DFI Announces 2022 Hal Hunt Lecture Being Delivered at 47th Annual Conference – Steph Davis, Iconic Climber
July 21, 2022, Hawthorne, N.J.:
Steph Davis, an iconic name in climbing, is presenting the 2022 Hal Hunt Lecture on Communications during DFI’s 47th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations, being held October 4-7, 2022, in National Harbor, Maryland. The lecture is being presented by the DFI Women in Deep Foundations (WiDF) Committee.
Davis was the first woman to free climb the Salathe Wall on El Capitan, and the second woman to free climb El Cap in under 24 hours. She has established first ascents around the world on difficult rock climbs and high-altitude mountains from Yosemite to Asia’s Karakoram.
Few climbers practice the high-risk style of free solo climbing, using no ropes or protective gear. Davis is the most accomplished female free soloist in the world and is also one of the world’s top wingsuit base jumpers. She is one of just a few people in the world, and the only woman, combining free solo climbing with base jumping.
From an unusual start as a classically trained pianist with a master’s degree in literature, Davis chose to leave law school to pursue climbing full time. She has written two memoirs, High Infatuation and Learning to Fly, and curates a blog at stephdavis.co with a focus on community, health and wellness, simple living and travel. She owns and operates Climb2Fly Productions in Moab, Utah, a climbing and base-jumping stunt company.
The Hal Hunt Lecture was established in 1989 to recognize notable communicators in the deep foundations industry. The lecture was named in honor of Hal W. Hunt, one of the initial organizers of DFI. More information on the DFI Annual Conference is available at archive.dfi.org/Annual2022.