Is Climbing Good Training for Becoming a Parent? Hazel Findlay Thinks So.

Just a couple months after giving birth to her daughter Aliette, Hazel Findlay shared her tips on climbing through pregnancy in a Black Diamond article based on her experience.

Findlay climbed through nearly all of her pregnancy. That’s wildly impressive if you (like me) know firsthand just how uncomfortable a pregnancy harness is. Not to mention all the other physical challenges of carrying a baby that make climbing more difficult and uncomfortable.

Now, just a few months postpartum, Findlay is back at it, training in the gym and going on a bouldering trip with her family. That should come as no surprise, since this British climber is one of the world’s greatest, with a slew of first ascents, first female ascents, and more achievements to her name.

As Findlay eases back into the role of pro climber, she has no shortage of other demands on her time: being a mom, nursing, finishing up her master’s degree in neuroscience and psychology, and running her business “Strong Mind Climbing” with her husband Angus Kille. Yet during our interview, none of this seemed to stress Findlay out. She exuded vibes so placid, it felt almost unbelievable that off-screen, an infant demanded her attention night and day.

This led me to wonder: Could Findlay’s even-keeled mentality not only be the secret to climbing better, but also to doing life better?

I sat down to catch up with Findlay on her greatest fears, how she switches into “free solo mode,” and where her mindset is at today.

Watch an excerpt from our interview with Hazel:

This interview has been edited for clarity and concision. 

Climbing: What motivated you to write your article for Black Diamond on climbing during pregnancy? 

Hazel Findlay: It’s what I would have wanted to have read when I found out I got pregnant. What’s weird is when you Google climbing in pregnancy, a lot of stuff comes up, but I found it to be really inadequate honestly. There are a few bits and bobs that are helpful, especially from other elite-level climbers and some coaches and trainers and stuff, but I also found information that was just screaming BS at me. I’m an expert climber, but I’m not an expert in what’s safe and what’s not in pregnancy. And I was like, “Oh, wow. This is a minefield.” So that’s what inspired me to write it.

Climbing: What stood out to you as BS in the existing resources on climbing while pregnant? 

Findlay: Fast rules—you have to be wearing a full-body harness by this point, or you can definitely boulder safely or you can’t boulder safely. Stuff like that, where I know enough about climbing and my body to know that rules like that just don’t really make sense. You need more detailed information to make better risk decisions than just following rules like that.

Climbing: What was the response like to your article? Was it what you expected? 

Findlay: Quite a few people reached out and said they liked it. But in general, with me sharing my journey in pregnancy, people—especially women, but also their partners—have actually been really engaged with it. In general, it’s all been really positive.

There is this fine line between inspiration and comparison. I hope it comes across that what I’d love is for people reading this article to take the information that’s useful and figure out what they themselves want to do in their pregnancy or postpartum—not just “what Hazel’s done is a template to copy.”

Climbing: Do you see yourself continuing to provide guidance to pregnant or postpartum climbers? 

In the one-to-one coaching I’m doing with women coming back postpartum, something that I hear over and over again is: “My body recovered eventually, but what I’m really struggling with is being as mentally switched on as I was.”

A lot of women assume that it’s because they’ve got more responsibility and they don’t want to make the same risk decisions. But I think in many cases, it’s also just because you’ve had so much time off and people don’t give themselves grace. They work so hard to get physically back. Then they think, “I’m physically back, therefore my mind should be back, too.”

Climbing: In your Black Diamond article, you talk about switching into “free solo mode.” What does that mode entail and how do you activate it? 

Findlay: It’s something I practiced as a climber quite a lot prior to being pregnant.

We all know what it feels like to some extent. When you’re driving in a car, you have to be focused. You can’t switch off and just accidentally swerve into oncoming traffic. People freak out even more when you talk about it in the context of climbing when pregnant, but we all are in that situation at different times in our lives, all the time. Just carrying your baby down the stairs, it’s the same as walking down the stairs or climbing an easy boulder problem when you’re pregnant. You can’t mess up or otherwise you could harm your baby.

Climbing: Do you feel like you’re better prepared to weigh those risk decisions since you have so much experience doing that as a climber?

Findlay: Being a climber before being a parent is good training because never before in my life have I had to make so many risk decisions outside of climbing. As soon as you have a baby, all of a sudden it feels like every day you’re weighing stuff up. With a little baby, it’s: Where’s the absolute safest place for them to sleep? But what if they cry the whole time in the safe sleep position? So, you have to weigh the actual risks and consider the cost of trying to remove all risks. In climbing, the cost of removing all risk is that you’d probably never leave the ground. The cost in parenting could be an unhappy child or a sleep-deprived parent.

Climbing: You said on The Struggle podcast that one of your greatest fears is what other people think about you. Did you fear other people’s perceptions while climbing pregnant—and now as a mom?

Findlay: To be honest, I’ve been better at it since being pregnant and being a mom. As I get older, I’m just better at boundaries. When you’re pregnant, you really have to prioritize your body and your health. So to some extent, you just have to let go of this. It doesn’t make sense to compare yourself to anyone when you’re pregnant. But it’s still something I’m working on and I think it’s something that affects us all, whether we’re aware of it or not.

Something I tried to be mindful of in the [Black Diamond] piece was seeing someone like me climbing pregnant and the takeaway being, “That’s what I should do.” I really hope that at the end of the article, someone might feel more empowered to carve their own path, rather than going, “Okay, Hazel did this, so I’m going to do it, too.”

That’s what I like to do with my social media is not to say, “Hey, everyone, do this.” It’s more like, “Hey, this is my experience and this is what I found to be useful.”

Climbing: Recently, British climber and new mother Shauna Coxsey announced that Adidas dropped her as one of their sponsored athletes. Does this feel like a broader blow to pro climbers who are also moms, or do you see it as unrelated?

Findlay: It’s wild that Adidas dropped Shauna. I don’t know enough about their reasons behind this to comment, but from my perspective—and I imagine to many other people—Shauna is a much more inspiring athlete since becoming a mum. Since I know her, I also know how much work she put into her return to climbing. People don’t see the dedication, resources, and energy it requires for Shauna to climb the way she does—not only from her, but from her partner.

We have examples of mums climbing hard again after birth, but these are the people we hear about. The reality is that most women don’t get the support or opportunity to continue climbing at a high level postpartum, or they don’t want to because it’s so hard and they have other priorities. But we don’t see these stories because they don’t get the headlines. I hope brands that are more core to climbing will be motivated to prioritize supporting female athletes long term. I think lots of people want that from our sport.

Climbing: Let’s talk about what it’s been like starting to train postpartum for you. How has it felt physically and mentally?

Findlay: I knew it was possible I would have a cesarean section, but deep down, I didn’t think I would. The recovery was so much harder than I ever expected it to be—just those initial days, being completely unable to do normal things, yet you have to look after this baby.

I waited six weeks and just did rehab stuff. I thought I would have to really limit my climbing for a long time—that I wouldn’t be able to try hard or fall off. Then when I started climbing again, I was more able than I thought I would be. So that was a nice moment. Even though I’m really weak, it’s enjoyable because I’m actually able to try hard. So I’ve had a really good time honestly.

But I’m a lot weaker than I thought I would be. I lost a lot of muscle mass at the end of pregnancy. Most people I’ve spoken to say that it’s just a longer road than they thought it would be. And then breastfeeding slows you down massively.

Climbing: How has your first postpartum bouldering trip been going? 

Findlay: Yes, we’re out in Spain climbing. We’ve only had two days of bouldering so far, and they have been really fun. I feel super weak physically and get tired quickly, but it’s nice to feel like I’m pushing my tolerance to exercise again. At the moment, I feel similar mentally—apart from the fact that I am physically weaker and my landing isn’t as strong, I won’t be pushing myself on higher boulders or boulders with bad landings for now.

Climbing: Do you think that your mentality as a climber is evolving? 

Findlay: Right now my intuition is that it won’t. I think it’s going to be more of a time thing. I’m going to have to be a lot more rigorous with my time. But in some ways that can be an opportunity because you don’t do junk climbing—and I’ve had to do that already since I started my business. I can’t afford to have a day that’s not actually that fun.

When I was younger, I would go out all the time. Even when I knew a crag was going to be a bit wet or something, I’d go anyway. Being older and busier, I need to know that I’ll get a good day climbing in—otherwise I need to be home working. So I think that’s going to be the main struggle.

And when you feel more overwhelmed and busy or tired because you’ve been up all night with your kid, maybe you don’t warm up as well—I imagine things like that are going to affect me.

Climbing: What about in terms of risk–will your mentality change in that regard? 

Some of the things that I want to do might change a bit. But because I’ve done so much work on my mindset and I’m really aware of this stuff, I’m probably going to be more on top of it than most people. I’m already at the gym doing fall practice, for example, to make sure that I’m not scared of falling, given the fact that I hadn’t climbed on lead for six months or whatever. So we’ll see.

Climbing: Have you and Angus talked about time yet and how you’ll divide and conquer as a couple who climbs with a baby in the picture? 

Findlay: At the moment, my climbing is getting prioritized slightly above his climbing. Angus did one of his coolest routes he’s ever done this year—he put up a hard first ascent. And he climbed some other cool stuff and I’ve just been pregnant all year. The level of sacrifice is pretty different and I’m having to recover.

While she’s still young, we’ll just take her everywhere. Maybe we’ll try and get some help—a third pair of hands at the crag. And then just climbing locally. While I’m still breastfeeding, I can’t really escape for more than a few hours at a time. She doesn’t take the bottle.

Climbing: Do you have any guidance for dads when it comes to supporting their wives while they’re climbing pregnant or postpartum?

Findlay: This is the advice that James Pearson gave Angus towards the end of my pregnancy: Whatever she says or does in this last month of pregnancy, you just have to give her a free pass. She doesn’t mean it—just let it go.

I think a lot of partners have to be the rock and just suck it up because the woman is going through so much. That’s hard because everyone knows how hard it is for the woman, but we don’t talk about how hard it is for the man. So the other piece of advice would be for the partner to nurture their support network so that they have people to talk to and support them because it’s unlikely that the mother-to-be will be able to.

Climbing: With so much going on in your life and now becoming a mom, do you plan to reprioritize at all?

Findlay: I think everyone struggles a lot when they return to full-time work. It’s really hard, especially for mothers. Whether you’re working for yourself or you’re working for a company, it’s all just hard. But Black Diamond still supports me, which allows me to prioritize climbing and I’m massively grateful for that. I kind of thought, “When my child is born, will I be so uninterested in everything else?” Because in pregnancy, my brain shut off to a lot of other things. But within three weeks, I was like, “I want to get back to work.” I was actually really motivated. I know that is not the same for everyone, but I’m glad because as much as I love my child, I don’t want that to be everything about me.

About the photographer: Lena Drapella is a UK-based climber and a commercial outdoor photographer, specializing in adventure sports and climbing events. She is the first official female photographer working with the IFSC and documented climbing during the 2024 Paris Olympics. She is deeply committed to promoting gender equity, striving to narrow the gender gap in sports, media, and the outdoors.

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