I always go back to the somatic experience of climbing.

And some of my exercises for fear specifically

is to visualize your fear as a tangible thing.

For me, when I first felt fear, I imagined it as this ball of light in my

chest, and whenever I got really scared, it would get super bright and big and like I couldn't

see anything and I couldn't think, and so it like okay I'm going to again take this big deep breath and as I would breathe out that ball would get smaller and it would stay contained right in my chest. And I wouldn't ever wish my fear away

because I know that my fear is a necessary part of my survival, but being able to contain

it allowed me to take back some of that control. Climber Nina Williams is known for her highball bouldering career. Highballing is somewhere

between bouldering and free soloing. Climber's scale rocks 20 to 50 feet tall, sometimes even taller, without a rope.

Nino was the first woman to climb a number of extremely challenging routes around the world,

from Bishop California to Rockland, South Africa. She's climbed upwards of V13

which is a very high rating of pro-level bouldering. In her sport, Nina deals with fear and failure regularly.

She's had to learn to manage both in a way that allows her to be safe,

but still push herself to her limits.

I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is wild ideas worth living an REI co-op studios production.

Nino Williams grew up in New England where she participated in all kinds of sports.

When she was on a family vacation at 12 years old,

Nina climbed one of those man-made climbing walls at a ski resort.

Then she climbed it again, and again. She couldn't get enough and

when she got home from that trip she joined a climbing team and started competing.

Nina Williams, welcome to wild ideas worth living. Thanks for having me on Shelby.

I'm really happy to be here.

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