RunOut #25: Dude, Looks Like a Slaydie Episode

It’s arguably a good time to be a female climber. We’re living through a renaissance of female climbing. The still male-dominated outdoor industry is finally starting to wake up and listen to the needs of a group that has historically been underrepresented in our sport. Just as one example, there’s now more climbing gear for women than ever before, built from the ground up with the female climber in mind—not just the old “shrink it and pink it” approach.

It’s hard not to notice female climbers are everywhere, too—in gyms, at the crags, hashtag #girlswhoclimb, of which I see 330,000 posts on Instagram. There’s women’s climbing festivals and clinics across the country, adventure film festivals like the No Man’s Land film fest, and media that is created by women, of women crushing.

This is Andrew Bisharat, and I’m here with my co-host Chris Kalous. We’re here today with two good friends and slaydies extraordinaire, Emily Harrington and Tara Kerzhner, to rap about all things female-climbing related.

Emily needs no introduction—she’s one of the most prolific female climbers of my generation, pioneering 5.14 first-female ascents in Rifle such as Zulu and the 7 PM Show, to free-climbing El Cap, to summitting Everest and getting into all kinds of other kooky big-mountain shenanigans.

Tara is one of the most core climbers I know. She’s smart, surly, funny, and has been living an itinerant dirtbag life with her bone-crusher husband Greg Kerzhner for years. Tara is also a dedicated filmmaker and photographer—and man, I’ve been really impressed with how good her work has gotten over the years..

You may know Tara for having shot, directed and edited a short film called Slaydies, in which Emily Harrington, Margo Hayes, and Paige Claassen take a climbing trip to Mallorca. It’s a fun film—the girls crush, support each other, braid each other’s hair … that kind of shit. And it got a great response for the most part, too. Tara is now cooking up Sladies 2, which she’s hoping to shoot this fall.

Without further ado, please welcome slaydies Emily Harrington and Tara Kerzhner.