The Nine Things Pro Climber Steph Davis Needs Every Day
From hemp oil to ginger tea to earplugs, here’s what the climber and BASE jumper can’t live without
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Steph Davis, 43, is a professional rock climber, skydiver, and BASE jumper. She’s also one of the world’s most decorated female free soloists, with career highlights including the first female free climb of El Capitan’s Salathe Wall in 2005.
She bailed out of law school in her twenties then moved into a van and waited tables in Moab, Utah to fuel her climbing habit. Nowadays Davis runs a Moab-based climbing and BASE-jumping stunt production company to help fund her adventures. To find out what gear she uses while scaling rock and jumping out of the sky, we called and asked.
Satellite Phone
Garmin’s inReach Explorer+ Satellite Communicator can send out my GPS coordinates in a rescue situation and allows me to call 911 using satellite service when I'm out of cell service. I can also pair it with my iPhone and send out text messages with the satellite signal if I want to communicate with someone when I’m out of cell range.
Sun Hat
I love Kavu’s Synthetic Strap Visor for hiking and climbing. It’s the lowest profile thing to keep the sun out of my eyes, and it’s easy to clip onto my harness or pack if I’m in the shade.
Electric Teakettle
I use this Mr. Coffee Electric Water Kettle every morning and I love it because it’s big. We drink tons of tea and coffee at my house, so the electric teakettle is in constant use. I always travel with tea bags and a metal thermos cup. In airports and gas stations, you can always ask for free hot water, so it’s a much more efficient way to have tea while traveling.
Camping Stove
When I’m camping, I also want hot water all the time, so MSR’s Reactor Stove System is essentially my electric teakettle when I’m not at home. It heats water almost instantly.
Nutritional Supplements
Sleep is super important to me and CBDs and magnesium helps me sleep. I always take a half dropper of the CW Hemp Everyday Plus Hemp Oil before bed (I like the mint chocolate flavor), and drink a tall glass of hot water with the Natural Calm magnesium powder (the lemon flavor).
Earplugs
I spend most of my time in very quiet places—the Moab desert and in the mountains—and I really get bothered by loud background noise. I keep earplugs in my toiletries bag and wear them on commercial flights and when I visit a climbing gym. I also keep them in the front pocket of my wingsuit so I have them for skydiving because it’s really noisy in the jump plane when riding to altitude. The particular brand of earplugs I use, Howard Leight’s Leight Sleepers foam earplugs, are super comfortable and work really well.
Humidifier
The Crane Ultrasonic Travel Humidifier is great because you can put it in any container. At home, I put it in a large glass Tupperware container next to my bed and it’s small enough to take with you. I even use it in my Sprinter van.
Slip-On Shoes
Evolv’s Cruzer Slip-On is the perfect shoe for traveling, easy hikes, and even for wearing in the weight room. They’re by far the most versatile shoes I have.
Backpack
I use Osprey’s Daylite Daypack for everything—riding my bike around town, day hikes in the mountains, and as my hand luggage when I also have a big carry-on while traveling.