Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou
Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, is an American rock climber and rock climbing coach. In competition lead climbing, she is a 4-time World Cup champion, and won the biennial World Championships in 1995. She is the third-ever woman in history to redpoint a graded sport climbing route. She has coached several competition climbers, including Natalia Grossman, Megan Mascarenas, Margo Hayes, Colin Duffy, Emily Harrington and her daughter, Brooke Raboutou.
Climbing career
Competition climbing
Erbesfield won the world's first Climbing World Cup as a relative unknown. She quickly gained sponsorship and traveled around the world to compete on the new World Cup circuit. She went on to win the overall title for four consecutive World Cups from 1992 to 1995.Rock climbing
Beyond her illustrious competition career, Erbesfield-Raboutou has made notable contributions to outdoor sport climbing. In 1993, she became the third woman in history to redpoint a route graded 8b+ with her ascent of Silence Vertical in Troubat, France. That same year, she achieved the first-ever female onsight of an 8a+ route, Overdose in Lourmarin, France.Demonstrating remarkable longevity in the sport, at age 49 in 2012, she redpointed Welcome to Tijuana in Rodellar, Spain, becoming the oldest American woman to climb at that grade. Her outdoor accomplishments underscore her enduring prowess and influence in the global climbing community.
Coaching
She founded the climbing gym ABC Kids Climbing in Boulder, Colorado which focuses on developing agility, balance, and coordination in young climbers. Many of its graduates are climbing 5.14, and performing well in national and international climbing competitions. Two of the four American athletes who qualified for the 2020 Olympics in sport climbing, Brooke Raboutou and Colin Duffy, were both members of Team ABC, which also produced Margo Hayes, the first woman to climb a route, and Natalia Grossman, the 2021 bouldering world champion.In 2018 she was inducted into the Boulder Sports Hall of fame.