Pamela Shanti Pack

Pamela Shanti Pack

Profession: Hydrographic Surveyor and Offwidth Ninja
Lives: Somewhere between the Bering Sea and Boulder, CO

BA Yale University
Professional Certification in GIS and Remote Sensing

Who I am and What I do:

I am a cartographer, hydrographer, artist, adrenaline addict, and offwidth ninja. If I’m not hanging upside-down in an offwidth roof in Vedauwoo, WY, I am on a boat in the Bering Sea creating 3D maps of the ocean floor. I am trained in Cold Water Survival, have done Vodka shots with the crew from the World’s Deadliest Catch, and I can get an Immersion Suit on in under 60 seconds. I worked on a Maya site in Guatemala, painted in France, and have paddled over 1000 miles in a sea-kayak, but my greatest passion is climbing.

I enjoy all types of climbing (bouldering, trad, sport, and ice), but a few years ago I developed compartment syndrome in both my forearms and couldn’t hold a coffee cup, much less crimp. As my surgeon was telling me that I would never climb again, I had a vision of Craig Leubben, inventor of the Big Bro, crammed into the infamous offwidth roof Lucille in Vedauwoo, WY. Craig was definitely not crimping. In the following years, I replaced crimps with fist stacks, arm-bars, knee-bars, inverts and pivots as offwidths became my obsession.

Offwidths, like working at sea, continually challenge my physical and psychological limits. I have fractured ribs, torn intercostals and abdominal muscles, vomited and hyperventilated on offwidths, but despite the pain it has been an elegant and artful grovel. Seeking out the ultimate wide crack has taken me from Zion, UT to Vedauwoo, WY where I had the great honor of meeting Craig Leubben on the very day I placed a Big Bro for the first time and became the first woman to climb Lucille. Thanks to Malcolm Daly and Trango the offwidth odyssey will continue!

~Pamela Shanti Pack