Meet... Aubrey Lee Wingo

Aubrey was first introduced to rock climbing by her cousin and former Aiguille employee, Taylor Warren. Only top roping, she found it to be rather frustrating and only stuck around for one session. Aubrey gave climbing another shot at her then home gym, Tallahassee Rock Gym, a year later while attending Florida State University. “Overhang was the trickiest. I knew I could reach the hold but the mere fact that I couldn’t get it right away… I couldn’t stand it. A red V0, I’ll never forget it.”
That was four years ago.

She graduated from Florida State University with her bachelor’s degree in Studio Art with a specialty in Photography and a minor in Psychology. Her father was the first person to offer guidance into her now, ever growing love of photography. She received her first film camera from him, a Canon A-1, when she was 12 years old. This was the catalyst for her now “work in progress” black and white photo book of rock climbing in the southeast. “The book will capture the people and culture of the southeastern climbing community. We have to sacrifice due to location, but there is still a lot of great climbing around [this region] and sometimes we forget to take advantage of it.”

Aubrey has also been an avid supporter of the Southeastern Climbers Coalition, a “non-profit corporation dedicated to preserving climbing access in the Southeast”. Though she doesn’t have plans to compete this year in the annual Triple Crown Bouldering Competition, she will be helping to fund the cause by promoting and possibly competing in HP40’s Sloperfest in March. This will mark her third year in attendance to the climbing competition/music festival. She has been staying busy going on outdoor trips all along the southeast. This past October, Aubrey and boyfriend David Carmona traveled up to the Red River Gorge, Little Rock City, Boat Rock, HP40 and then back to LRC for Triple Crown a month later. With the Red, LRC, and HP40 being her favorite climbing locations, she wants to eventually, after finishing her book, travel for the first time across the Mississippi to western US climbing.

Now a full-time employee, Aubrey is Aiguille’s camp coordinator, running and organizing all camp and children’s programs or photographing Aiguille climbers with her brand new 50d. You can see Aubrey building up her strength and endurance by bouldering and leading at Aiguille, at least 3 times a week. This helps her prepare for her preferred climbing setting: anywhere outside of a gym. “It hurts more, the rocks are cold, you're cold, but once you get over that, the way it makes you feel is incredible. It just makes you happy”.

If you have any questions about the Southeastern Climbing Coalition, Triple Crown, her book, or any other way to help out the climbing community, please feel free to email her at alwclimbs@yahoo.com