43: Becoming Katie

For the Love of Climbing

If you Google “Katie Brown” on the internet, there’s a Reddit thread called “What Ever Happened to Katie Brown?” and that’s a valid question. Katie wasn’t just a professional climber at the age of thirteen—she didn’t just win the X Games at fourteen or onsight the northwest face of Half Dome or snag the first female free ascent of the Leaning Tower with Lynn Hill.

She wrote a book! She wrote two books, in fact. She became a mom. She started healing her old wounds from childhood and left behind a dysfunctional religion and toxic relationships that consumed her childhood and adolescent years. She bartended, made some jewelry, and reclaimed her past in order to tell her story.

Here it is.

For the Love of Climbing is presented by Patagonia. Additional support is from Deuter USA, Gnarly Nutrition, Allez Outdoors, Ocún, and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA).

Additional music is licensed by Music Bed.

Cover art by Kika MacFarlane.

Read the transcript here.

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