Background

Clara grew up in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. She fell in love with rock climbing while attending Belmont University in Nashville, TN.

After years of working at a local gym, she decided to take the leap into the instruction world and obtained her AMGA Climbing Wall Instructor Certification in 2022. Soon after, she started coaching Vanderbilt University's competitive climbing team and fell deeply in love with teaching rock climbing. Now an AMGA Single Pitch Instructor, Clara loves to spend time both in the gym coaching and out on the rock guiding. She's climbed extensively across the southeast, as well as in Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nevada. Her proudest accomplishment in the climbing world is qualifying a Vanderbilt student to USAC Collegiate Nationals after only a year and a half of climbing (all of which was spent with Clara as her coach). When Clara isn't climbing, you can find her holding a camera, hanging out in a local coffee shop, or showing off pictures of her tailless Russian Blue, Bob.