Darlene Thomasina Pidgeon is a Canadian rock climber known for being one of the world's strongest female boulderers, the strongest female Canadian boulderer, and the first Canadian female to climb the grades of V10, V11, and V12. She is often featured in and contributes to . She has also been featured in several international magazines and websites and her image has been used in advertising, magazine galleries, and magazine covers. Thomasina is also a mother, a doula, sews and sells clothing, shopping bags, and other crafts, and works as a . She is one of 5 athletes to be featured in The Season 2, a 22 episode web TV show running this fall.
Beginnings
Pidgeon started climbing near Flatrock in her early 20s on a trip home to her native Newfoundland. Soon after she moved to Whistler, British Columbia, and climbed occasionally at small local sport climbing areas like Nordic Rock and Rogue's Gallery while working several jobs with the goal of visiting Europe for an extended trip. With the money she'd saved she got a working visa and went on a year-and-a-half long trip to Wales, Ireland, parts of Eastern Europe, and Morocco. She learned to traditional climb in Wales, but most of the trip was spent visiting new places. She returned to Canada, moved to Kelowna, and began studying sciences at Okangon University College. She continued climbing while in school and after a year and a half she moved to Vancouver to work and climb as much as possible. She got a job at Mountain Equipment Co-op and began climbing at The Edge climbing gym in Vancouver. She injured her shoulder, kept climbing on it, and eventually was unable to lift her arm above shoulder level. After a year off of climbing her arm had not improved so she visited a physio-therapist and with the exercises he taught her she was able to strengthen her shoulder and climb again. She began spending much of her time outside on the boulders at the base of the world-famous granite monolith "The Chief" in Squamish, BC.
Commitment
Pidgeon quickly became integrated into the Squamish climbing community and in 2001 she moved to Squamish, where she currently lives in a van, to live and climb as much as she possibly could.
Bouldering
In her first decade of climbing Pidgeon quickly became one of the most progressive female boulderers in the world, opening the doors to the harder grades by making First Female Ascents of many double digit problems. V10 - In 2001 Pidgeon made an ascent of Zero Zero in Squamish, BC. The problem had previously been climbed by American climber Tiffany Campbell. Pidgeon had only climbed a handful of harder moderates at the time and for a climber of her level, much less a female climber, to try a V10 was considered ridiculous. Nevertheless, Pidgeon picked her project and after only a handful of days of effort she sent the problem. It was one of the first female V10 ascents in the world and the first by a Canadian woman. It was another year before Pidgeon began climbing V10 again, but that year was quite productive with ascents in Squamish, Hueco Tanks, Bishop, Little Cottonwood Canyon, and an area in Nova Scotia. 2004 saw two more ascents and 2005 one. In 2006 Thomasina became pregnant with her daughter Cedar and did not begin climbing seriously again until 2008 when Cedar was old enough to travel. That year Thomasina made four more V10 ascents. Since then she has kept up the pace, sending several V10 and harder problems each year. As of August 2011 she has sent over 40 V10s. V11 - Pidgeon was the first Canadian woman and one of the first women in North America to climb V11. As of August 2011 she has done over 20 V11s, almost all FFAs. Her first was "The Egg" in Squamish in 2008. She quickly followed that ascent with Water Hazard, La Belette, Lucky Charms, and Beefy Gecko, all in 2008. In 2009 she managed "Encore En Fois", and in 2010 she went back on the road and did 8 more V11s, 7 of which were FFAs. Perhaps most impressive was her FFA and 2nd try ascent of "The Hand" in Hueco. V12 - Pidgeon was the first Canadian woman and one of the first women in North America to have climbed V12, and she is still one of only a few female boulderers in the world to have climbed multiple V12 boulder problems. To date she has done 7 V12s-- "The Butterpumper" , "Rumble in the Jungle", "Barefoot on Sacred Ground", "Summoning Sit", "Sur Le Tois", "Beautiful Gecko", and "The Aquarium". She has also done two slash grade problems -- "Sarah Sit", and "Chablanke".
Routes
Sport
"Technical Ecstasy"
"Presto"
"Young Blood"
Trad
"The Grand Wall"
"The Daily Planet"
For a full list of Pidgeon's bouldering and route ascents search for her scorecard on climbing ranking site 8a.nu.
Climber in “Herman Hesse Memorial Hospital” commercial for US TV, 2008 http://www.vimeo.com/25092863 Featured climber in the Top 20 Boulder Classics of NA, N. Condor film, 2006 http://www.fanaticalfilms.com/top20_synopsis.htm
