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Irene Yee discovers joy, passion and confidence in rock climbing

Irene Yee graduated college and hit the ground running doing exactly what she thought she was supposed to do: hold down a job, move into a new place, be as social as possible; get a rhythm into adult life.

But it honestly was a low point. Everything she thought she was supposed to be doing, didn’t make her happy. When she was 26, and new to Vegas, she signed up for a meet up group climbing class.

“And the first time I got on a real rock I was like this is incredible. I was like oh my god I want to do this for the rest of my life. Like how could I not…I think I felt this connection to it that I didn’t realize that I was missing,” she says.

With this new passionate pursuit, Yee started to take up photographing her climbing friends, mostly women. She posted her photos on Instagram, and the online community responded and responded well. Now she has 41 thousand followers.

“…it (climbing) just, taught me about, life, and happiness and passion and confidence. Which is why I think it’s so, I’m so connected to it, because it has given me, so much I just didn’t think was possible or I didn’t fathom what life could be,” she says.

She recently turned 30 and did 30 different climbs in one day in celebration.

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