Climbing History

Beth Rodden is an American big wall and trad climber. In 1998 she became the youngest woman to climb 8b+ with her ascent of To Bolt or Not to Be (8b+) at Smith Rock at age 18.

In August 2000, along with her then-boyfriend Tommy Caldwell and fellow climbers Jason Smith and John Dickey, she visited the remote Kara Su valley in Kyrgyzstan with the aim of climbing some big walls in the area. Already a very bold proposition given her relative inexperience on big walls the trip took a dramatic twist when the team was kidnapped and held hostage by rebels from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. [1]

The team were marched over remote terrain with little food or water for 6 days. At one point they were left alone with a single captor. While walking along a narrow path, Tommy was able to push the remaining captor over a cliff, allowing the team to escape. It was presumed that the captor had died, but it later transpired that he had survived the fall.

Beth later spoke about the event as a significant source of trauma, and how she struggled for a long time to process it. [2]

Back in the US, Beth and then-husband Tommy Caldwell became well established as extremely capable trad and big wall climbers. Beth climbed many hard testpieces, including ascents of Sphinx Crack (E8), Grand Illusion (E8) and The Phoenix (E7), the latter of which she onsighted.

In 2005 she made a team free second ascent of The Nose (E9) on El Capitan, leading The Great Roof pitch and cleanly top-roping the Changing Corners.

In 2008, after much work, Beth redpointed Meltdown (E11) to give one of the hardest traditional pitches in the world at the time featuring super-technical 8c+ climbing with small, fiddly gear. Incredibly, the route waited 10 years for a repeat despite attention from many strong climbers.

In 2009 she divorced Tommy Caldwell and later married Randy Puro. In 2014 she had a son with Puro. In her book A Light Through the Cracks she discusses how she struggled in her relationship with Tommy, feeling a sense of obligation to be with him after the Kyrgyzstan incident, and how they had very different approaches to dealing with the trauma of the kidnapping.

More recently she has spoken openly about her struggles with disordered eating and self-image, and how this impacted her and her climbing. [3]

References

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20171201042923/https://www.outsideonline.com/magazine/200011/200011hostages1.html

[2] Rodden, Beth. A Light Through the Cracks: A Climber's Story. United States: Amazon Publishing, 2024.

[3] https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/beth-rodden-climbing-body-image/