Guide Spotlight: Olivia Vitaterna, Rock Climbing in Arkansas
Olivia Vitaterna didn't set out to become a rock climbing guide — the sport found Olivia early, and it never really let go. Now based in Northwest Arkansas, Olivia guides climbing trips across The Natural State through Olivia's guiding company, Arkansas Rock Climbing Guides, serves as the Vice President of the Arkansas Climbers Coalition, and has spent over a decade turning first-timers into climbers. We caught up with Olivia to talk about how it all started, and what keeps Olivia coming back to Arkansas rock.
Q: What was your first climbing experience like, and what made you keep coming back?
My very first rock climbing experience was on an overnight camp trip in Colorado, at Rocky Mountain National Park's Jurassic Park crag. The first day I remember thinking, why the heck is this so hard? But the second day, I watched one of our counselors climb this impossible-looking face climb next to the striking route "Edge of Time" , and I was floored. I'd never seen somebody move like that — I was mesmerized.
That same day I also figured out I could learn to belay and support other people having a good time, and that let me feel good about myself even though I wasn't a strong climber yet. I'm not a large person — I was an even less large child — so I was never what strikes people as the best belayer, but that gave me a reason to stay involved even when I frankly sucked at rock climbing.
I started going to a climbing gym regularly in 2013, and that's really when I consider my climbing to have started, because it wasn't a one-off anymore. I haven't gone more than a month or a month and a half without climbing since…thirteen years now.
Q: You moved to Fayetteville for college a year after you really started climbing. What pulled you into the local climbing scene so quickly?
It was like I found the climbing version of the watering hole. I took a job at the university climbing wall when I started school, and that meant I was viewed as a resource — a way for other people to get into climbing, indoor or outdoor. The program I was in focused on outdoor leadership, so I wasn't just learning to climb, I was learning how to teach.
It was also just the easiest place for me to make friends. Coming from Illinois, I didn't fit in with everybody, but rock climbers were the people I had the easiest time being around.
Q: How did you go from indoor instructor to leading outdoor trips?
It happened gradually, through the collegiate outdoor program. I started with lower-stakes trips — guided hikes, that kind of thing — with co-instructors alongside me. At the same time, I was teaching lead belay classes indoors and climbing outside on my own for fun, building my own skills through recreation.
I built up the teaching steps and the technical steps individually, and eventually that let me put them together into more complicated trips. It took a couple of years, but I think the slow development was actually a good thing — it meant I wasn't skipping steps on the way up the ladder, and have an extremely solid foundation to this day.
Q: You guided full-time at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Jasper, Arkansas for three years. What was that experience like?
I moved to Jasper for a full-time guiding job at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, which at the time operated as an all-inclusive dude ranch — people would come in for a week at a time. I guided rock climbing mostly, plus via ferratas, zip lines, and occasionally helped with river float days.
It was six days a week, ten to fourteen-hour days, eight months straight, for three years. Most weeks I was teaching a fresh group of people who'd never climbed before — I got really good at working with brand-new climbers. Every once in a while we'd get someone on vacation who already climbed hard, and it was like, “hell yeah, we get to climb something cool!” and I don't have to do the same couple routes again. I was so tired, but I was so motivated and immersed and fit at the same time.
That job is also where I got a lot of my real outside certifications beyond what you need to work at a climbing gym. I gained my Single Pitch Instructor cert through the American Mountain Guides Association, and my Wilderness First Responder , and boy howdy did I use them both at Horseshoe. This job really gave me confidence — maybe I'm not perfect because I don't work in the medical field or in Grade IV alpine terrain, but I do have a good response. You can only study so much from a book.
Q: You've volunteered at Horseshoe Hell for years. What does the event mean to you, and what keeps you coming back?
It's changed for me over the years. At this point, my relationship with the event is that I'm there to work it, not to party —I really hope that doesn’t sound deflated and lame, I'm proud of the work I do and proud of how the event turns out.
I oversee the largest volunteer team at the event by headcount, and it's also the team that gets the most first-time volunteers. I'll give people instructions the day of — you're going to have fun, but you're responsible for this, this, and this.
It's still an annual migration for a lot of us. We like seeing our friends every year, and, surprise, I value getting to plug new people into being part of something they end up caring about.
Q: What got you into rebolting and route development, and why does that side of climbing matter?
I got into rebolting primarily while I was working at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, because I was on staff at a private climbing property and I felt responsible for the experience people were paying for. I could have just put new bolts next to the old ones and called it done, but I wanted to learn to do it the right way — following what the Access Fund recommends — because bolts done right can last fifty years. I didn't want to make that half-assed.
That skill led me to the Arkansas Climbers Coalition. I asked to help on their rebolt days, and that turned into a seat on the board — it turns out just asking to be put on their email list was actually an application. I joined the ARCC in 2021 and have been working as a frontline force to teach and connect recreational AR climbers to local stewardship since then. I'm not a debate kid, I'm not a salesperson, but I think when people are more educated about why this work matters and where they can see it for themselves, they come to their own conclusion about supporting it. Usually, if you're into climbing outside, it ends up being something you want to support.
Q: When you go out to climb just for yourself, what does your ideal day look like?
I like any climbing that makes me feel capable — it doesn't have to mean I'm sending, just that I'm giving something sincere effort and thought. That's true whether it's sport, trad, or ice for me…although I admit it might be less common when I’m bouldersing haha! Right now, don’t judge, I'm pretty psyched on hard sport climbing and pushing myself to chase grades this season.
Even on the type of rock I've climbed a hundred times, near where I live, it still feels new every time. I'll go to a new spot and think “I've never seen THIS rock before — I haven't done THIS specific combination of movements and angles. That's cool. Let's see how this goes.”
Want to climb with Olivia? Book a trip through Adventurtle and see Arkansas rock through the eyes of someone who's spent over a decade teaching people to fall in love with it.
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