Alannah YipPhoto illustration The Globe and Mail. Source photo Christopher Morris/Supplied
Alannah Yip is 5 feet 5 and spindly. She has muscular shoulders and arms and her legs are a mass of bruises from climbing rock walls.
The 30-year-old from Vancouver is Canada’s top women’s sport climber and finished 14th in the combined event at the Tokyo Games. She currently competes on the International Federation of Sport Climbing tour and has her eyes set on returning to the Olympics in Paris in 2024.
At the Summer Games she set a Canadian record time of 7.99 seconds in the speed-climbing event, during which competitors attempt to scale a 15-metre wall, set at an angle of 95 degrees, faster than an opponent on an identical route.
A self-professed nerd, Yip has a mechanical-engineering degree from the University of British Columbia. Her area of specialty is mechatronics, which heavily involves robotics, and she says that helps her understand angles and more quickly unlock the puzzles necessary to clamber up walls.
“The way climbing competitions work is it is all about problem solving,” she says. “That’s exactly what I studied.”
She began climbing as a young girl after watching a close family friend, Sean McColl, whom she looked upon as an older sibling, do the same. McColl was Canada’s male representative in Tokyo.
She is currently competing in the lead competition at the IFSC world championships in Bern, Switzerland and, provided Yip reaches the Olympics again, she will likely retire professionally afterward.
“There are a lot of reasons,” Yip says. “I am 30, and there are other things I want to do. I don’t want to compete forever. But I don’t want to leave the climbing world completely behind. There is a lot of knowledge and passion that I could pass on.”
She spent this spring travelling on the IFSC circuit, which began with an event in Japan in April, and has also included competitions in South Korea, Salt Lake City, Italy and Austria.
She counts on sponsors to help pay her expenses as Sport Climbing Canada provides no financial support to its athletes. “It is very expensive,” Yip says. “It costs $20,000 to $30,000 to get the privilege to compete for Canada.”
She is breezy and quick with a quip. We spoke from Innsbruck, Austria, where she had just finished a competition.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Being outside. Being in the forest. And if there are big rocks, too, that’s ideal! I can’t resist them, not even a little bit. I am pretty partial to where I grew up. My parents still live in the house I grew up in and it is probably 20 feet from the trails. It is just a 20-minute drive from where I live now so I often go there to hike or just be in the forest and go and hang out with my parents.
What is your idea of misery?
Big cities with no easy way to escape.
If you could pick a spot, where would you like to live?
Probably somewhere in a smaller town in Switzerland or Austria. Actually Innsbruck is very nice. There is mountain biking and climbing, hiking, skiing. It reminds me a lot of Squamish, B.C., actually.
What is your favourite virtue?
Staying true to your values. What you hold as your values, or that any person holds as their values, you don’t stray from that.
What do you think your main characteristic is?
It is always hard to describe your character. I guess it would be dedication.
What do you think your main fault is?
Here is an example from today: I overdo things easily. It can be something good that I just do to excess. I am not great at stopping. Today I trained for too long.
Do you have a favourite colour?
Green. I think it is quite related to the outdoors.
Do you have a favourite flower?
I am not really good with names of flowers.
Do you have a favourite author?
Not one specific author so much as specific books. I have never had an author where I loved every single one of their books. Recently one of my favourite novels was Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. I liked how much it made me think and how it drew me in further to figure out what the world was like in the book. If you haven’t read it, it is really good. It is from the perspective of an artificially intelligent robot.
Do you have a favourite hero in fiction?
I am not sure I do any more but growing up I loved Harry Potter. I read those books so many times and I loved Hermione. I was just as bookish as she was.
Do you have one big regret?
Yes, but it is not possible to talk about that in media.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Climbing. Maybe I won’t show my partner this interview.
Do you have a hidden talent people don’t know about?
I can wiggle my ears. I can show you. [She does!]
Do you have a pet?
I had dogs growing up or my parents had dogs, but not any more. I keep saying I want to get a dog and my partner says he doesn’t want to be a single dog dad.
What is your idea of extravagance?
Nice coffee, or nice ingredients from a store. Instead of buying peanut butter, I buy the really fancy almond butter.