Reaching New Heights
September 6, 2016
Sasha DiGiulian started her climbing career at her older brother’s eighth birthday party in 1999 when she was just seven years old. The party was held at a local climbing gym in her hometown of Washington, D.C., and once she tried climbing, she was instantly hooked.
Sasha says she initially fell in love with climbing because of how exhilarating it was and the feeling of control and power it gave her. Soon after her brother’s party, Sasha joined the gym’s junior climbing club. Within a year, she completed her first outdoor climb in West Virginia and never looked back… or rather down!
Sasha says the spring of 2011 is when she really began to feel all of her hard work and dedication paying off. After years of feeling like she had hit a plateau, she decided to defer her college acceptance and take a year off after graduating from high school to focus on climbing and training full-time. This decision proved to be the right one as it allowed her to take her climbing to the next level; at the age of only 19, Sasha was named the number one female climber in the world after winning her first world title on her first attempt. She is also the youngest woman to have climbed a 5.14 graded climb — the hardest route ever achieved by a woman.
Sasha first came to Chelsea Piers when she was 12 years old. Although she admits she initially found the club’s wall intimidating, she was soon making the four-hour trip from D.C. to NYC twice a month to climb at the Sports Center. She joined the Sports Center in the fall of 2012 and considers Chelsea Piers one of her favorite places in the city. She also credits it as a deciding factor in her decision to move to New York City. While some may think it is strange for a rock climber to choose a big city over somewhere like Colorado, Sasha insists there is no place she’d rather call home, especially when she gets to climb the Sports Center’s 46-foot wall for an average of 15 hours a week! Surprisingly, Sasha still makes time for her collegiate obligations as a student at Columbia University studying Creative Writing with a concentration in Business.
While Sasha may be a little biased in declaring the rock wall her favorite part of the gym, she is grateful for the variety of training equipment and amenities the facility provides. She enjoys warming up by running the track and taking fitness classes such as Ab Lab and Inferno. Also important for someone with a schedule as full as Sasha’s, is the Sports Center’s convenient and easily accessible location. When weather permits, she enjoys jump-starting her workouts by biking from her apartment to the Sports Center. When asked why she chose the Sports Center as her training center, she explains that it is the staff that really sets the gym apart from others in the city. “Everyone who works here is not only knowledgeable and willing to answer any questions, but also incredibly friendly,” Sasha says.
On the introduction of Rock Wall Director, Les Pawlak, Sasha works with Egor Astakhov, one of the many skilled climbing instructors, training on average 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sasha credits Egor with motivating her to always push herself and stresses the importance of a consistent training partner; “Egor knows my strengths and weaknesses. He knows my limits and doesn’t let me get away with saying ‘I’ve reached my max’, when I am just tired.”
Just as Sasha benefits from her climbing partner Egor, other climbing enthusiasts at the Sports Center will now have the opportunity to directly benefit from Sasha’s expertise. The world-class climber will be conducting instructional clinics for Sports Center members, pulling from her vast experience and training know-how to identify in climbers areas for improvement and recommendations on how to become a stronger and more strategic climber.
When asked how it felt to be named the best female climber in the world while still in her teens, Sasha is extremely modest, tipping her hat to her fellow world-class climbers. Though anyone at the Rock Wall will be quick to say how honored they feel to be climbing alongside the best.
For information on our climbing programs and to join Sasha for one of her instructional clinics, visit chelseapiers.com/scclimbing.