Collection: Quinn Mason’s Fire For Climbing

Aiming For Sustainability

Quinn grew up in Seattle, climbing outdoors with her family, and sees climbing as part of the big picture in her life—with or without competition. For her it’s a lifestyle and community that goes beyond personal performance. 

“You can meet climbers from across the world and have something in common,” she says. “That bond that everyone shares is definitely something unique to the sport. It’s because it’s all about pushing your own limits, and that allows you to feel for other people—when they’re pouring everything into it, you can relate to them. You can feel the same kind of joy when they succeed.”

She’s aware of the burnout rate of young competition climbers, and keeps her perspective more broad. “If I'm not super motivated to train, I still have motivation to climb hard,” she says. “And even if I don’t feel like climbing hard, I still have a reason to go to the gym, to see my friends.”

To Calm The Nerves

As Quinn became increasingly competitive—and successful—as a climber, nerves began to have an impact. It took her a while, but in the past couple of years she’s learned a few coping exercises that could be helpful for other climbers and non-climbers alike.

“I definitely have developed a strategy,” she says. From coaches she began to learn the power of her own breath. “It seems so simple, how taking deep breaths can actually calm you down. Or how you can use your breathing to psych yourself up.”

She also listens to music in the isolation zone during comps, and uses aromatherapy, rolling lavender essential oil on her wrist so that whenever her arms move past her face she gets a calming whiff. “I find it really works for me,” she says. “I can smell my wrist and take a few deep breaths.”

Pure Power V. Performance

Another strategy Quinn leans on is focusing on performance over sheer strength. “In terms of training, a lot of climbers are focused on just pure power and pure finger strength,” she says. “If they come away from competition or a project outside and they can’t do it, the instinct is to just get stronger. Which I do stand behind. But more of my training is behind performance.”

What does that actually look like? “Being able to execute the same grade over and over and over again, no matter what the boulder is, or the sport climb,” she says. For example, she’ll give herself a limit for working on a specific boulder. “Instead of just trying it until completion, it’s walking in and saying, ‘I’m going to try each boulder no more than three times.’ Even if it’s a boulder you could complete in 10 tries, only give yourself a certain number of tries, so you have to do it in that number of tries or you just move on to something new. So you get a lot better at performing.”

Confidence That Carries Over

Over the years, Quinn has seen her lessons, practices and experiences from climbing bleed over into other parts of her life. “I think if you asked anyone from where I went to school previously, they would probably say I’m shy or introverted,” she says, but within the climbing community she’s definitely extroverted. 

“Whenever I step into a climbing gym, I have a different wave of confidence,” she says. “As I’ve grown up and found myself more, it has come through in other places.”

For example, she spoke at the Access Fund annual summit last fall. “I think the fact that it was me speaking about climbing made a pretty big difference,” she says. “It was definitely nerve-wracking But my parents said they never would have imagined I would have done that just a few years ago.”  

Full Circle: Coaching

A little over two years ago, Quinn began coaching, working with younger climbers on her team. While she’s progressing in her own climbing career, coaching is something that grounds her in the very basic things she loves about the sport. The younger climbers’ pure joy and excitement to compete reminds her to slow down and enjoy climbing herself.

“Coaching has helped me remember to enjoy the moment and remember why I even like competing to begin with,” she says. “It definitely changed my own ability to compete.”

And for the moment, with all climbing events cancelled, slowing down and enjoying climbing seems like a very wise strategy indeed.

Get To Know Quinn

Favorite book: “With Winning In Mind” by Lanny Bassham. “There are probably five copies going around on my team.”

Favorite movie: “My family and I just watched the whole Marvel series. I had watched a number of them, but was not very invested. After watching 21 of them, I’m more invested.”

Favorite crag snack: Cosmic Crisps. “It’s a type of apple, and they’re my new go-to. They’re a combination of Honeycrisp and Enterprise—the first Washington red apple. I never knew I was particular about apples until I had one. They’re kind of sweet and tangy at the same time, and very dense.”