Shelby Lynn
Primary Outdoor Sports: Climbing & Running
Favorite Beverage: Kombucha
Sunrise or Sunset: Sunrise
Non-Outdoor Hobby: Sewing
Favorite Season: Summer
Favorite Subject in School: Math
Guilty Pleasure: Singing Out Loud
Hot Take: I would not invite Alex Honnold to my dinner party.
Book Recommendation: Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho
Three Words to Describe Yourself: Excited, Curious, & Disciplined
“I grew up in the country so we were always playing outside. We had games and stuff inside, but most of my memories as a child were running around building forts outside. I’ve been playing outside and playing sports as far as I can remember. That connection, being able to push myself physically in nature, has always been really important to me. I felt so aligned when I started climbing. I was able to do it and do it with these people who share all of these values that I do as well. It just blew my mind that it had existed for so long before I came into it.”
“Prior to climbing I was a sponsored runner. I did that for a little while and then on a whim one of my best friends asked me to move down to SF to sublease for his roommate. It was perfect timing for me so I moved down there. My friend had a gym membership to a climbing gym, but he mostly used it for yoga. We did everything together. We were attached at the hip so I was like “Of course I have to get a membership there.” They taught me how to lead climb immediately. I was taking whips before I was lead certified because they didn’t want me to take the class, they just wanted to teach me themselves. That’s how I started climbing. My best friend just took me along to go to yoga.
Soon after, I had a little crush on this routesetter. He’d been climbing for 15 years and then I kinda fell into his group of friends who had all been climbing for 15-20 years. I really owe a lot to him because at that point he had accomplished a lot of things in his climbing and he really just wanted to show me climbing. So we went everywhere, went up so many things. It was trad climbing, bouldering, hard sport climbing, multipitching. I feel very grateful and I was so lucky to have been exposed to that as such a baby climber. We went to Potrero Chico 6 months into climbing and we did Time Wave Zero which was like this 23 pitch climb. I thought that was normal. I thought that's what everyone did when they were 6 months into climbing. Obviously it's not, and I’m really grateful for that.”
“I distinctly remember we went to Bishop for Thanksgiving. I had just started climbing and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t pull onto anything. I remember thinking, “Whoa, this is a V1. I don’t even know how to start it.” I’m just so stubborn that I was like, “I have to go back to the gym and figure out how to do this thing.” Ultimately, I’ve always been driven in sports in that individualistic way, but for me what really did it for me was the community. Having moved to a new city, not really knowing anyone except for my one friend, and then just being totally engulfed by this amazing community, it was so special. I don’t think climbing would be for me what it is if it weren’t for the people that I’ve met along the way. The community there is what did it for me.”
“I think one of the most important things is that the people that you surround yourself with are probably more important than the thing that you’re actually doing. That's really important to me. I could climb the hardest route but be with someone that doesn’t share this love or passion or enthusiasm that I do and then it’s just not exciting. Or I could go climb 5.9 all day with my best friends and just have sore abs for days because we had too much fun.”
“I’ve always really loved edges and Smith style climbing or limestone or slightly off vert climbing, but I also love roof climbing. I love throwing my body around like that and changing positions and changing my body to make the holds better. It’s so fun. Or climbing in the Red is really awesome too. I just really love rock climbing. I don’t think there’s one thing. I really like to appreciate the differences in all different rock types and styles because they challenge you in different ways. Ultimately, I want to be a really great all around climber, not really good at one style.”
“The hardest pitch I’ve sent, I remember the first time I got on it, I didn’t even make it a third of the way up the route. But, I didn’t even care because I was there with my friends who were trying really hard. We just kept showing up and enjoying the process. I had to take time away because I was in the one hang purgatory at one point and I was like, ‘I am not having fun so I need to walk away and come back.’ When I came back, it just went. I had to remind myself that you can’t force things and I think nature often reminds you of that as well. You have to yield and yielding in life is just as important as trying hard and sometimes the trying hard is the yielding.”
“Oftentimes when I get frustrated because I can’t do a move or I can’t figure out the beta and unlock it, I just want something to blame. But then you remember you’re just trying the hardest way to get to the top of this piece of nature and you’re just like, ‘This is so silly. This rock didn’t do anything to me.’ When I have these thoughts or emotions that arise, nature has this way of calming me down and bringing me back to center. Reminding me that this is just a moment and this is just a feeling that you’re feeling. This is not everything that there is and perhaps there is something hidden just around the corner. There are metaphors for life of just letting this feeling pass and staying curious about your experience instead of shutting down.”
“If you’re out on this alpine multipitch route and you’re so close to sending but the thunderstorm is rolling in, you have to respect that. So I think it can teach you a lot about having these goals and really trying hard to achieve them but holding them really lightly like a butterfly. If they fly away they fly away.”
“Being process oriented is something I take from climbing and try to emulate in the rest of life. We live in such a fast paced society, especially with social media and these insane dopamine hits that we get. I think the true challenge now is slowing down and doing the things that take time. That’s hard to do, but I think those things are what really build you character and change you for the better. Projecting has really taught me a lot about that, about facing your fears. How doing it in small incremental ways is powerful and important.”
