Exploring Life & Business with Chelsea Rude of She Sends Collective

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Rude.

Hi Chelsea, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I started rock climbing in 1998 when I was 11 years old, alongside my dad in Atlanta, GA, and literally fell in love with the sport immediately. Within the first month of trying it for the first time, I was awarded a scholarship to join a youth climbing team and competed, and won, my first climbing competition. The rest is history…

The youth team that I joined actually awarded all members scholarships to be on the team – this was perhaps the only program in the country to do so at the time – and it really made a difference for me and my family and ultimately for my climbing career. This most certainly allowed my family more opportunity to travel for competition than I may have had otherwise, and honestly, I’m so grateful for that to this day.

Today, climbing is still very male-dominated, especially depending on where you live, but it was much more so back then. As a 13-year-old, I started to overhear comments from men saying things like “A girl definitely can’t do this,” or “It needs to be delicate for a girl to excel at a climb,” but all that did was light a fire within to prove them wrong. I don’t think that I understood the problem with those statements at the time, but definitely knew that all I wanted to do was show them that I could actually do those climbs and that they didn’t need to be “delicate climbs” for me (or women in general) to find success.

Of course, I looked up to the few women climbers in the country – in fact I admired all of them and they inspired me to work even harder. But growing up I didn’t have a group of girls or women to climb with – I mostly climbed with the men – but always dreamed of having a girl crew to climb with. Unfortunately at the time, most, if not all, of the women I admired in the competition circuit who were my age or older, struggled with disordered eating; and my young brain thought that I needed to be small in order to find the success they were found. I dreamt of becoming National Champion – and it appeared that in order to do so, I would have to be smaller in addition to continuing to train as much as I did. Rock climbing and disordered eating have a long history of mingling with one another, particularly in the competition world. While I certainly struggled with some disordered eating, I was fortunate that my mom made me read so many books on sports nutrition in high school (and write reports on them) because I’m certain that knowledge saved me from taking things much further when I was in my early 20’s.

At 17 years old I became a coach to the same youth team that I had been part of for 6 years – I had no idea what I was doing in terms of coaching but figured I had the knowledge to share and the gym really believed in me. This was the beginning of my coaching career; a career that I never thought was good enough (until the last few years), as I felt I needed to be a doctor or work in medicine somehow to find success. Funny how perspectives change as we age…

In my mid-20s, I became the first female Youth US Climbing Team Coach, while I was still a member of the adult US Climbing Team. And then in 2013 when I became a sponsored athlete with Adidas and was fortunate to begin traveling across the country teaching clinics at various gyms and festivals. Around that same time, I requested to begin teaching female-only climbing clinics and quickly realized a childhood dream of sharing my knowledge of climbing with women in a safe and supportive space where I could meet each woman exactly where she was – she didn’t need to be anything different for me. Truthfully, I wanted this because I never really had it growing up and it was even more magical than I could have imagined.

In late 2019, after continuing to get waitlisted for PA school, I decided my fight to work in medicine would come to an end and instead I would start a climbing platform that would work with women, and other gender minorities in our sport, just as I had for the last few years. I knew that I wanted this platform to be “more than climbing” in the sense that I wanted to integrate nutrition and mental health with specific rock climbing education because if I’ve learned nothing over the last 36 years of life, it is that we are complex beings who are multifaceted and we NEED to work on ALL parts of us if we want to strive in life AND in climbing. It was, and still is, my goal to empower women and genderqueer folks to take charge of their own climbing journey, tune into what really inspires them, and encourage them to uncover the strength that has always existed within. This is my philosophy both as a climbing coach and as Executive Director of She Sends Collective.

Today I am still a sponsored athlete, with a coach, who is striving to realize specific climbing goals. I’ve learned to be gentle with myself through this journey as I am celebrating my 25th year of climbing this month, and my motivation ebb and flows a lot these days, particularly with climbing being both my “job” and my play space. Even as a coach I sometimes struggle with the negative self-talk and low self-esteem that hides the strength that actually lives within, as I’m only human. I recognize that while climbing has gifted me an immense amount, it is also the thing that has taken the lives of many of my dearest friends, and yet I can not quit climbing because ultimately it adds some much depth to my life as a whole. It is my passion, and I believe it is my purpose to share my passion with others.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Up to this point, there certainly have been smooth parts to this road, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that there have also been huge potholes and washed-out roads for miles and miles too! But I’m pretty sure that’s just life though, right?

There have been many struggles that include but certainly aren’t limited to, struggling to feed me to support my training, trying to determine what competing & climbing actually meant to me (19-year-old Chelsea’s first time trying to figure that one out), as both a female athlete and a coach I struggled to get people to actually listen to me (this is actually still true sometimes). I’ve struggled with loss, as climbing and the mountains have claimed the lives of many of my dearest friends (but I still will always say that driving in your car is much more dangerous than climbing (unless you’re free soloing)). I’ve struggled, and definitely still can struggle, with negative self-talk and plenty of self-doubts as a climbing athlete AND a business owner.

I’ve had my fair share of injuries including a broken back, two shoulder surgeries, and a knee surgery…but I do believe those things made me more mentally resilient and more in tune with my body. I’ve struggled with learning when to trust my intuition and when I’m overthinking something. I’ve experienced and will continue to experience all normal human struggles.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
She Sends Collective was legally formed in January 2020 with the goals of empowerment, connection, education, and celebrating climbing as a whole. We do this by offering outdoor rock climbing educational clinics, all on a sliding scale so that finances are less of a barrier to entry to quality education. We also offer “more than climbing” education that includes nutrition workshops (not as frequently), and will be integrating mental health into our programming as well later in 2023! Furthermore, we host events to bring the community together to speak on gender, and mindfulness, but also events to simply have fun and meet other community members in a safe space.

All of our guides and instructors with She Sends Collective are women, gender non-conforming, or genderqueer, which actually make up only 15% or less of the total guide population in the world. I think it’s really important to state and bring awareness to the fact that while all of our outdoor educational clinics that are offered on a sliding scale are reserved for women, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming demographics, we do offer private/group guide services to all genders because we recognize that there’s a lot of people out there who would rather support and work with affinity groups such as ours. Our guide team is highly experienced, and educated, and are experts at teaching what you want to learn and providing a great time for you and your friends/family.

While offering all of our educational clinics on a sliding scale, and having a guide team comprised of only women, gender non-conforming or genderqueer folks certainly sets She Sends Collective apart from other guiding platforms in the state and country, we are also set apart by the fact that SSC is woman-owned, AND we are in the process of getting all of our guides trained to teach in a trauma-informed manner so that we can provide the best experiences possible for our clients. I believe this is incredibly important so that we can ensure to meet each climber exactly where they are on any given day, which allows the climber to develop a better relationship with climbing for themselves.

Honestly, I am so proud of the impact that SSC is having on the climbing community – it is beautiful to witness and be part of and sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure this is all real and not just a dream. It is incredibly hard work, but I know it is always worth it, even if we only really have an impact on one individual.

We have a lot of clinics running through November, are available for private/group hire anytime, and we are actually hosting our First Annual We Send Climbers’ Festival in Shelf Road (1-hour south-ish from CO Springs) from April 28-30. This Festival is the first of its kind in Colorado and is a community-focused event creating space for ALL identifying women, gender non-conforming, trans (yes, including trans men), and genderqueer climbers to connect with each other, themselves, the land, and climbing. This is certainly an exciting time for SSC and we’d love to see you there!

We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
If one measures their height, and then their reach from the tip of their middle finger to the tip of their other middle finger and compares those lengths…it is called your ape index. A lot of climbers have a positive ape index meaning their arm length is taller than their height. A lot of climbers also have a neutral ape index meaning their height and arm lengths are equal. For me, I have a negative 3.5 ape index meaning that I stand at 5’4” but my arms are only 5’0.5” so people have often called me Terex for that reason.

Those who know me well know that I will always fight for the underdog and do everything in my power to accommodate others on their climbing journey.

Since 2021, which was the inception of our sliding scale model for our Outdoor Educational Clinics, the community has collectively saved nearly $70,000 on quality education. This is huge and worth sharing with a wider audience.

I love cookies and my two dogs, Puma Bear and Frannie Beans.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shesendscollective.com | www.wesendclimbingfestival.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1009928299485753
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/chelseanicholerude/

Image Credits
Francois Lebeau, Kris Ugarriza, Felipe Nordenflycht, and Francois Lebeau