Steph Davis

Stephanie "Steph" Davis (born 1973) is an American rock climber, BASE jumper and wingsuit flyer. She is one of the world's leading female climbers, having completed some of the hardest routes in the world. She is the only woman to have free solo climbed a 5.11 climb, the first woman to summit all the peaks of the Fitzroy Range in Patagonia, the second woman to free climb El Capitan in a day, the first woman to free climb the Salathė Wall on El Capitan, the first woman to free solo The Diamond on Longs Peak in Colorado, and the first woman to summit Torre Egger. Davis has been married twice, first to Dean Potter, ending in divorce, then to Mario Richard. Both Potter and Richard died in wingsuit accidents.

Early life

Davis was born in Illinois and grew up in New Jersey and Columbia, Maryland. Her father, Virgil, was an aeronautical engineer and her mother, Connie, a school teacher. Davis describes herself as an unathletic child; she was a straight-A student and very musical. She grew up playing the piano from the age of three using the Suzuki method. By the time she was 18, she practiced six hours a day; she also played the flute and sang. In the documentary A Perfect Circle, Davis says that she learned "discipline" and "how to project things" from her 15 years of playing the piano. Her own self-description has been mirrored by others. In one Outside profile, for example, her "greatest assets" are described as "sheer will and a brainy, methodical work ethic" rather than "natural athletic talent and flawless technique".