Nina Williams

Nina Williams (born August 21, 1990) is an American professional rock climber based in Boulder, Colorado, known primarily for her practice of highball bouldering.

Nina Williams was born and raised in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. She began rock climbing in New Hampshire in 2002 after testing ballet, football and horseback riding. In 2017, Nina wrote a personal essay for Rock and Ice magazine. She talks about the events that occurred during her adolescence, in fact, she cheated by falsifying the results during a qualifying regional competition of the USA Climbing. This incident earned him a ban from competitions for the season. In 2016, she gave an interview to Chris Weidner in which she said that the high pressure she was under and the lack of self-confidence had pushed her to cheat. To return to competition, Nina had to find a new mental approach. She writes that rather than climbing for the approval of others, she “would climb because she loved it. »

In 2015, she climbed her first boulder rated 8B (V13) in Rocklands, South Africa while achieving the first female ascent of Ray of Light. Nina is known for her practice of highball bouldering, which consists of climbing very high blocks without a rope, thus combining the physical side of bouldering and the mental side of free soloing. In 2017, she made the first female ascent of Ambrosia at Buttermilks, which Climbing Magazine called “the hardest free solo ever by a woman”. Nina also climbs two other difficult routes on the same boulder: Evilution Direct (8A) and Footprints (7C+). Achieving these three paths, allows her to complete what is called the “Grandpa Peabody Trifecta”, she is the first woman to do so.

In February 2018, she made the fourth ascent (and first female) of Window Shopper 8A+ (V12) in Boulder, Colorado7. In March 2019, she made the seventh ascent (and first female) of Too Big to Flail 7C+ (V10), a highball of more than 15 meters at Buttermilks. She makes an appearance in the short film The High Road (2019), selected for the Banff Mountain Film Festival and shown on the Reelrock 14 film tour. The film focused on Nina’s rope preparation in anticipation of climbing a highball. It ends with his ascent of Too Big to Flail 7C+ (V10), a highball over 15m at Buttermilks. In 2016, she released Final Frontier, a multi-pitch route rated 5.13b in Yosemite, as well as Father Time (5.13b) in 2018.

Notable climbs:

2015: Speed of Life V10, Farley, Massachusetts

2015: Footprints V9, Bishop, CA

2015: Ray of Light V13, Rocklands, South Africa — First female ascent

2016: Final Frontier 5.13b, Yosemite, CA10

2016: Evilution Direct V11, Bishop, California — First female ascent

2017: Ambrosia V11, Bishop, CA – First female ascent, first female to complete the Grandpa Peabody trifecta

2018: Father Time 5.13b, Yosemite, CA

2018: Window Shopper V12, Boulder, Colorado — First female ascent

2019: Too Big To Flail V10, Bishop, California — Seventh ascent, first female ascent