The cultural politics of naming outdoor rock climbing routes

Abstract

ABSTRACT In outdoor rock climbing, the first person who successfully ascends and sets up a route – the first ascensionist – chooses a name for it. Some first ascensionists issue discriminatory route names. This article explores how one group of climbing women negotiates misogynistic route names. I qualitatively analyse seventeen, individual, semi-structured interviews and four focus group interviews, and six themes emerge: frustration, helplessness, exclusion, internalized sexism, pushback, and intersection of sexism and settler colonialism. Adopting an intersectional feminist approach, I argue that the politics of naming routes cannot be divorced from a settler-colonial logic that has long used (re)naming land as a strategy for nation-building. I suggest incorporating decolonial theories into outdoor rock climbing to create more inclusive leisure environments.