Late Peak

It’s not every day you find a 70-year old mother pursuing her son up a vertical cliff face.

But then, Dierdre Wolownick isn’t your everyday kind of woman.

She didn’t learn to swim until her 40s, but then she taught herself. She took up running in her 50s after her recently-divorced husband dropped dead in an airport; her escape from a “life of turmoil.”

And in her mid-60s she took up rock climbing with her son.

These are mighty big rocks we’re talking about here, like Yosemite’s notoriously challengingly El Capitan.

This self-described “lumpy old middle age woman” didn’t just climb this rock. She scaled it four times faster than the average person.

What has climbing taught her about life?

“Climbers get to go to the most unimaginable, beautiful, inspiring places, and the only way to experience them is to put in the hard work.”

It’s never to late to start climbing your peak, whatever it is.