HERA Ovarian Cancer Climb for Life^SM
Colorado

Pro Athletes

Bobbi Bensman

Bobbi Bensman has been climbing since 1980 and has climbed all over the world. She was the winner of many national competitions both sport climbing as well as bouldering.

She has done well over 160 ascents of the grade 5.13, authored the book, Bouldering with Bobbi Bensman, and pioneered first ascents in Arizona, Colorado, and the East Side of the Sierra.

In recent history, she lives in Boulder, Co. with her husband, Steve and two daughters, Addison and Morgan, and still continues to penetrate the climbing scene in a 'bouldering fashion,' and has a passion for ultra endurance mountain bike racing.

Jason Kehl
Jarrettsville, MD

I’ve been climbing in some form or another for most of my life and been interested in art for just as long. I started rock climbing over 10 years ago. Climbing always interested me because it is a great way to express yourself using your body, sometimes aggressive like a brutal fight and some times slow and seductive like a ritualistic dance. In that way I see climbing as good artistic outlet. I think my evolvement in the climbing world reflects theses ideas and I try to project this to whoever is willing to listen.

When/where were you born?
Baltimore, 1976

Started climbing when/where?
Baltimore, 1993

Favorite climbing area?
I mostly prefer sandstone bouldering, so the south east is a great place for that, Joes Valley is wicked too!

What was your scariest climbing moment?
Topping out on the first ascent of Evilution. Good Times.

Who are your heroes/role models?
Anyone who pushes their limit.

Do you have any knicknames
Hova, Le Croquemort.

Do you have any pre-climb rituals?
Tea and Stretching, alcohol to clean the hands.

What do you do when you're not climbing?
Art, Photo, Sculpture, Graphic Design, Workout.

What are your climbing goals?
To climb the most beautiful lines an are has to offer. The bigger the better, boulders always look nicer on a grand scale.

Alli Rainey

Climbing since 1992, Harvard graduate Alli Rainey lasted for a single year working a real-world job before she chose to take a different route, becoming a rock climber and freelance writer. As a climber, Alli’s accomplishments range from redpoints of more than 40 5.13’s up to 5.13+ (including many unrepeated first ascents and first female ascents) and onsights of more than 200 5.12’s up to 5.12d, to bouldering V9, to winning and placing highly in numerous local, regional, and national bouldering competitions throughout her tenure as a climber. Alli’s climbing sponsors include Acopa, Clif Bar, Flashed, Native Eyewear, Petzl, prAna, and Rocky Mountain Sunscreen. As a writer, to date Alli has completed several full-length book projects, including Bouldering USA, as well as writing numerous articles for a variety of magazines and journals, including a monthly rock-climbing column she wrote for seven years for Rocky Mountain Sports and articles published Men's Fitness, Rock & Ice, Climbing, Alpinist, Gripped, American Alpine News, and Boulder Magazine, among many others.

Lately, Alli’s focus in the climbing community at large has turned to public service, with her efforts geared toward participating in as many community-oriented climbing events that she can fit into her traveling-climber/writer lifestyle. You’ll find Alli at community-oriented happenings such as the C5 Youth Foundation’s climbing program, HERA Climb for Life events, and more. Alli’s philosophy is simple: she believes that it’s these types of events — the unique opportunities to reach out to the climbing community and/or the community at large and to speak the language she knows best (the language of rock climbing) — that enable her to positively impact the world around her in the most effective way she can. In sharing her infectious passion for rock climbing, which has defined and shaped so much of her world, lifestyle, and core being, Alli has found a way to take her relationship with climbing onto the more meaningful level of benefiting others.

When she’s not climbing or writing, Alli enjoys spending her time training; exploring and playing in the woods and the desert with her friends and her dog, Jedi; cooking; reading; listening to and playing music; eating good food (good being a relative term, since anything tastes good if you’re hungry enough); running; and laughing.

Tonya Riggs

Tonya Riggs is the 20th US woman to have climbed Mt. Everest, and the fifth of just nine American women to have reached the top of Everest by the treacherous North Ridge. She did not begin climbing until her 30’s, however since discovering her passion for climbing she has advanced quickly, becoming a talented technical rock, ice and mountain climber. Tonya has led major expeditions around the globe, including locations such as Nepal, Africa and Peru. Tonya has been fortunate enough to combine her personal passion with her professional life as she is the Director of Sales for Stonewear Designs, a manufacturer of women’s rock climbing and yoga apparel. Prior to her work at Stonewear Designs, Tonya spent over a decade teaching leadership development, team building and performance management to Fortune 500 companies.

Lizzy Scully

Lizzy Scully, a professional writer/editor with a master's degree in communications from Utah State University, is also an avid rock climber who has been on numerous expeditions abroad, including to Pakistan and India.She writes for various publications, including Rock & Ice and Climbing magazine, and she's been published in dozens of other publications, both online and in print. She regularly volunteers for the HERA Foundation, and she's organized numerous fund-raising events for various nonprofits. Her life's goal is to empower women and girls with education and opportunities. She hopes to accomplish this through her work with her nonprofit, Girls Education International. To read more about Lizzy, visit her blog: lizzyscully.blogspot.com

Abbey L Smith

For the last 10 years, Boulder, Colorado-based freelance writer Abbey Smith has been rock climbing and documenting her exotic travels around the world. Her work has been featured in Climbing, Urban Climber, Dead Point Magazine, Alpinist, Rock & Ice, elephant journal and various online magazines. She is sponsored by Marmot, La Sportiva, Revolution, and Verve.

Kevin Wilkinson

Climbing since 1999, rock climber Kevin Wilkinson spent nearly a decade working as a backcountry ranger for Canada’s B.C. Parks before he decided that even four months away from climbing every year was too much. Since 2007, then, Kevin has made climbing even more his reality, traveling to locales both far and near to pursue his passion. To date, his accomplishments include redpoints of nearly 20 5.14s, onsights of 30 5.13s, 125 first ascents in Japan, Canada, Spain, and the U.S., and equipping routes in Maple Canyon, UT; Last Chance Canyon, NM; Ten Sleep Canyon, WY; Lakit and Saint, BC; among others. Kevin’s sponsors for rock climbing include La Sportiva, Petzl, and prAna. The writer of two self-published guidebooks (Lakit, BC and Saint, BC), Kevin has also bouldered V11/12.

When Kevin isn’t climbing or training for climbing, he uses climbing as a vehicle to give back to the climbing community and the community at large. Kevin’s community participation has included events such as Rocktoberfest, HERA Climb for Life, and the American Alpine Club’s annual gathering, as well as helping to found and coordinate the inaugural climbing program for the C5 Youth Foundation (www.c5yf.org) in the summer of 2008. Sharing his passion for climbing with others through teaching and outreach programs provides Kevin with the opportunity to support the growth and development of this sport both within the community and beyond, while helping to promote the companies he believes in in the process.

Outside of climbing, Kevin enjoys searching for new rock, riding his motorbike, and of course, eating gummy bears.

Heidi Wirtz

Heidi’s love for adventure and exploration has been the driving force behind her climbing accomplishments. She enjoys all types of climbing, finding herself high on giant rock walls and frozen waterfalls throughout the world. She has been climbing in the U.S. as well as parts of Canada, Baja, Great Britain, South America, and India over the past twelve years and doesn’t plan to ease up on her globe-trotting any time soon, with plans to climb in Europe, Tazmania, and Greenland in the near future. While continually raising the bar for her personal performance and for women’s climbing in general, Heidi envisions a broader view for her role in the sport in the years ahead, hoping to do more work with people in need around the world and create opportunities to “give back, help and inspire.”