Story by Sabrina Chapman
Walk into most climbing gyms and you’ll
likely see a gaggle of kids in team shirts
doing laps on routes, darting across slant-
ing volumes and catching improbable
holds with one hand. They travel in packs,
from one problem to another, climbing
with seemingly reckless abandon. When I
started climbing at Boulderz, in Toronto,
the kids’ team was like one mass of shrieks
and giggles, and arriving at the gym after
a long day of work with a full training
plan scheduled ahead of me, I really had
no interest in what they were doing. Eyes
down, I quickly made my way up the stairs
in the back to get my workout underway.
Resting between my sets and looking
out over the gym, I glanced to my right
at the upturned face of a small girl with
soft brown eyes, an open smile and a little
feather sewn into some strands of her hair.
She asked me what I was doing and why,
and as we chatted, I was struck by her
easy, open demeanor and inquisitiveness.
I enjoyed our little exchange but quickly
dismissed it as I went back to my workout.
Over the next few years my head forward,
eyes down way of walking into the gym
after work couldn’t keep me from notic-
ing Bea Evans’s growing maturity and skill
beyond jumping around on triangles. She
would ask what I was working on outside,
enthusiastically encourage her teammates
and friends to push themselves, while also
pushing herself to overcome weight f luctu-
ations, injuries and self-doubt. Evans’s quiet
determination and ability to see failure as
an opportunity to learn culminated this
past February, when she won the Canadian
Youth Bouldering Nationals with a near
f lawless performance.
Like a lot of people, Evans’s first dose of
climbing was in 2006 at a friend’s birthday
party at a local climbing gym. In an attempt
to jump the line and get an extra turn on the
rope, she jumped up and down to show the
belayer she was the most excited for climb-
ing. A couple of years later at the age of eight,
Evans joined the Boulderz competitive team.
For the next few years, Evans’s competitionBEA EVANS
Ontario Comp Crusher
goals were modest and well within her limit,
which she gradually found unfulfilling.
Although she placed well during 2015 – 2016
Youth Nationals, with the help of her coach
Andrew Smythe, Evans came to realize that
in order to fully tap into her potential she’d
have to set bigger goals and risk failure. To
hold herself accountable to these goals, she
wrote out a list of benchmarks she wanted to
meet, and fully committed herself to work-
ing toward them.
During this time, Evans’s body was
slowly changing into that of a young adult,
and with it a growing confusion of how to
manage nutrition, weight gain and perfor-
mance. Like many athletes, she fell into the
trap of wanting to control every aspect of
what could inf luence her performance by
experimenting with portion control and
scrutinizing ingredient lists. This distorted
relationship with food was exacerbated by
a series of injuries between 2016 and 2018
that kept Evans from being physically
active. After some weight gain and then
loss (the latter causing severe energy deficit
which kept her from training), Evans con-
nected with a dietician and sports psycholo-
gist at the urging of concerned family and
friends. With the help of these profession-
als, Evans was able to relearn how to eatintuitively and intelligently to meet the
needs of her body and athletic performance.
Evans’s injuries, however, were plentiful.
2016 brought a ruptured finger pulley just as
she was healing her relationship with food
and diet. In 2017 , she partially dislocated
her knee, which required surgery at the end
of that year. In the summer of 2018 , one
week prior to leaving for Moscow for Youth
Worlds, she contended with a lateral menis-
cus tear, an E. coli scare and a second knee
surgery. This succession of injuries would be
enough to frustrate any climber with goals
and aspirations for themselves, and poten-
tially lead them to quit the sport altogether.
Evans astutely dealt with her setbacks by
listening to her body. She took breaks from
training and did not force herself to go to
the gym if she didn’t want to. Consequently,
Evans avoided beating her head against a
wall of frustration, and stored up her psych
and motivation for when she was ready to
get back to climbing and training.
Although the term “training” often
brings to mind banging out sets on a hang-
board or endless weighted pullups, Evans
adapted her methods to align with the evo-
lution of competition setting. Coordination
and parkour-like skills can only be devel-
oped by doing them, so she spent more time“Although the term ‘training’ often
brings to mind banging out sets on
a hangboard or endless weighted
pullups, Evans adapted her methods to
align with the evolution of competition
setting. Coordination and parkour-
like skills can only be developed by
doing them, so she spent more time
on the wall practicing.”
Opposite:
Bea Evans at
the 2018 national
team selection
camp at Gneiss
climbing gym in
Kelowna, B.C.Pho
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