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Show YVETTE YOUNG 28 FEBRUARY 2010 YVETTE YOUNG American West Center An Interview by Matt Driscoll 28 February 2010 EVERETT L. COOLEY COLLECTION Outdoor Recreation Oral History Project U-2076 American West Center and Marriot Library Special Collections Department University of Utah YVETTE YOUNG 28 FEBRUARY 2010 THIS IS AN INTERVIEW WITH YVETTE YOUNG ON FEBRUARY 28 2010. THE INTERVIEWER IS MATT DRISCOLL. THIS IS THE OUTDOOR RECREATION ORAL HISTORY PROJECT. TAPE No. u2076. YY: Nice. Ijust have a little thing plugged into my iPod [laughs]. MD: Yeah well today is February 28" 2010. I’'m Matt Driscoll and I'm speaking with Yvette Young and Yvette just to begin with, can you spell your name? YY: Y-V-E-T-T-E. Y-O-U-N-G. MD: Great and uh when and where were you born? YY: Uh May 6, 1971 in Maine. MD: And when did you start um climbing? YY: Ithink it was 1994. MD: Well before we get a little bit further into that maybe, um what brought you Norway, Maine. Um in a climbing gym down in Provo [laughs], so— to Salt Lake? YY: I went to BYU. Icame out to go to school. Um so that was [laughs], that was in the fall of *98 that I moved out here, so I didn’t actually start climbing until Ileft BYU. MD: And were you drawn to Utah for the recreational opportunities in part or was it mainly for school? YY: It was mainly for school [laughs]. I was raised Mormon back East and so it was um, it was kind of reflexive to come to BYU you know at the time. And then when I left BYU um, then I started noticing, “Oh hey there are these other cool things going on here.” YVETTE YOUNG MD: Uh huh. YY: So [laughs]— MD: Yeah. 28 FEBRUARY 2010 So did you ski while you were? No. So climbing was really the uh— YY: It’s the reason I stayed in Utah. MD: Okay. YY: [laughs] I would have been gone long ago. MD: So I guess it was just at the Quarry where you started? YY: No, no that wasn’t around then. Um— MD: Okay. YY: There was a gym called the Rock Garden that was in an older building. It was at one point I think it had been a church and then after that it had been a meat packing plant and then there were six guys, from BYU actually, who uh had a business project they had to do and they started the Rock Garden. MD: Mmhm. YY: One of them remained the owner and another bought out and they were dual partners when I was there. So I'm trying to think, I think they’d been around for seven or eight years when I started there and started climbing. eventually worked for them. And then I So [laughs]— MD: Is Rock Garden still around now? YY: No, when the Quarry opened um Jeff had kind of a sister business. MD: Mmhm. YVETTE YOUNG YY: 28 FEBRUARY 2010 He and Bill Oran [unsure on spelling] owned Mountain Works and they, when he opened the Quarry, he bought Jeremy and Keith out, bought all their assets. I mean they’re friends of his so as much as he wanted a new gym, he also was trying to do the right thing [laughs]. business. So it was kind of a hybrid approach to Cause they’re, especially back then they’re were very, like you mentioned earlier they were very strong community and so there were very strong ties and loyalties and things like that, so trying not to ruin that. MD: Right. And so what brought you to climbing? YY: It was kind of random actually. Um I worked at a coffee shop at the time and a couple of the people that came in all the time were employees at the climbing gym. It was just like three blocks away maybe— MD: Right. YY: And uh one day I basically kind of ruined one of their drinks. I over steamed the milk— MD: Uh huh. YY: Iwas like, “I’'m so sorry.” And it was this huge major rush and so I just gave it to them. And so after that they started giving me like free passes to the gym and I liked it so much that I was like huh [laughs], I'm just going to keep doing this. MD: So did you, you took to it pretty quick then? YY: Oh yeah Ilove it. Iloved the style of motion. it was just amazing. MD: I liked it [laughs]. How would you describe the style of motion? Iloved the like, I don’t know YVETTE YOUNG YY: 28 FEBRUARY 2010 It was and I know, I don’t think this is true for a lot of people but it was dance like. There are so many ways in which you can use things like physics and gravity and you can kind of use technique to make it so you don’t have to use all upper body strength and it seemed very graceful to me because of that. So— MD: You’re not the first person to uh talk about it in terms of dance. I had somebody just last week who said she was a gymnast growing up— YY: Oh nice. MD: And totally translated it into— YY: Oh easily I'm sure. MD: The movements that— YY: Yeah some of the more gymnastic motions, like when you’re jumping for things, like dinoing, that came more difficultly for me, but I mean that was mostly like a strength base and a fitness base. But yeah I mean gymnastics would be a perfect crossover for it. MD: Mmhm. Right and um how important do you think strength is? Like were you strong when you first started climbing? YY: Oh no. Icouldn’t do a pull-up for probably five years after I started climbing. But you know I climbed 5.12 within like a year and a half of starting, which was good at the time but man there are some strong kids now. That’s nothing you know? MD: Uh huh. YY: So— MD: So how much did you climb in a gym before you started climbing outside? YVETTE YOUNG YY: 28 FEBRUARY 2010 Istarted in the gym in like February and I don’t know how regular I was like at first. I think maybe once a week or something like that. I don’t know. Then the first time I went outside was May, because that year was really really rainy and there was a weekend that everyone from the gym was going down to Maple Canyon and camping and climbing. And Maple had been, I think the very first routes had just been put up the year before. And so like, I mean I was just like, “Oh that’s awesome, I get to go climb outside.” went camping that weekend. So there was a big group that Half of them were people who had been bolting routes like Bill Boyle and Patterson and Bill Oran, some of the more obscure ones like Tim Hannig [laughs] and people like that. So, but um that was basically my introduction to outdoor climbing and you know there weren’t that many easy routes there at the time, so I got up probably the worst route in the canyon and thought it was great [laughs]. It was kind of interesting but it was still, I mean because it was such a rainy season, it rained half the weekend. It was just the first time you could even get out for like part of a day, so like everybody in the climbing community of Provo was there. MD: So was it raining when you were climbing? YY: Not while we were climbing, but it rained off and on throughout the day and that type of rock is really um, it has a sandstone type of matrix, it holds the cobbles together and so it really, it dries out fast. Its kind of absorptive in a strange way [laughs]. MD: Uh huh. So you can climb pretty quickly— YVETTE YOUNG YY: You know maybe within half an hour to an hour or something after it’s stopped raining. MD: 28 FEBRUARY 2010 So— And uh how was that climbing outside for the first time or times following your introduction to the gym? Like did you know like right after you climbed outside that this is something that I have to do now. YY: Like um— Yes and no, but I think part of that is because I’ ve loved the outdoors since I was little. My dad loves the outdoors. So you know I had that kind of going for me. There was a weird transition because the rock in Maple looks like peanut brittle, so most people you now might get scared that their gear’s going to pull or that they’re going to fall before they climb their hold. Ilooked at this peanut brittle rock and couldn’t figure out how the bolts were going to stay in. So I was really paranoid for awhile that is just wasn’t safe [laughs]. actually stayed with me for quite a long time. So there’s, that So literally just get over the fear thing [laughs]. MD: Uh huh and how did you work your way through that? YY: Uh— MD: Sort of a moment that you were, like something happened and you were like, “Okay I trust this now.” YY: Or, “I trust myself.” No, it kind of went you know in up and down phases for a long time and then uh I think, more just recently I think where you know I’ve been grown up and have a real job and can’t train as much and it’s not as much of a central focus, like it’s not my entire life [laughs]. I'm just like oh yeah there’s no point in being frequent and having fun, which is actually you know, if I'd gone through that YVETTE YOUNG 28 FEBRUARY 2010 when I was a younger climber, that would have been great [laughs]. So it’s kind of just a relaxing thing. MD: Well and it does sound sort of the central part of many people’s lives. YY: Oh yeah. MD: Passionate about it. YY: Well and it’s still, even when sometimes I know I have all these other responsibilities, but still it’s hard to get, I can’t train all the time, I have to go to work [laughs]. MD: So um could you tell me a little bit about the community in Provo, the climbing community in Provo at the time? When you first started? Or your first few years? YY: Okay. MD: What it seemed like. How— YY: It was really interesting. There weren’t that many women at the time that were climbing and there were more in Salt Lake, but still percentage-wise there were very few. So like I remember one girl that was pretty strong when I started, but she kind of disappeared. Like there wasn’t a huge support network. But then also— MD: Were you introduced through guys? YY: No but I mean the girl who I gave the free drink to, I mean she was female, she was, she kind of came and went for awhile. She was a little into drugs and unstable and a series of other things [laughs] you know? a little weird. But the community was It was hard to penetrate kind of and I'm just stubborn [laughs]. So YVETTE YOUNG 28 FEBRUARY 2010 it didn’t matter. You know so then, that’s not really a problem anymore I don’t think. All you have to do is show up a few times now and so a little bit of dedication and you’re kind of in. MD: Yeah. YY: But because of that it can be a little harder to penetrate. tight knit. So there was the kind of in group, out group thing. It’s really really You know psychology stuff going on. They were pretty tight knit because of that, because there were some people excluded. But also because there’s such like, okay the people in the in group are trying really hard, this is like the focus of their life, they’re spending all of this energy on it, their having crappy jobs you know? Some of them living out of their cars [laughs]. MD: Yeah [laughs]. YY: Yeah so there were, I mean there were goods and bads about having that structure of a community. MD: Um what do you think has changed? Particularily in terms of uh females in the climbing community in the past fifteen years, since you were starting. YY: When I started the women were pretty much all weren’t very strong and they all were like relying on technique to get by. Um that’s not the case anymore at all. There’s some really strong women and they’re not all emaciated skinny either. I mean there are some, I mean you walk into a bouldering gym, like you’ve been to The Front I'm assuming, they’re not all skinny little girls [laughs], but you know they’r@ pulling down pretty hard so it’s kind of interesting that way. It’s changed a lot too in the like, a lot shorter focus. Like when I started people YVETTE YOUNG 28 FEBRUARY 2010 that, the would try on a single project, I mean they’d have other smaller things that they’d work on for awhile but they’d try on this project sometimes for months. The kind of rise of bouldering kind of got rid of that a little bit [laughs]. There’s a much more short term mentality and in some ways it’s kind of like the skate culture that’s just a little, like there’s not as much emphasis on like, people do train, but there’s not as much emphasis on it. It’s not the norm so much as going out, having a good time, pulling really hard [laughs]. You know like half of them do it just by genetic luck [laughs]. MD: Yeah so um, Salt Lake, Provo, is the community much different? YY: It was. Um I don't know if it is anymore. There had been a different focus. Partly I think it was bigger. Like when Jeff and Boone, Boone Speed, started bolting in American Fork, the Salt Lakers made fun of that because they said, “Oh that route’s chaus [unsure on word], no one will ever climb that.” MD: Uh huh. YY: And it, for a while it was a national travel spot you know? It’s not so much anymore, Maple’s more the big place in Utah now, but I mean there was just a really different perspective on climbing. There was a lot more trad and sport climbers up here and they were pretty focused on sport climbing it seemed like. And I don’t know if that had to do with the timing? I mean I can’t remember the history enough to remember when sport climbing really became super popular but when Alan Watts was bolting in Smith Rock, that kind of opened a lot of doors for people who were bolting as opposed to the traditional. So they pushed all the barriers and made a lot of stuff that was really kind of forbidden before okay as 10 YVETTE YOUNG far as that goes. 28 FEBRUARY 2010 So it may have had a little bit to do with that. I'm not quite sure about the juxtaposition. MD: Right and do you climb sport? YY: Mostly sport. I climbed a bunch of trad in the past but uh they’re different fitness levels and I like, trad climbing for me is like a nice camping experience where you go out and climb stuff and I don’t really have an agenda, I don’t really care ifI send or I don’t care you know? It’s, I don’t know why, cause some people are the exact opposite but sport climbing I get really really focused and psyched about. MD: Have you bolted routes at all? YY: Ihaven’t. MD: Yeah well and that’s one of the things I’ve brought up with some of the It takes a lot of time [laughs]. women that I’ve spoken with, is uh if I could make one generalization of what I’ve seen so far, I’ve seen like less women are bolting their own routes. YY: Yeah, yeah. MD: Um and there’s been a few different theories as to why that is. Um— YY: Well for me it was always the time thing but I mean sometimes it’s just that they don’t have somebody to go with that knows some of the safety stuff. You don’t really want to go out there and throw up a route and not know [laughs]. I didn’t have that problem, I climb with a lot of guys who’ve bolted, so yeah I don’t know [laughs]. I don’t know why, I mean maybe it’s just a selfish thing too. I just want to climb more then I want to take my days off and go bolt. 14 But YVETTE YOUNG MD: 28 FEBRUARY 2010 Well it does seem like the time thing has been a leading answer. It’s that you know you work full time and when you do have an opportunity to climb you don’t want to necessarily spend the whole day bolting a route, you want to climb. YY: Yeah. MD: Right? YY: Yeah. But I mean I know, I mean like Boyle has always had a professional level job, it’s not like it’s a piece of crap stocking shelves job or something and he bolts routes. It’s just something that gets him excited. So he’ll have phases where he’s just climbing and phases where he’s just bolting. MD: Right. Um so you said that climbing is what kept you in Utah. YY: Yeah. MD: Um have you climbed elsewhere? YY: I have. MD: Do you, well where else have you climbed? Yeah, yeah. I guess some of the like memorable places outside of Utah. YY: Probably the best places I’ve climbed outside of Utah were in France. Um I climbed in Italy, it was just mediocre where I went but I think there’s some older rock that I would like better. Arizona. Um California, Maine, New I don’t know about Arizona. York, Idaho, maybe Nevada definitely [laughs]. MD: And most of these trips were the purpose of climbing? YY: Oh yeah, yeah. I mean people at work don’t understand that like when I plan a trip, “Oh why are you going there?” MD: Yeah. 12 YVETTE YOUNG YY: 28 FEBRUARY 2010 Well I'm going there to climb. The first trip I took that I wasn’t planning the trip for climbing, in years, years and years, probably since college, was to go to India and it was because one of my good friends who used to be a climber was there for two years for his job, and so you know it had somebody to go visit. MD: Yeah exactly. YY: So— MD: Um so what, you have climbed at several, many other places— YY: Oh yeah Thailand is the other one. MD: Thailand. YY: That one’s good [laughs]. MD: Um what’s special about Utah climbing? YY: It’s really close is one thing. Um you can climb year round most of the time. It’s very livable but on an average year you can drive four hours to St. George to climb in the middle of winter. And there is a huge variety of rock here, so I mean you’ve got cobbles, you’ve got limestone, you’ve got the granite in Little Cottonwood, you’ve got weird, oh I always forget what it is in Big Cottonwood [laughs]. It’s like really soapy. They’re these bizarre, soapy rocks. I don’t like that kind of rock. But yeah there’s a huge variety of stuff to climb. And in the summer when it doesn’t get dark until nine you can go after work. Where else except Europe where it’s like every five minutes can you do that? So— MD: Um what are some of your favorite climbs in the state? 13 YVETTE YOUNG YY: 28 FEBRUARY 2010 Pretty much all of them have been in St. George. there. It’s amazing. It’s really vertical. It’s technical. think a lot when you’re moving. I love the limestone down It’s got, you really have to Um— MD: What areas in St. George? YY: This year we’ve been to the Grail a bit. That’s fantastic. Um the Cathedral and Wailing Wall areas and some of the new walls there at Bill has been bolting. Bill Oran. though. Um that’s all really really fun. Um mostly the limestone down there The Gorge I love, but man that stuff’s hard. It’s really, the VRG, man if you’re fit that stuff’s amazing. But so I mean I don’t know if you understand like the grading and stuff but it pretty much starts out at like an 11.d. That’s your warm up [laughs]. MD: So you have to be on it when you’re there. So— Um do you have any memorable climbs that kind of stand out to you as kind of reasons why you love climbing? YY: Well one of the ones that I did and this is like really recent, but it was at the Grail and it was this route and my boyfriend put up a top rope because it’s kind of above what I felt comfortable leading right now and so I got on it and did a little better than I thought, but the movement was so varied and thoughtful and the rock was so unique that I wasn’t even to the top yet and I yelled down to everyone at the bottom [inaudible] and said, “I think this might be the best climb I’ve ever climbed in my entire life!” MD: [laughs] YY: So I mean that’s one of the, um there’s actually a super easy climb in Maple that’s fantastic. Like every time I go there, I don’t usually warm up on stuff that 14 YVETTE YOUNG 28 FEBRUARY 2010 easy, and I love it. It’s just long and fun and it’s cobbles and it kind of epitomizes everything about Maple that’s enjoyable you know? So there’s that one. Um American Fork is a little bit diverse but there are a few there that I just really like. Like some of the crimpy limestone up at the Blue Walls, which isn’t in the guide book [laughs]. Um and then at the Bingo Baby Wall that’s above The Membrane, there’s some great stuff there too, fantastic. That’s got really really some amazing pocket pulling. Like it combines some bouldering, it’s just some pockets and things like that. So it’s really quite fun. I think it’s The Billboard in there too, like you just smile when you climb there. No matter how bad you’re doing that day or how good, you’re just like happy to be there. MD: So— I guess as a, maybe a last question, um one of the things that I'm curious about is doesn’t it become a sort of all consuming activity for a lot of people, do you find it hard to be a worker um and a climber? YY: Yes [laughs]. I don’t find it hard to have other activities, like I do a lot of art and things like that. But as far as work goes like I definitely feel caged sometimes. It’s really, it’s just bizarre. It’s not that I don’t enjoy what I'm doing or anything like that, it’s just like this mental trap. So yeah [laughs] but it’s only with work. MD: Yeah. What kind of art do you do? YY: UhIdo ceramic arts. So a lot of thrown pottery, a lot of sculpture, stuff like that. But then I’ve started doing a lot of like black and white film photography and that’s great. 15 YVETTE YOUNG MD: 28 FEBRUARY 2010 That’s one of the things I was curious about is whether you’re involved in photography. YY: Mmhm. MD: It seems like you know every, one out of every handful of people I talk to is a photographer as well. YY: Yeah there’s a lot. MD: Uh huh. So I mean is that a challenge at all? To sort of be interested in photography and be out there climbing? Because it’s kind of hard obviously to kind of— YY: Ihave to choose a little bit. Like if I want a really good photo I have to find a vantage point and sometimes that’s actually like you’re above the climb. You have to climb something else, clip in, forgo a couple of burns because you’re hanging out up there once you get up there, and just take pictures. Sometimes I'm in the frame of mind to do that and sometimes you know I'm just going to take snapshots from the ground. MD: Right. YY: Cause I want to climb too. MD: Right. YY: So it requires an altogether different type of climbing basically. Yeah and kind of a different focus. You can’t be thinking about that. So I kind of actually this year decided that I'm not a climbing photographer. Like I love photography and I’1l take little snapshots when I’m out but it’s not, as far as an art form goes, that’s not where I'm focused. So— 16 28 FEBRUARY 2010 YVETTE YOUNG MD: Well great. YY: Yeah. MD: Thank you so much Yvette. YY: You’'re welcome. Thank you. END OF INTERVIEW 17 |
