With a string of very notable ascents over the last few years, Siobhan Coughlan, 35, has become one of the most successful female performers in the current climbing scene.

Coming from Dublin, she grew up in Ireland, where she trained and worked as a radiographer, before going to Canada in 1994, where she lived in the Rockies for four years. After that, she moved to Sheffield, which is still her home.

With a very traditional climbing background in Ireland she naturally spent her first years onsighting traditional climbs, and has led up to E4. This background served her well in the Rockies, with leads up to Water Ice Grade 6, and while visiting California, she did The Nose on El Capitan. However, it has been in sport climbing and bouldering where Siobhan has had her best achievements. Her ascents of French 8a (The Sissy at Rubicon) and Font 7c+ (Ben’s Roof at Raven Tor) put her among a small elite of female climbers in the UK. She lives with her partner Andy and dog Fin, and can be found working as a receptionist at The Climbing Works bouldering wall.

I started climbing because of lust.
was in the Venture Scouts and there was a group of lads who fancied one of our group, Niamh. So they took us out climbing somewhere in Cork on a minging day. They dragged us up some soggy slab in our trainers, I dry-heaved at the top, Niamh went arse-over-tit and got in a strop, and that was that. I was hooked.

My third ever lead was E1.
his rapid progression was down to a guy called Ron, who I met in Dalkey Quarry. He’d led a VS, and there was a queue forming to second it, which I joined. We struck up a conversation and formed a partnership of sorts. He made me lead that first VDiff. Then he made me lead a HVS, Blood Crack. That was my second lead, and I had never seconded HVS before. I placed one nut, and fell on it repeatedly. He didn’t believe in consolidating. As far as he was concerned, I’d now mastered HVS, so it was time for E1.

I was a bit blind to the danger.
Until one time I went to The Burren which is big and steep, and led a route, shaking all the way, totally unable to place any protection. When I got to the top, it was my belayer’s turn, Howard, to dry-heave. I’d scared the life out of him.

I found moving to Sheffield frustrating.
In Ireland it was simple, we’d just climb traditional routes onsight. But the grit is different. Sometimes I enjoyed myself, sometimes not, and got really fazed and frustrated. Then I discovered bouldering and sport climbing and the fun came back.

One day I had a revelation.
What does it matter if I never do a trad route ever again - who cares? There was a real sense of liberation in that.

There’s no automatic sisterhood amongst female climbers.
Some girls think there is, but that’s rubbish. If you meet someone at the climbing wall, you still have to get to know them - even if you’re both female.

I got too obsessed by competitions.
I entered a speed-climbing competition at The Foundry once, and won. It was for a British Championship, but when they found out I was Irish, I was disqualified. I got to keep the prize money all the same, which suited me. After that I tried bouldering comps, but got too into them. I began to judge myself as a climber by how well I did in them, and after that, it was almost like I was judging myself as a person by them. I stopped.

I was a radiographer.
It involved a lot of calculations and good hand eye coordination, but once I’d mastered it the technical part came easily, and after a while it became routine. I worked for the NHS for years - the patients were lovely but it’s a difficult place to be working right now.

The strangest job I’ve done was being a stunt double in a rape scene for Gillian Anderson.
It was freezing, in the middle of the night, in the woods outside Birmingham. I had a little nightie around my neck, bent over a car bonnet, and as the other actor approached me, the director warned me that there would be “flesh on flesh!”.

Hugh Jackman threw me out of a boat once.
He rowed me into the middle of the lake, we had a pleasant little chit-chat, a little bit of hands-on, and he threw me over the side. I’d have done that job for free.

I guess I’ve got staying power.
Once I decide to do something, I’ll generally knuckle down and do it. That’s seen me through my stunt training, climbing French 8a and doing Font 7c+ boulder problems.

Goals motivate me now.
Over the years I’ve done a lot of pottering about. I wouldn’t change that, but now I want to achieve things. If this happens to be a particular grade then so be it. People often criticise the “numbers” approach, but that’s what I want, and if you don’t like it, tough.

Achieving female firsts doesn’t count for much.
I judge myself by those around me. I’ve climbed a lot with men, most of them climb Font 8a, and that’s nothing special in the general scheme of things. Of course I’d love to do one, but just for myself. First female 8a in Britain, or first Irish 8a, so what?

I used to be a dog musher on a sled in Canada.
The huskies were a law unto themselves. These days I’m training to be a dog behaviourist. It’s another one of my career aspirations, so I’ve trained my lurcher Fin to find my keys.

Climbers can be very selfish.
We can be very focused on what we want to achieve for ourselves. But still I know that the most important things for me are my family in Ireland and Andy, my partner.

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