Adeline Wright is an athletic phenom with the kind of singular focus that makes the greats great. The up-and-coming sport climber is entirely dedicated to her craft. She has developed every muscle for maximum agility—her biceps to pull up and hold the weight of her body beneath boulders, the core to maneuver her form between pockets, and her forearms to maintain grip for maximum control. As one of few Black women competing in the sport, Ady is on a mission to lower the rope so others can climb up.
The twenty-something athlete never set out to be a professional climber. It wasn’t an occupational option in her early worldview. And there were no vast mountain ranges in the Bronx borough where she grew up, so she honed her skills on indoor walls for the first six years of her climbing career. “I didn’t do an outdoor climb for the first time until just after quarantine lifted,” she told ESSENCE. “It was with Brown Girls Climb. I do a lot of work through my gym for the organization, so when they went on their first [post-quarantine] meetup, they invited me to come along.” For Ady, it was love at first outdoor climb. From that moment onward, there was no turning back.
Ady’s profile is a deviation from the norm for the sport. A typical climber’s demographics are white, male, suburban, and relatively affluent. It makes sense. Recreational outdoor climbing requires significant resources in time, money, and access—all of which are substantial barriers in working-class and lower-income communities of color. Full-time work in low-wage jobs leaves little time for expensive hobbies. For that matter, in many households, making rent, utilities, and groceries each month is an extreme sport. Regarding access, Black and Hispanic families, traditionally relegated to red-lined neighborhoods, are three times more likely to live in environments considered to be nature deprived. The deck is stacked from every angle against inclusion for the would-be Ady’s of the world—it’s a glaring equity gap that The North Face aims to bridge.
As part of a commitment to cultivating inclusive experiences in extreme outdoor sports, The North Face recently launched an Athlete Development Program (ADP) to eliminate barriers to access for underrepresented communities. The program provides select athletes with two-year contracts, including payment and funding for gear, climbing expeditions, and training. It also includes one-to-one mentorship with an athlete from The North Face. Ady is among 17 athletes selected for the program’s inaugural run. The sponsorship opens up a world of opportunity for the climbing instructor and accelerates her goal to “amplify voices of black athletes, educators, setters, and coaches.”
I spoke with the trailblazing athlete about her experience as a Black woman in the white male dominant sport and her hopes for reaching a more diverse landscape in climbing.
Reaching for higher ground.
Outdoor climbing is a social sport. Bonds are often forged between climbers as they share the challenge of pushing their physical and mental limits together. For Ady, the teamwork and communication involved in outdoor climbing are essential to the experience. “It was just so incredibly supportive every step of the way,” she said, recalling her first outdoor run with Brown Girls Climb. “They were all women—and women of color, and we were just cheering each other on. They were like, ‘wow, you got it. You can do it. Trust yourself, trust your foot.'”
But, she says not every climb feels as nurturing and safe. “In conversation with some climbers, which are usually white folks, they don’t understand what you mean when you say, ‘This feels unsafe for me.’ They think you mean danger—like losing grip on your pad, and I’m like, ‘No, I’m talking about politics. I’m talking about sundown towns. I’m talking about which gas stations you can stop at, and I’m talking about how it feels when we go to some of these climbing areas that may or may not have racist names.’ It can be exhausting,” Ady said.
Emotional labor often leads to burnout for Black women in white spaces. But that’s not a price Ady is willing to pay. So instead, she takes deliberate precautions to protect her relationship with the sport she loves. “In the past, whenever they invited me to places where I knew I wouldn’t feel comfortable, I would just say no because I didn’t have the language or the patience to explain the support I needed. So instead, I just chose not to do something that felt unsafe for me,” she said.
Reaching diverse landscapes.
Connecting with nature is proven to ease tensions, reduce stress, and boost mental health. But, leisure time and access to outdoor recreation are not a luxury shared by all. Ady believes that Black women would benefit the most from participating in outdoor sports. “Black women deserve to be here, and we deserve to have hobbies. Black women deserve to take time for themselves,” she said.
Creating a welcoming climbing landscape for Black people is her primary mission. “My ultimate goal is—I would also like to be a huge part of setting up self-sufficient and sustainable programs to establish more Black climbers, who are sponsored financially. I want to create systems establishing more climbers that can become coaches and just more educational pathways for climbers to become route setters, to get to a level four like me, at a faster pace than it is. Eventually, I want to get to a place where I’m giving different Black climbers who wish to become coaches the support and funding they need. I want to create a giant hub of pathways for us because I’m doing all those things already. And I want to make it so someone who wants to do this can have a fast track to that path,” she said.
Black athletes consistently dominate in sports they have access to—sports like basketball, football, and even baseball, which require little more than a ball, a location, and participants to play. However, Ady’s experience shows what is possible when barriers are removed, allowing under-resourced athletes to participate in sports across the athletic domain. That’s the climbing landscape Ady hopes to create, and with support from The North Face, she’s well on her way.