About

Hi, my name is Row Conway and this is Strange Girl Climbing, a blog about one strange girl’s vendetta to live fully and well- and encourage others to do the same.

I am an avid climber, mountaineer and traveler. I explore, I read, I listen, I pursue adventure. And I furiously scribble down notes in journals, the margins of guidebooks, receipts for petrol and biscuits, and flattened-out cigarette packets. Strange Girl Climbing is my attempt to collate these thoughts into something useful to others.

I write about the intersection of mental health and the outdoors from my academic background in mental health literature and phenomenological psychology. This means I am fascinated by the lived experience of individuals who have suffered from mental ‘ill health’ and have found solace and triumph in outdoor adventure.

Strange Girl Climbing was created with two aims:

1) To bring alternative conceptions of mental ‘disorder’ and current research in phenomenological psychology together in a way that makes them accessible and helpful to people in an immediate way.

2) To apply these ideas to the human experience of nature, adventure and risk.

I am also an affiliate of Not the Safe Route, an outdoor apparel brand committed to sustainable shipping, UK production and widening the conversation about mental wellbeing and the outdoors. A portion of every order placed with them goes to Climbers Against Cancer.

Use discount code ‘ROW’ for 15% off: https://www.notthesaferoute.co.uk/

Selected Curriculum Vitae:

Current: Climbing Wall Instructor, Mountain Training, October 2019-Present.

Current: PhD English, University of Birmingham, September 2017-Present. With the support of the Midlands3Cities Arts & Humanities Research Council Funding.

Mental Health First Aider, MHFA England, 2018.

MA Literature and Culture, University of Birmingham, 2017. With the support of an awarded College of Arts and Law scholarship.

BA English, University of Birmingham, 2016.