Pamela Shanti Pack isn’t just a climber; she is an offwidth junkie. It didn’t take her long, after developing compartment syndrome, to switch gears from crimping on edges and pockets to stacking her hands and feet in some of the most awkward offwidth cracks known to man.“As the fourth surgeon told me that I would never climb again, I had a vision of Craig Leubben on the infamous offwidth roof Lucille in Vedauwoo, Wyoming. Craig was definitely not crimping. In the following years, I replaced crimps with fist stacks, arm-bars, knee-bars, inverts and pivots as offwidths became my greatest passion.”
Pack isn’t always cramming her thigh into a wide crack, you can also find her around the Bering Sea doing things that a cartographer does. Yale University is the place where she skipped away with an Art and Architecture degree and is now creating 3D maps of the ocean floor.
Her pocket full of first ascents is bursting at the seams with countless inverted offwidth cracks that dapple in the 5.11 to 5.13 range, including her first ascent of The Forever War, 5.13b/c R. In 2009, Climbing Magazine awarded Pack the Golden Piton Award for establishing the offwidth roof Gabriel, a 5.13 in Zion National Park.
Pamela Shanti Pack is exploring new lines and cleaning the cobwebs off of old ones. She may climb upside-down at time, but she always climbs safe. That’s why she climbs on Edelweiss ropes.
“As an offwidth climber I put my ropes to the ultimate test in abrasion resistance and cutting properties from multi-pitch sandstone squeeze chimneys to the course granite crystals of Vedauwoo, WY. I have taken multiple falls across sharp granite edges using the Laser 9.6 without even slightly fraying the sheath. The Onsight 9.9 is my first choice for offwidth desert towers– it’s not only highly abrasion resistant but also is lightweight and has a soft catch. In my experience Edelweiss ropes are incomparable in handling qualities, durability and safety.”
Accomplishments:
- Established The Forever War, 5.13c/d R in Vedauwoo, WY
- Made the first ascent of Spatial Relations, 5.13a in Vedauwoo, WY
- Made the first ascent of On A Wing and A Prayer, 5.12c in Vedauwoo, WY
- Made the first female ascent (onsite) of Lucille, 5.12d in Vedauwoo, WY
- Awarded Climbing Magazine’s Golden Piton Award for establishing Gabriel, a 5.13 offwidth in Zion National Park
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