Nina Williams

Nina Williams is a Black Diamond Equipment and The North Face professional rock climber and Certified Professional Coach (CPC) in Leadership and Development. In 2024, Williams was elected Board President of the American Alpine Club. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Williams has made a name for herself in highball bouldering, a discipline that involves attempting a 20-foot or higher boulder problem without rope protection. Beyond the physicality of bouldering, this style also requires significant mental discipline. Alongside her climbing career, Williams works with women and people of color to build confident, intentional lives, collaborating with organizations like Color the Crag, Flash Foxy, and the London Women's Climbing Symposium. She has also served as a climbing coach for Team ABC in Boulder and led clinics at climbing gyms nationwide.

Standing at 5’3”, Williams employs a dynamic climbing style and a matching ethos. She made her mark with the completion of her first V13 (8B) in Rocklands, South Africa, on the "Ray of Light" problem in 2015. This marked the first female ascent of this route. Her accomplishments include the first female ascent of Ambrosia in the Buttermilks of Bishop, California, a climb that Climbing magazine dubbed as "one of the hardest free solos ever done by a woman.” She also completed two other difficult routes on the same boulder: the north-facing "Footprints" (V9) in 2014 and the south-facing "Evilution Direct" (V11) by 2015. In doing so, she became the first woman to complete the "Grandpa Peabody Trifecta." In addition to these feats, she also made the first female ascent of "Window Shopper" V12 in Boulder, Colorado, and of "China Beach" 5.14b in Rumney, New Hampshire. By 2019, she had accomplished seven first female ascents on boulders globally. Her journey was captured in the short film "The High Road," featured in the REEL ROCK 14 film tour.

The path to her current status was anything but easy for Williams. As a young climber, her intense desire to succeed led to an unfortunate incident of cheating at a national qualifying competition, which led to her being barred from competition for a year. This setback, however, motivated her to redefine her approach to climbing and focus on internal validation. Today, she strongly advocates for authenticity in climbing: “I don’t want the next generation of climbers to feel like they have to cheat or be ultra-achieving. I want us to speak to them and say, we are proud of you because you are doing this for yourself.”

Williams completed her degree in Communications and Leadership from The University of Colorado Boulder in 2021. Currently, she is running a coaching program for climbers centered on mindset and inner dialogue, leveraging her experience as a climber trained in the art of falling to provide unique insights on overcoming the fear of letting go. Alongside this, Williams continues to push her limits in rock climbing, completing difficult routes such as "Final Frontier," a 5.13b multi-pitch trad route in Yosemite, and "Father Time" (5.13b), as well as ascents like "Speed of Life" V10, and "Too Big To Flail" V10.