Nina Williams

Nina Williams (born August 21, 1990) is an American professional rock climber based in Boulder, Colorado, known primarily for her practice of highball bouldering.

Nina Williams was born and raised in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. She began rock climbing in New Hampshire in 2002 after testing ballet, football and horseback riding. In 2017, Nina wrote a personal essay for Rock and Ice magazine. She talks about the events that occurred during her adolescence, in fact, she cheated by falsifying the results during a qualifying regional competition of the USA Climbing. This incident earned him a ban from competitions for the season. In 2016, she gave an interview to Chris Weidner in which she said that the high pressure she was under and the lack of self-confidence had pushed her to cheat. To return to competition, Nina had to find a new mental approach. She writes that rather than climbing for the approval of others, she “would climb because she loved it. »

In 2015, she climbed her first boulder rated 8B (V13) in Rocklands, South Africa while achieving the first female ascent of Ray of Light. Nina is known for her practice of highball bouldering, which consists of climbing very high blocks without a rope, thus combining the physical side of bouldering and the mental side of free soloing. In 2017, she made the first female ascent of Ambrosia at Buttermilks, which Climbing Magazine called "the hardest free solo ever by a woman". Nina also climbs two other difficult routes on the same b…