More than just miss 5.15: A Profile with Margo hayes

Relying on exhausted muscles and torn skin, 19-year-old Margo Hayes ascended the 135-foot La Rambla route in Catalona, Spain. She almost packed up and left for the day, before she decided to try one more time. As Hayes reached the top of La Rambla, she became the first woman in the world to climb the 5.15 grade, making history as her hands met the last hold.

The climb was one of the hardest in the world in 2017, and as Hayes reached the top of the climb she became the fifteenth person to complete the route. The 5.15 grade wasn't even achieved in rock climbing until Chris Sharma climbed Biographie, in 2001. A year after Hayes' La Rambla achievement, she too climbed Biographie, making history in the sport not once, but twice.

The pressure was on her quickly, though. The climbing community spotlighted her for her records. She gained 60-thousand followers on Instagram overnight. She gained sponsorships, competed in world cup events, and the spotlight was on what she'd do next.

"When I sent La Rambla and I gained 60,000 followers overnight, I cried." Said Hayes. "People asked me, why are you crying? Before then I had 11.1 thousand followers and that was the perfect number, I just thought it was so many people and I was so afraid of the pressure. At 19, I wasn't prepared for what came with that kind of success in the sport, because it really changed my life."

She was swarmed with emails, requests for interviews, and events to attend. 

"Because of that I lost a lot of my joy in the sport. It felt like a job, and pressure, and now I've had a beautiful rediscovery of the sport.

A few years after climbing La Rambla, Hayes had to take time off from competing. The pressure was off in those moments. She spent the time listening to her body and learning to rest. She climbed for herself for the first time in years, and it ignited her love for climbing once again.

"In life there's that thing where you find yourself over and over again," said Hayes. "I think as a professional in a sport you also have to over and over again find that love you have for the sport and come back to doing it for the reasons that you started it." 

When Hayes was in middle school and high school, she watched the clock and waited for the bell to ring because she couldn't wait to climb. 

"I didn't have to go through anything for anyone, I was climbing for myself.” Said Hayes. “Within climbing, I think I've come full circle, like, to my inner child of climbing. And that has been really beautiful." 

Last summer, she revealed she'd been struggling with lyme disease. With that came the internal battle of dealing with a chronic illness while professionally climbing. Hayes is on a new journey of climbing for herself- something she hasn't done since she was a kid - and balancing her health with her pro-climber status. It's a new task for her to block out the noise, and create new goals based on her body's new limits.

"I've had to accept more periods of rest, because my health as well, which I feel like life sometimes, gives you beautiful lessons in a way that it breaks your idea of what you should be doing." Said Hayes.

One strategy Hayes has when embracing periods of rest is getting her nails done, a good reminder that accepting periods of rest creates better health and performance long term.

Within her illness, she's come face to face with this concept in the climbing industry, when working with companies and sponsorships.

"Within certain companies they want younger girls, in my eyes I'm not retired, I've just been through a plethora of really bullshit situations in the last few years, which I'm grateful for in the end because it's made me so much stronger." Said Hayes.

Hayes began climbing at 10, which is late in terms of the sport. 

"When I see kids climbing at the gym at 3, I think "oh my god, you're on a hang board at 3 years old? When I was 3, I was naked in the dirt. I see that and I think, "I hope you still love climbing when you're older.’" 

Being in the public eye at such a young age has illuminated for Hayes the ways that US culture values youth.

"I think within the US we have an unhealthy obsession with how success often comes when you're really really young, but I think with climbing it's really interesting because, in my eyes I still have, if I want to, a very bright future within our sport." 

Hayes describes herself as a dreamer, even a bit delusional at times. "If I know I can do it, it's not as exciting to me." Said Hayes.

She has been known to keep her goals close to her chest, but her main focus is to not let those goals define her.

"I don't feel like I need to do it to prove my worth.” Said Hayes. “I don't feel like I need to do it for people who expect me to do the next big thing. I feel like if I want to climb 9a+ again, or 9b+, or whatever, I can do that for myself. If I want to climb 9a or 5.15's or whatever it may be I can do that for myself because I don't feel like my worth relies on the number grade that I climb."

Hayes thinks of climbing as an honor system in all aspects. The sport is based on trust, trust with a belayer, being honest about what you've done when you're outside alone, trust to interact with nature intentionally and to leave things how one found them.

"I think because people are constantly pushing to do the next thing, when sponsorships start getting involved, the integrity of the sport starts lacking, and that will be so heartbreaking if that becomes an issue. So I think that if we put all of the focus on the grade, that system will crumble. That's the opposite of what our sport means."