Hazel Findlay - Climbing Through Pregnancy

Photographer: Lena Drappellla Athlete: Hazel Findlay

Hazel Findlay - Climbing Through Pregnancy

During her 40-week pregnancy, Black Diamond Athlete Hazel Findlay continued to pursue climbing. Here, she shares all the beta she gleaned as a pregnant climber.

What To Expect

First Trimester

Congratulations, you’re pregnant! The first trimester will likely be a whirlwind of emotions, hormones and symptoms. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be balancing the joy, excitement, and gratitude of being pregnant with the epic changes unfolding. A cocktail of hormones is rapidly triggered to start pregnancy and build the placenta (a whole new organ which will continue to grow up until birth). You will produce more estrogen during one pregnancy than throughout your entire life when not pregnant, just to give you a sense of how different this will feel compared to your regular hormonal changes. For most, this comes with a myriad of symptoms and challenges, which I’ll discuss below. Trying to fit climbing in around all that is challenging, but I found it worth the effort.

The Wait

The first trimester can be especially difficult because it’s common not to tell anyone about your pregnancy until your 12-week scan. This is usually to protect you from having to share any pregnancy losses which frequently occur in the first trimester, usually due to chromosomal reasons.

As a climber, this can be hard to navigate since not telling your partners could be a safety concern or simply a bit weird since you might modify your climbing from the start, and you won’t be able to give a reason for this. I decided to tell the people I was climbing with at the time because it felt strange to hide things from them, but this is a personal choice and whatever you decide to do, navigating it all can feel tricky, so heads up.

Second Trimester (13-27 Weeks)

Bigger Changes

For me, like many, the second trimester was the most enjoyable phase of pregnancy. The nausea and fatigue subsided, and I felt more like myself. I also started to feel proud of my growing body and in awe of how it was changing. However, this is also when the physical changes in my body began to really impact my climbing. At one point, I gained roughly a kilogram weekly for eight weeks straight. Coupled with a growing bump and changes in my core, this led to a noticeable drop in my climbing performance weekly. While I expected the decrease in performance, it did make choosing crags more challenging since I couldn’t predict how hard I’d be able to climb on any given day.

One of the most frustrating misconceptions about pregnancy is the idea that it’s simply about carrying the extra weight of the baby when actually the baby’s weight is just a small part of the picture. Aside from all the hormonal and structural changes like separated abdominals (which is called diastasis, and no, you can’t avoid this), your body must also create a whole new organ (the placenta) and amniotic fluid, increase blood volume, enlarge breast tissue, move your vital organs around to make room, expand the uterus, and build extra fat stores. By the end of pregnancy, your blood volume alone may have doubled (that could be an extra 4kg/9lbs on its own!).

For climbers, especially those with lower fat stores, the weight gain needed to stay healthy during pregnancy can be even more pronounced compared to non-athletic women. I know several top-level climbers who gained over 20kg/44lbs during their pregnancies, so don’t freak out if you experience this.

The Third Trimester (28 to 41+ Weeks)

A return of fatigue and other symptoms.

Unfortunately, the third trimester often brings back some of the difficult symptoms from earlier in pregnancy coupled with more extreme body changes. Your core will become more compromised, and you’ll be in a heavier, more cumbersome body. This can make everyday tasks more challenging—things like getting out of bed, bending down, putting on shoes, or enduring long car rides can become a real hassle. Surprisingly, climbing was more comfortable for me than doing many of these routine activities. So, don’t let those difficulties dictate what you think you can or can’t do when it comes to climbing or other activities.

That said, many experience a return of the fatigue they felt in the first trimester. At 38 weeks, I was doing two short strength sessions per week, a fun climbing session (usually 4-5 autobelay routes), prenatal yoga, and lots of walking. Many women I know, especially those with busier lives, understandably step away from climbing as they approach the end of pregnancy. At 40 weeks I preferred swimming, walking and yoga to climbing.

Safety Considerations:

Impact When Bouldering

When it comes to bouldering during pregnancy, it’s important to recognize that labelling bouldering as “safe” or “unsafe” isn’t straightforward and questions like "How high can I drop off the wall?" simply don’t have definitive answers. First, there’s limited research on how much impact your body and baby can safely handle. Second, the physics of every fall varies—factors like the padding, how you fall, how you land, and the strength of your legs all play a role, which means we can’t create rules such as “it’s safe to fall from x height.” Third, climbers have varying abilities when landing safely or avoiding falls altogether. Newer climbers will not be as practiced at landing in a low-impact way compared to more experienced climbers and will not be as comfortable in “no-fall zones.”

Personally, I’m experienced in free-solo climbing, so I felt comfortable in certain situations where falling wasn’t an option (or potentially unsafe), and I am very experienced at falling and landing. Despite this, I didn’t boulder much during pregnancy. I did some sessions on my home board, which is low to the ground with soft padding, and occasional outdoor bouldering, where I shifted into "free-solo" mode once I was a short distance above the ground to ensure I wouldn’t fall. The main reason for this was that considering all the factors I listed above, bouldering would have been a higher-risk activity and one that I would have to moderate considerably, whereas I felt that I wouldn’t need to moderate rope climbing to the same degree. Since I like rope climbing as much as bouldering, it made sense to focus on that. If, for some reason, I didn’t have this choice, I would have bouldered more.

Risk decisions are also about motivation, if you’re not highly motivated to manage the risk, then it’s unlikely you’ll engage with it appropriately. If you’re not that motivated to climb and are not enjoying your sessions, you’ll have a much lower risk tolerance. I was very motivated to climb a lot in my first trimester, so I pushed my boundaries. The key is to be mindful of your abilities, preferences, and what it’s worth to you instead of copying others or unfounded binary rules.

When To Switch Harnesses

At 20 weeks, I switched to a full-body harness because I knew that it was around this time that the uterus would grow above the waistband of my harness, and I didn’t like the idea of the harness compressing the fetus. Even if I hadn’t researched this, I began to feel my belly being compressed, which wasn’t very comfortable. Depending on your bump size, you might not feel that. There is also the concern that you might fall out of your harness as you essentially lose your waist, which is how harnesses work and why kids wear full-body harnesses. Many women choose to switch earlier than this to play it safe and I’ve seen some women switch later. I think there are many variables at play here other than the length of your uterus, including how long you are hanging on the rope, whether you are falling at all, whether you are belaying and how comfortable and functional your choice of full body harness is.

I used the Mad Rock Mountain Mama, which I found on eBay since it’s no longer made. Hopefully, Black Diamond will soon make a great alternative, as the climbing community needs more options. From what I can gather, the Mountain Mama is the best of a bad bunch; the options out there are pretty uncomfortable, often lacking much or any padding, poorly designed with clunky adjustment straps, and, in many cases, not even that suitable for pregnancy, as they can still squish your bump. They don’t usually have gear loops (or just have one), which means it’s impractical to second trad or clean sport routes. It’s also harder to clip in direct to clean a belay since you have two loops to fit into a carabiner instead of one. Lowering off the wall can be uncomfortable as can hanging for extended periods. I did one multi-pitch in my full-body harness and found rappelling to be pretty uncomfortable. My tip for managing the full-body harness is to really explore the different ways to adjust the harness. I would change the length of the straps if I were belaying versus climbing versus lowering off. The comfiest options for when your weight is on the harness are restrictive when trying to climb.

I did not want to lead-fall in a full-body harness, so I transitioned to top-roping. Full-body harnesses are not designed for falling and I imagine it would be unsafe to do so, especially with a bump. This is because you are less able to get your legs out in front, to brace a fall compared to a normal harness. You’ll notice this when you lower off from a climb like a stranded fish! While I missed leading, it was also nice not to worry about the added risk. Aside from dealing with a potentially uncomfortable harness, top-rope climbing in a full-body harness is an excellent way for pregnant climbers to stay active because there really isn’t much that can go wrong if you know what you’re doing. Plus, many gyms offer auto-belay systems, so you don’t even need a partner if you’re short on time.