Episode 52: Mary Grace Stocker Seeking Adventure On Her Own

This week’s a good one! My guest is climber and adventure seeker, Mary Grace Stocker.

In the episode, not only does Mary Grace tell stories from her adventures (think poop tubes and vertical ecologies) we talk money. What a lovely, coincidental follow up to last episode’s money discussion with Sporty Esquire Cecelia Townes.

For her 13th birthday, not wanting to become a teenage girly girl, Mary Grace asked for backpacking gear and a multi-day kayak trip. And that was the beginning!

She went to college in the southeast, moved to Denver, worked and climbed on weekends. Then, after getting laid off in 2017, she built up her Honda Element and drove away to travel the country and climb. She’s been traveling solo ever since. She encourages women to set out on their own every now and again to be introspective and remember who you are.

To fund her climbing, Mary Grace has been working seasonal jobs and has a done incredibly well at saving and learning how to support her adventuring and build financial stability.

It’s super cool that she has combined a non-traditional life with setting up for the longer-term future. She’s been studying investing and real estate.

It’s super cool that she travels solo and does big adventures by herself. This past summer, while working as a climbing steward in Yosemite, she soloed Skull Queen on Washington Column. Part way through, she found inspiration in a favorite passage from the biography of Beverly Johnson, one of the greatest women climbers:

“It took her ten days to climb the wall. Her motivation had been in the journey, not the achievement. Beverly had chosen a life defined by the explorer’s maxim, driven by the process of discovering rather than the triumph of discovery. But that life had hard edges. Though she experienced ten days in the middle of a sea of rock blanketed by an ocean of sun and stars, she emerged on the summit smiling but exhausted, victorious but scarred.”

Read more about that ascent in Mary Grace’s blog post Women Venturing Into The Unknown, Yosemite Climbing Association, October 6, 2018
Yosemite Climbing Stewards
Vertical Wilderness
Breckenridge Ski Resort
Ski lessons with Mary Grace
Element Ventures, Digital Marketing For Small Businesses
Mary Grace on Instagram
Mary Grace’s blog, Dirtbag Dollars
Can't Keep Her Down: A Consolidated History of Women’s Climbing Achievements, Megan Walsh, Climbing Magazine, November 13, 2017
The View From the Edge: Life and Landscapes of Beverly Johnson, Gabriella Zim.
Lynn Hill, 1st free ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California
Beverly Johnson and Sibylle Hechtel were the first team of women to ascend El Capitan via the Triple Direct route
Of course, I need a link to poop tube! Here’s some words specifically geared to women.
Sport Climbing Makes Debut in Tokyo2020 Olympics
Flash Foxy’s Shelma Jun
Brown Girls Climb

If you like this episode, you may also enjoy:
🎤 Episode 51 with Cecelia Townes, Sporty Esquire. Listen Here.
🎤 Episode 46 with Jude Gerace Hockey Owner of Sugar Wheel Works. Listen Here.
🎤 Episode 40 with Blake Carson Climber & Wellness Coach. Listen Here.
🎤 Episode 36 with Liz Sampey Adventurer. Listen Here.
🎤 Episode 11 with Alison Alaska Kayak Adventure Guide. Listen Here.