Fallon Rowe’s New Book Addresses Domestic Abuse in the Outdoor Community

October 27, 2025

In 2024, news of a prominent climber, Charlie Barrett, getting arrested for rape rocked the climbing community. Many were aghast at how this could’ve happened. Annette McGivney’s Outside article that chronicled his crimes was even titled “How Did This Climber Get Away with So Much For So Long?”

Long after the beginning of MeToo, climbing was beginning to reckon with how its communities, members, and organizations harbored and even enabled rapists, child sex abusers, and other perpetrators of sexual violence.

In all of these worthwhile discussions, one subject remained in the shadows: domestic abuse and intimate partner violence. What happens when your abuser is both your romantic partner and your belay partner?

In the sport of climbing, where partnerships and mentors are so integral to success across disciplines, how does the community respond when those partnerships turn from a source of support to a source of violence?

Fallon Rowe’s new memoir, Pay No Mind, pulls at this thread, retelling the 7 months she was in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend and climbing partner. In unflinching detail, Rowe recounts the series of events that led to violence, rape, and, eventually, freedom. Gear Junkie