CAMP Athlete Paige Claassen shares how she managed to find time amid a grueling two-month work schedule to prepare for one of America’s hardest sport climbs.
“This week one of America’s most iconic sport-climbing testpieces saw both its first and second female ascents over two consecutive days. Michaela Kiersch, 23, clipped the chains on Necessary Evil on February 6 for the route’s long-awaited FFA. The next day, 27-year-old Paige Claassen followed suit with her own redpoint.
As a longstanding project that was first bolted by Boone Speed in 1989, Necessary Evil, a striking direttissima up the Blasphemy Wall of the Virgin River Gorge, wasn’t freed until 1997 following a long campaign by a 16-year-old Chris Sharma. At 5.14c, Necessary Evil is most often referred to as “hard for the grade” by just about everyone who has ever climbed it.
Prior to the start of the VRG season, Paige found herself in a unique predicament for a professional climber: she found herself working a grueling 14-hour-per-day, 6-day-per-week job on her husband’s grape farm in Africa. Crunched for time, yet unwilling to give up her dream of sending Necessary Evil, Paige, with the help of her training sensei Justen Sjong, devised a routine that allowed her to get fit and strong with just one hour per day.
[Evening Sends] invited Paige to share an overview of her training regimen. Given that so many of us feel crunched for time, Paige serves as an inspiration in that, no matter how busy you think you are, getting stronger and fitter CAN be done with a few basic home-training tools and just one hour per day. Given that so many of us face similar time crunches in our own lives, we hope you read this story and it gets you inspired to stop making excuses and start getting after it.”
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Paige Classeen Photo: Chris Bailey Speed
