Queer Climbing Social
The Queer Climbing Social (QCS) provides a safe and inclusive space at Boulders Climbing Gym for the LGBTQ+ community to build confidence and community around social rock climbing and community activities.
Get regular club updates and event details!
Co-Chairs
Becca Ridge (she/her):
Becca joined QCS in 2021 as a way to connect more with the queer climbing community of Madison. She values having and fostering a space where she and others can safely explore the sport in a low-pressure setting. As a relative newcomer to climbing, she is excited to learn more and find new ways to get her body moving, ideally up the rocks instead of down.
After taking their first step into a climbing gym in 2019, Madison slowly grew a great appreciation for the sport of rock climbing due to its unique style of community and its special way of empowering people to look beyond their perceived limitations. Eager to share these many wonderful benefits with others, Madison jumped at the chance to join the Queer Climbing Social leadership team in 2023, after regularly attending for a year. In their role as Co-Director, they hope to continue hosting a friendly space for queer community, make intro-level climbing skill learning as accessible as possible, and occasionally plan fun climbing & outdoors-related outings. Madison most looks forward to joining QCS members at outdoor climbing day trips at Devil's Lake this summer. At socials, you'll most likely find them having a blast on the top rope slab wall or assisting in Learn to Belay classes. During the week, Madison runs operations at a local non-profit, Law Forward. Outside of QCS & work, their favorite activities are pole dance, reading, and getting outside!
Madison Edwards (They/Them):
Hosts
Patricia Chan (she/her):
Patricia is a graduate student at UW in Botany and an avid lover of the outdoors. She joined QCS in 2019 in search of community and became inspired by the strength of connections that climbing could facilitate. What Patty appreciates most about queer climb is having an accessible, welcoming, and alcohol-free space for the LGBT community in a context where we can feel comfortable with movement and connecting with our bodies. Always learning and slowly gaining skills, Patty strives to do multi-day big wall climbs someday.
SJ Hemmerich (they/them):
SJ is a graduate student at UW-Madison in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis with a focus on trans/nonbinary inclusivity in K-12 schools. They’ve been climbing on and off since moving to Madison in 2006. Once they heard about QCS, it quickly became a favorite event: they hardly ever missed one and tended to go for the entire 3 hours, so! It made sense for SJ to help host the event because QCS is one of their favorite events: They love being in the midst of joyful queer folks challenging themselves and having fun. SJ loves meeting first time attendees that seem to come every month. I mostly top rope and have started lead climbing a bit, but my favorite climbing experience was my (ambitious) first bouldering route called “Plumber’s Crack” at Red Rock Canyon in Nevada.
Nathan moved to Madison in 2018 to be a software developer at Epic. Having climbed previously during grad school at CU Boulder, he immediately sought out climbing gyms in Madison and got excited when he saw the sign for the Queer Climbing Social on the wall at Boulders. After a while of attending regularly, Jacqueline asked him for help co-hosting, and since then he helped bring the event back after being on hiatus for the pandemic.
He enjoys climbing outside and enjoys taking new people out for their first time climbing real rock. Having never been a super-advanced climber himself, he enjoys sticking to the basics and making space for people to try stuff outdoors with no expectations. Don’t be afraid to ask him about joining up sometime!
Nathan Morrison (he/him):
Past Hosts
Lily Hislop (she/her):
Lily was a queer climbing host from 2019 to 2022 while at UW for her grad program in plant genetics. Lily enjoys making space for the queer community and the ways that climbing fosters connection and friend-making through the belayer-belayee interactions.
Jacqueline launched QCS in 2017 while in graduate school for Astronomy at UW-Madison. Her vision was a space that lowered barriers to queer and trans people learning to climb in a safe and welcoming space supported by community. Jacqueline learned to climb in her hometown of San Francisco, and she is excited to explore the climbing community in Boston as she begins a new chapter as a science communication instructor.
Jacqueline Goldstein (she/her)