Chelsea Rude has been climbing for 23 years, with the majority of her career spent as a competition climber where she was part of the US Team for 13 years. As part of the US Team she stood on many podiums for National + International competitions and competed on the world cup circuit in Europe for a few seasons. While the majority of her career was spent in competition, she still made time to explore climbing outdoors. At ages 15 and 16, Chelsea became the youngest and fastest person to climb The Nose of El Cap + the Direct NW Face of Half Dome (record has been broken in the last few years). Today, Chelsea is ‘retired’ for competition but pursues realizing her potential outdoors on the rock. She has multiple 5.13c onsights across the world, first female ascents of up to 5.14a, and has redpointed up to 5.14b and multiple V11’s. Chelsea is supported by Adidas & Five Ten.

Aside from personally pursuing climbing, Chelsea is an entrepreneur and started her first business in February 2020. When she’s not climbing, coaching, or working on her business, she really enjoys gardening, hiking (even without a climbing destination) with her dogs, jumping in alpine lakes during the summer months, and baking cookies.