Name: Sarah VukelichÂ
Hometown: La Mesa, CA
Major: Political Science
Your’re involved with the Williams climbing program, could you tell us about that?
Well I got onto the WOC board because of climbing. I had basically no other experience that qualified me, but I had been encouraged to apply because they needed a climber. It was interesting…some of my closest friends my sophomore year were from WOC board but I also often felt like I didn’t fit in. The rest of the board came from much wealthier backgrounds and had infinitely more experience, gear, confidence, etc. I’ve learned a lot from my experience on the WOC board and I’ve developed outdoors skills and confidence that are now an important part of me. WOC board at times has been one of my greatest sources of frustration as it can be an elitist and alienating club.
Climbing was always my position on WOC board. For most of my years here I’ve helped run the program, which includes a range of things, such as buying new gear, leading trips, maintaining the wall and setting routes, organizing social climbing events, creating a policy allowing students to lead trips independently, and turning climbing wall instructor-monitors into a paid position. This semester I’ve really stepped back from climbing. I became much more focused on addressing issues of inclusivity and accessibility more broadly, and two very capable young climbers had joined the board and are doing an incredible job. The climbing community is stronger than I’ve ever seen it before.
This year’s WOC board has been the best by far in my time at Williams. I think we have a long way to go still, but I’ve been really, really impressed and heartened at the level of thoughtfulness and creativity. There have been several tangible steps forward. We now have a financial aid policy, which removes financial barriers to participation in trips and activities. We’re working on getting hiking shoes for the equipment room, which are the most basic thing you need to do any trip and a lot of people don’t have them. We have a trial membership, so anyone can go on one trip and check out all the gear they need without paying the membership fee, which is great for people who genuinely aren’t sure if they love outdoor activities but want to give it a try. This year there have been more beginner-oriented trips and opportunities to learn skills. These and a few other initiatives are part of a larger effort to change the culture of the club, to be something other than we’ve been before, and to serve a broader group of students on this campus. This is the first year I’ve felt really proud to be on the WOC board.
How did you get into climbing? When did you start?
I started climbing in high school on my school’s competitive climbing team. It was the most fun thing I had done in my life, and I feel really lucky to have had really amazing climbing coaches and teammates. Not many climbers ever get that experience. Colorado, where I went to high school, has a statewide high school league like you would have for track or swimming or something. My team went to state finals both years I was on the team, and my scores helped us place third in state both years. That was a cool and very new experience for me, being a really strong member of a really strong team.
When I got to college I learned a lot more about climbing outdoors—building anchors, trad climbing, reading guidebooks, etc. Gym climbing is fun, but climbing outside is amazing. It’s a unique way of experiencing the outdoors—you are literally getting a different perspective than you could get any other way. You also build a lot of trust with your climbing partners, because there is a lot of risk involved and you have to trust each other and yourselves to manage that risk. There are a lot more different skills involved—placing gear is like a puzzle, building anchors to belay off of is an engineering art that can require some creativity. In college I also started teaching climbing, which I really enjoy.
You’re also respondible for creating women’s climbing night, where did that idea come from?
I actually had the idea sophomore year, but I didn’t get a lot of support for it. I think I noticed a gender divide at the wall right away because I’d been on a co-ed team
At Williams it seemed like only men wanted to train hard and push themselves and each other. I think women responded to that exclusive intensity by being really chill and social about climbing but they didn’t challenge each other as much. I felt trapped by this weird divide and couldn’t get everything I wanted—challenge and acceptance and support–from either group.
I also started to notice that a lot of women who came to the climbing wall weren’t coming back a second time. And it seemed like the way men take up space at the climbing wall might have something to do with this–yelling when they missed a move, doing shirtless workouts, and not always going out of their way to make new people feel welcome. I had the idea of creating a space once a week that was open only to women and transgender and gender-nonconforming people. Basically, no cis men allowed for one hour per week.
But a lot of people were skeptical that it was a gendered issue, suggesting that it was more of a beginner climber/advanced climber thing. And I couldn’t speak from my own experience about feeling intimidated, because as an experienced climber I personally felt very comfortable at the wall. Men tend to take up a lot of space everywhere— classrooms, entry common rooms, meetings, trains, dinner conversations—so maybe that was sort of normalized for me.
Last year (my junior/senior year…I’m off-cycle) a few conversations with women new to the wall confirmed that I’d been right all along and decided to just go ahead and start a Ladies’ Night. It seemed like a really positive way to address the issue—it created a space for women to feel more safe and comfortable and accepted, and it also pushed men to think about why  the alternative space was necessary. It definitely started a lot of good conversations in the climbing community. Ideally we would live in a society in which we reject gender as an oppressive social construct, but in the meantime, I’m happy to have this intentional and supportive space for cis and trans women/femmes and genderqueer folks.
There have been women who have come to Ladies’ Night who would have never otherwise come to the wall. Some of them only ever come to Ladies’ Night, and some of them end up feeling more confident and showing up at the wall on other nights as well. I think it’s been a good thing for a lot of women and for the climbing community. And my dream of having more women climbers who challenged each other and learned from each other also became a reality; before breaking my ankle a few weeks ago, I was training with a group of all women climbers. I think the climbing community has come a long way since my first year here, and a lot of really wonderful people are responsible for pushing us in the right directions.