Female aims to beat the nose speed record!

"In rock climbing women are close to men, if you look solely at pure difficulty, but rarely do they compete on the same level as the guys,” says Mayan. “I want to show that we women are just as capable, on any terrain"

My trip to the Valley with my girl friend, Chantel Astorga, was brief but very successful – Within 7 days we did two laps on the Nose, one on Half Dome, and broke three records: We set a new women’s speed record on the Nose twice and completed the first all female linkup of El Cap and Half Dome. The next day Chantel was packing up to leave and was planning to just have another mellow day in the Valley with my friends… However, when Sean Leary (a former speed record holder on the Nose), asked me whether I was keen to a run up the Nose with him, I quickly agreed - Sean is one of the Valley climbers I have always looked up to, I was honored that he wanted to climb with me and was definitely not going to turn down an opportunity like this! I could not resist the temptation to squeeze in another lap just before flying out to Bend. We got an early start, as I had to catch a flight that afternoon. Reaching the top after climbing for 4.29min – a new (male/female team) record on the Nose.During this week my perception of what is possible changed drastically – I now, not only understand how to climb the Nose in 2.30 hours, but actually can see it might be possible to climb it in less! I never thought I would want to peruse speed climbing, but it is actually extremely fun to move so fast and continuously over such this huge wall, and also strangely addictive… An intriguing mixture of strategy, fitness, climbing power and metal strength.