can confidently say that each meetup, volunteer project, and clinic has positively impacted everyone involved. During Thanksgiving 2021, I watched what had been a dream become reality: The TxLC Mentorship Weekend was a free, two-day immersive clinic taught by certified female rock climbing guides [who emphasized] advanced skills, community, and an introduction to guiding,” she says.