For this episode, host Holly Chen traded the usual one-on-one format for something bigger. Chen traveled to Class 5 in Torrance, California, to interview every single member of the 2026 Woman Up setting crew.
Featured on today’s show are Claire Miller, Sydney McNair, Zoe Brodsky, Jackie Taraszynski, Nat Bell, Rosie Bates, Jiarra Chiang, AB Cancian, Ashley Stockman and Zoey Grinstead.
Woman Up is a climbing festival and competition set by and for women and non-binary climbers, run annually by Touchstone Climbing. This year it went ropes for the first time and was held on August 22-23.
In their conversation, Chen and the setters talk about what it feels like to set in a competition where everyone just “gets it,” the barriers that still exist in the climbing industry, and why an event like this one matters long after the routes come down.
General Topics Covered
- What Woman Up is and how it works
- Inside the planning process: how Claire builds the setting crew application, what she’s actually looking for, and why climbing hard is not enough to get you on the team
- The crew’s comradery: the setter house, the dining table, the energy that comes from everyone sharing a similar lived experience
- Setting creativity and freedom
- A 12-year setting veteran talks about the weight of imposter syndrome
- The socioeconomic barriers in climbing and routesetting: who gets to be in the gym in the first place, and who never makes it that far
- The “no one applied” problem of setting team hiring processes
- Tokenization, performative allyship, and how to tell the difference
- Representation and the ripple effect: how seeing someone who looks like you at a comp can change the entire trajectory of a setting career
- Where Woman Up shines and where it has room to grow
- Advice for setters who want to bring something like Woman Up back to their home gym
Show Notes
- Find the 2026 Woman Up Setting Team on Instagram: Claire Miller, Sydney McNair, Zoey Grinstead, Zoe Brodsky, AB Cancian, Jiarra Chiang, Nat Bell, Jacklyn Teresinski, and Ash Stockman
- Touchstone Climbing and Class 5
- Woman Up
- Other events like Woman Up: Death Moth, Common Ground, Midwest Mayhem
- Where You Feel Comfortable, You Try Harder – CBJ Podcast with Zoey Grinstead
- What We Mean When We Say “Diverse Setting Teams” – CBJ Podcast with Altana Elings-Haynie
- Keep Them Sketched Out – CBJ Podcast with Claire Kawainui Miller
- Adding What Should Always Have Been There – CBJ Podcast with Siege Climbing
- Hold the Doors Open: Behind the Wrench With Sydney McNair
Closing Notes
If you’d like to nominate someone as a guest next guest, have a topic you want to see us tackle or have questions, we’d love for you to reach out. You can find our pitch form here.
The Impact Driver podcast is a production of the Climbing Business Journal. Today’s episode is sponsored by Cascade Speciality, Trango, The Climbing Wall Association, and Walltopia. It was edited and produced by Holly Yu Tung Chen, Megan Cheek, Scott Rennak and Joe Robinson, and our theme music is by Devin Dabney.
All photos are courtesy of Holly Chen and the Woman Up setting team.
