Erica Lineberry

My name is Erica Lineberry and I hail from North Carolina. I have been climbing for over 15 years, the past 12 of which have included kids in tow for about 90% of the time. My number 1 partner is my hubby of 20 years! I have a 12-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter, both of whom have basically grown up at the crag.

How do you manage your own climbing/training with being a mom??

The logistics of being a climbing mom have always been difficult, but now that my children are both out of the nursing/napping/needing constant attention stage, things have gotten a lot easier! I think the key for me is organization and planning. I can't be at the gym for 3 hours to train, so having a detailed training plan is a must to keep me focused and efficient during gym sessions.

As far as outdoor goals are concerned, my husband, son, and I try as best we can to select our projects in the same areas. (My daughter doesn't climb much yet, so she's just happy to go where she can read and play with her dolls in the sunshine!) It works out pretty well for the most part, although sometimes we run into situations where everyone is ready to move on, but one person hasn't sent yet...that happened last fall (I was the non-sender!), so I am taking a break to do other things this spring before I drag them all back to Central Endless at the New this fall!

Most Memorable Ascents: 

The Barnum Route (5.12a) in Ten Sleep Canyon, not because of the route itself, but because of what it represented. My goal for 2020 was to up my lifetime 5.12 send count to 100 before I turned 40, which would be at the end of August of that year. The pandemic derailed me for several months, but I was able to make up for the lost time that summer, and "The Barnum Route" was number 100 (sent 2 days before my birthday!)

Greatest Climbing Family Memories:

I have many great family memories at the crag, but the one that sticks out most recently happened last spring. I was trying to wrap up a project that was leftover from a previous year (Stealth n Magic 12d, at the NRG). I had already put in 2 days on it that season and had come up short. My son had been working Stim-o-Stam 11c, which is right next door to my route, and my husband had started in on Magnificent Pudcasso, a 12a just around the corner.

It was my son's turn to choose where to go the next day, and he chose to go back and see if he could send Stim-o-Stam. He sent first go of the day without a warm-up! Inspired by his hardest send to date, I gave Stealth all I had. But the crux move is very low percentage for me, and I just couldn't seem to stick it from the ground. Finally, on my 5th burn of the day (10th of the weekend), exhausted, I told the family I was going to go up one more time to just get the draws down.... but then I made it through the crux! The next 50 feet were quite the fight, but I managed to hang on for the send. Directly after that, I belayed my hubby on Pudcasso, and he sent as well, making it a trifecta family send day!

A Little Extra Advice:

It might be worth adding that I think a very important piece to the motherhood and climbing puzzle is being patient with yourself, and learning to accept/love the stage you're in. When my kids were in the infant stage, just getting to the crag sometimes felt like a great achievement! We weren't sleeping well, we ended up climbing wherever we could find a 3rd person to go with us, and of course, my body was still recovering from giving birth! It wasn't a great time to focus on sending at our limit, but we could still have lots of fun as a family and get plenty of lower-tier mileage in.

Now my kids are older, and I'm in a better place both physically and mentally to deal with the demands of hard (for me) projecting. I can imagine that as my son gets older and stronger (and I get older and....probably more or less the same!) our dynamic might change yet again -- as I'll be top roping HIS warm-ups!

Regardless of the stage of parenting we've been in, climbing has always been a great fit for our family, and I hope it always will be!"

Charmagne Cox

My name is Charmagne Cox, mother of 4 beautiful girls! I was a gymnast growing up and spent a lot of time outside: hiking, swimming, and camping...so when I transitioned into climbing it felt like a natural extension of my childhood. 

In 2002 we found out we were expecting triplets. I was not a good candidate for carrying high order multiples due to only being 5’1, so I spent 10 weeks on bed rest. They were delivered at 28 weeks due to my being in kidney, liver, and congestive heart failure. Our girls spent 7 weeks in the NICU and they went to the crag for the first time when they were 8 weeks old, we were living in the Red River Gorge at the time. We then got another surprise in 2008 when our youngest daughter was born.

On a side note: My husband is retiring from the Air Force this August after 32 years of service.

Climbing and Training with Children: 

My climbing/training has seen quite a few ups and downs. When the triplets were little, we were both happy to just get out and climb. We tried to not focus on chasing grades and instead focused on raising our girls outside-learning to love nature. I was fortunate to raise my girls with other climbing families who have children similar in ages, which has made climbing outside much easier. My husband has always been a very hands-on dad, which also made climbing outside/traveling manageable.

Charmagne's Most Memorable send:

I have a few and one is sending a 5.13a in 103 degrees, in Texas one summer.
But every time I am able to get back into “peak fitness” and sending 13’s again is a huge win and extremely satisfying.

What are some of your great family memories? 

Two of my daughters climb and two do not but all four love being outside and traveling. We have traveled extensively with them. I even lived in a Sprinter van with them for 13 weeks during my husband’s last deployment to Afghanistan in 2016. On that trip the girls and I visited, Victoria Canyon, Spearfish, Lander, Maple, and Leavenworth as well as over a half a dozen National Parks.  

We have so many wonderful climbing memories as a family. One of our favorites is our multiple trips to Wild Iris. It’s such a unique hippy, cowboy town and the climbing is simply amazing. We love to travel with other climbing families, and we love to host our friends here at the Red where we have put down permanent roots. The community is truly the single BEST thing about climbing!

As I am moving into a different phase of life, I am having to focus a lot of my training on maintaining strength and power. Thankfully, I implemented a lot of weight training, deadlifts, and kettlebell workouts many years ago because keeping that baseline fitness is even more important as I continue to age.

Lisa Hörst 

(Photo: Lisa redpointing "Goodluck Jonathan" 5.12a,Ten Sleep Canyon, WY.)

Growing up in a family of golfers, I had never even heard of rock climbing until I met Eric in 1987...and he took me climbing on our first date! As a competitive golfer from my youth through college years, I was ready for the new challenges of the vertical world...and I progressed to climbing 5.12s (while still working as a golf pro) during the 1990s.

Eric and I started our family in 2000, blessed with two sons who grew up not only climbing, but also skiing, golfing, and playing football. We're a super active family, and having to keep up with "my 3 boys" (Cameron, Jonathan, and Eric) kept me in great shape over the years. Yes, being a Mom does come with sacrifices, but it has been a wonderful and rewarding journey that's given our family a rainbow of incredible memories. 

Family highlights include climbing Devil's Tower together (when the boys were just 8 and 10), countless Red River Gorge weekend trips, camping and climbing in Wyoming almost every July, a couple of European climbing vacations, and yes, Friday Night Football (Eric and I loved watching our boys crush it on the gridiron!).

Cameron and Jonathan are now in college (and climbing as pros), so we're dealing with the strange, new state of being empty nesters. Thankfully, all four of us still love climbing...and so we try to occasionally meet up with and climb with our sons. Hopefully, there are many more "Swiss Family Hörst" (as a family friend calls us) memories to be made in the years to come! At PhysiVantage, we want to extend a shout out of appreciation to all of the climbing moms, and mothers-to-be who can balance life and family with their personal goals!