Ethan Pringle

Born and raised in the Mission District of San Francisco, Ethan was introduced to the wonders of nature before he could walk. He first set foot in Mission Cliffs at age eight. Mission Cliffs was, and still is, one of the premier climbing gyms in the country, and happens to be only four blocks from his home. Ethan met some amazing people at the gym who had a profound effect on him. He was very lucky to meet climbers willing to take a snotty but enthusiastic little kid on outdoor climbing trips to places like Pinnacles, Mickey’s Beach, Bishop, Owens River Gorge, Red Rocks, and Mt. Charleston. He remains forever indebted to those people. Since climbing is still such a small community, as a youngster Ethan had the opportunity to climb and become friends with people who inspired him—people who he read about in magazines­ and were his heroes at one time, like François Le Grand, Jason Campbell, Liv Sansoz and Chris Sharma. At twelve he began to compete. Since then he has been on the U.S. climbing team every year, placing top three in almost every comp he has entered, and winning a few national and international level competitions.