Steph Davis

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Stephanie Davis

Residence Moab, UT and Yosemite Valley, CA
Education B.A. University of Maryland
M.A. Colorado State University
Occupation Rock Climber
Spouse Dean Potter

Steph Davis is an American rock climber, BASE jumper and wingsuit flyer.

Davis is considered one of the best all around climbers in the world, specializing in high commitment climbing. She is perhaps the only woman to have free-soloed at the 5.11+ grade. Steph also practices yoga and is a vocal vegan activist.

In 2003, Steph became the second woman to free climb El Capitan in one day. Two years later, she became the only woman to free the testpiece classic Salathe Wall, on El Cap, and to climb Torre Egger, the most notorious summit in Patagonia, of which she made the first one-day ascent, with husband Dean Potter.

Steph is also renowned for her free solos of the Long's Peak Diamond, in Colorado, a thousand-foot granite wall situated at 14,000 feet altitude. In the summer of 2007, she free-soloed the Diamond four times, with the final solo recorded by Peter Mortimer, of Sender Films. Soon afterward, she free-soloed and BASE jumped Castleton Tower, in Moab, Utah.

Steph has made many first ascents around Moab, Utah including the Tombstone. In 2008, she climbed Concepcion, considered one of the hardest pure cracks in the world. Steph has been on many successful international expeditions to climb exploratory new routes in alpine, big wall, and solo style, including ones in Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Baffin Island, Argentina, Italy, and Chile, where she became the first American woman to summit Fitzroy in Patagonia and to summit all seven major peaks of the Fitzroy Range.

She grew up playing the piano from the age of three. However, in 1990 when she was a freshman at the University of Maryland she first began her love with climbing, learning the sport at Carderock[1]

While at Maryland, Steph spent her summers at Devils Tower in Wyoming. She also student exchanged for a year to Colorado State University to improve her climbing skills. She enjoyed it so much she moved to Colorado where she graduated from Colorado State University with a master's degree. She then attended University of Colorado's law school. However, after five days of law school she quit and moved to Rifle, Colorado, against the will of her parents, to pursue her passion for climbing.

For the next seven years, she lived out of her vehicle, first in a Cutlass Ciera and later out of a Ford Ranger pickup, driving around to climbing areas, guiding, and waiting tables for cash. Before she started going to the mountains of Patagonia, she used to spend her winters living in Hueco Tanks for its bouldering.

She soon found Long's Peak in the nearby Rocky Mountains and over two summers made 15 ascents.

Eventually, she made Moab, UT her home by "acquiring a storage unit and a library card" and soon thereafter obtained a sponsorship from the climbing shoe company Five Ten.

In 1998, Patagonia hired her as its first female "climbing ambassador" to promote its products. However, her contract was recently terminated in the aftermath of a controversial ascent her husband made of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah, last year. Steph later was signed by Prana, another clothing company. Her other sponsors include Clif Bar, Five Ten, Mammut, Climb On! Products, and MSR/Thermarest.

Davis usually spends the summer and fall free climbing in Yosemite or Moab, the winter camping two to three months on an alpine expedition in the Andes, and the rest of her time in Moab, UT. Her favorite spots include Yosemite, Indian Creek in Utah, the Dolomites in the Italian Alps, and in Colorado: the Diamond on Long's Peak, Rifle, and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. She is an equally active BASE jumper and wingsuit flyer.

Steph's book High Infatuation: A Climber's Guide to Love and Gravity, has been translated into multiple languages. She is a prolific blogger and photographer at highinfatuation.com.

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  1. ^ misspelled as "Carter Rock" at http://www.terp.umd.edu/3.4/classact/; also personal conversation at a slide presentation for Patagonia