Instead of climbing the metaphorical corporate ladder, 22-year-old Emily Harrington has literally scaled her way to the top.

But success doesn't come to the passive. You have to stretch and strain for the next hold and tenaciously work your fingertips into any little niche or cranny that provides the next grip in life--whether that's your location, friendships, or volunteering.

This Boulder, Colorado native is a prime example of why it pays to follow your passion. She's near the pinnacle of her sport and looks to maintain her hold for quite some time. For Emily, what began as a chance encounter with a portable rock wall has developed into a full-time pursuit that pays.

Emily is the 2008 U.S. National Champion Lead Climber. Lead climbing (also known as "difficulty climbing") is one of three disciplines in climbing competitions (the other two are bouldering and speed climbing). Lead climbers follow a route that has been marked out, but are responsible for clipping carabiners to anchors set along the route. The carabiners allow a climber's rope to freely move with them, but to also catch them if they fall. Competitors are judged by how far they make it on a given route. The climber who gets the highest without falling wins.

The journey from unpaid rock junkie to professional sponsorship started in Boulder, Colorado when Emily was 10. Born and raised in the sports-oriented climbing community just northwest of Denver, it was only natural that Emily got involved with climbing. "We were swimming out at a lake and they had one of those portable walls out there, and I was kind of hooked after that," Emily says. Shortly after, her dad took her to one of the local climbing gyms. Before long, Emily had joined the junior climbing team at the Boulder Rock Club and was starting to make her name known in junior competitions.

Around the same time, Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou--four-time women's World Cup champion climber--moved to Boulder and began to look for young climbers to coach. The convergence of Erbesfield-Raboutou's move and Emily's natural talent led to a coaching relationship that Emily credits with fueling her competitive fire. But it was the support of her family and an enthusiastic community that propelled her to the professional ranks at age 16. In 2004, at 18, she won her first U.S. national championship.

In the U.S., being a successful climber doesn't mean that you've got a tight grip on pay dirt. "Being a professional climber is kind of a weird term, because it's kind of hard to make a living climbing," Emily says.

Until recently, Emily's parents subsidized her climbing. They paid for entry fees and tickets to go overseas. But through grassroots networking, Emily has used location, relatives, and childhood friendships as paths to sponsorships that have helped hook up the cash flow.

Starting out, Emily was an unsponsored climber. But the headquarters for La Sportiva--a major climbing outfitter--are right down the street from her home. By winning junior competitions, Emily caught the eyes of La Sportiva and began receiving a couple of pairs of shoes from them every year. Petzl--another climbing supplier--heard about Emily and started sending harnesses and other climbing hardware. But the networking doesn't stop there.

In January 2008, The North Face began sponsoring Emily. This deal boosted Emily into profitability: Her parents don't have to pick up the tab. "I don't feel guilty anymore," she says. Emily got this sponsorship through success and childhood friends Daniel Woods and Lisa Rands--two of climbing's biggest bouldering stars. Both were sponsored by The North Face before Emily and put in a good word for her when she was being considered for sponsorship. "The North Face thing kind of fell into my lap," Emily says. Even though Emily crossed the chasm from parent-supported to independently profitable, she recognizes that success is about more than just making money.

Emily does events and climbs for her sponsors. This last year, she went to China for The North Face and explored new climbing territory. She also does volunteer work for the Access Fund--a non-profit organization that promotes climber stewardship and access to restricted locations.

As an Athlete Ambassador for the Access Fund, Emily educates climbers. "Down in Texas, there's this area called Hueco Tanks. It's an amazing climbing area. People come from all over the world to climb there, but it's also got ancient Native American pictographs," Emily says. She helps climbers understand where and how they can climb so that they don't damage pictographs or other sensitive areas. Through stewardship, climbers can continue to use outdoor routes in sensitive locations and don't have to climb in less desirable locations or be cramped up in climbing gyms.

This suits Emily who loves to climb outdoors at places like 7 PM Show in Rifle, Colorado. Emily first tried to climb 7 PM Show in 2003, but it proved too difficult. Climbs are ranked on a scale of 5.7 to 5.15a, with 5.7 being the easiest. 7 PM Show is a 5.14a, which intimidated Emily. But in 2006, her tenacious attitude took over and she began to make the three-and-a-half hour drive from her home in Boulder, north to 7 PM Show, on a weekly basis.

On seven weekends, spread over two months, Emily patiently attacked the climb. She finally prevailed, boosting her climbing confidence to new levels and propelling her to a win later that year, against the best competition in the world, at the prestigious Serre-Chevalier Invitational Competition in France. Emily also became only the second American female to climb a 5.14b when she scaled Burning Down the House in Sonora, California in 2007.

Tenacious pursuit

It's this tenacity that makes Emily an exceptional lead climber. She trains for endurance several days a week. Move after move, Emily traverses across and up the walls of the climbing gym. It's a slow process, but one that allows her to think about the moves, contemplating where the next handhold is and how she can hook the front or back or sides of her climbing shoe into the tiniest nub. As she climbs, muscles burn and tendons stretch. Legs scissor with fatigue caused by the buildup of lactic acid. She prepares for more assaults on the walls of competition.

She's contemplating taking the World Cup tour in Europe head-on in the future. Currently she's preparing for the North American Continental Championships in December. If Emily doesn't pursue the World Cup, it'll be because she's exploring new routes and climbing favorite areas like the Red River Gorge in Kentucky.

Whatever she chooses, for Emily, who graduated magna cum laude in three years at the University of Colorado with a degree in International Affairs, it's simply a matter of putting her mind to something and then pursuing it until the goal is accomplished. She won't always climb competitively, but when Emily comes down off the wall, she'll use her passion, networking skills, giving-back attitude, and tenacity to land on her feet.
 

Sources: totalclimbing.com; thenorthface.com; accessfund.org; tpwd.state.tx.us; climbing.com; ci.boulder.co.us; sportiva.com; metacafe.com; petzlcrew.petzlteam.com; accessfund.org; ifsc-slimbing.org; abc-of-rockclimbing.com; rei.com; lisarands.com; momentumvm.com; competitionclimbingcanada.com