Talk:Steph Davis

Dean Potter
Dean Potter is no longer her husband. She has divorced him.
 * You got a reference for that? Astronaut (talk) 00:40, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Reference: Daredevils: The Skywalker documentary film. --SetHeh (talk) 17:03, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Married to the late Mario Richard
According to Richard's obit in the New York Times they were married and co-owners of a business that offered tandem BASE jumps. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.188.235.98 (talk) 05:04, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Plan to improve article
I'm going to be working on this article over the next few months. Let me know if anyone watching this page wants to help out! I'd love to collaborate! Wadewitz (talk) 19:32, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Compared to the quality of your work, I don't see what help I could offer. Anything you might want to ask or check from French language (my mother language) in case you find some info in French climbing newpapers etc. There is a book that came out recently translated into French. I'm glad already that you decided to work on this article, and you can count on my support which won't be much, at least you know someone is happy about your work. Akseli9 (talk) 20:04, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
 * All help is welcome and thanks for the compliments! It is nice not to work alone, too! Perhaps we should work on a French climber, too! :) Wadewitz (talk) 20:54, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
 * May I suggest, Catherine Destivelle? :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.205.143.42 (talk) 21:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
 * That's on my list of climbers to improve! We should definitely do that one! Wadewitz (talk) 22:36, 25 March 2014 (UTC)


 * I doubt I'll help much, but I've uploaded a portrait photo from Flickr as a contribution: File:Steph Davis seated.jpg. The same photographer has a lot of others of Davis that are listed as BY-NC. Possibly he might be willing to re-license some? JMiall  ₰  01:24, 27 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Great! Thanks so much! I've tweeted out about the images, but I'll start contacting individual photographers as well as Davis herself. Hopefully we can get more! Wadewitz (talk) 18:13, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Please respect WP:NPOV and WP:RS - please stop reverting accurate information
, if you really want help, I suggest that you stop reverting the accurate edits of other editors, even if you don't like the edit. (See WP:OWN). That's not the way to maintain an editor's attempt to help. Perhaps you need to read more on wikipedia's policies and guidelines re article writing.

If only one person, journalist Ed Johnson claims of Steph Davis: "She is one of the top five female climbers in the world", this statement should be attributed to him, since no other sources so far seem to have made such a firm statement. Why do you insist on reverting the addition of his name, especially since his short, admiring, opinion piece is referenced seven times (more than any other references).

Aside from a few short, superficial pieces, the rest of the sources seem to be Steph Davis on herself, such as her autobiography, and laudatory documentary film with the flavour of a magazine article that is more of a fan piece, and another interview YouTube interview with her, and then another of her interviews of herself.

Then there's the four paragraph blog post, a longer blog interview with Davis, etc.

You maintain that "She grew up playing the piano from the age of three." But no source says "three". One says "four" but you'd probably revert it if I try to correct. If you want editors to help you either allow them to contribute without you making it clear this article is going to come out the way you want.

From her documentary: "With my husband and partner Mario Richard, and our good friends Keith Ladzinski and Jorge Visser, we teamed up to shoot the whole adventure on these beautiful towers and make a movie of some of our favorite base climbs." Is this neutral? And what about all the worshipful posts by her admirers?

Aren't there more serious evaluations of her skills? Serious descriptions of her competitions without the Mademoiselle patina. Some real examination of her life? You have: "Davis was born Maryland." I added "in a hard-working family." Zap! Why?

"He thesis focused on the canon of mountaineering literature and "the ways in which reality can be so disparate and shifting for each individual who is living through extreme circumstances", as Davis describes it." What? Can't put it in your own words?

She "asks difficult questions about high-risk climbing, examining her own motives, personal relationships, and the broader meanings of her life's work". Again what? That can't be put in your own words?

Whole sections are unreferenced, e.g. her lists of feats.

I'm not going to help. Too many edit conflicts, as you seek to remove any changes by another editor instantly.

Parabolooidal (talk) 00:43, 26 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry you are unwilling to help, but if you had started looking for sources, you would know just how difficult it is to find them and perhaps be willing to work together to do so. Also, perhaps if you had looked at the history, you would have noticed that I just started working on improving this article TODAY. It is already dramatically improved, as its sourcing was even more abysmal before. I cannot fix every error in a single day nor can the article reach perfection in the six short hours I spent working on it today. Instead of criticizing, you could help find sources, which is what this article desperately needs, as you and I both agree. Wadewitz (talk) 02:42, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Where was Davis born?
I have one news story that claims Davis was born in Maryland and another story that says she was born in Illinois. Can anyone shed some light on this? Wadewitz (talk) 18:17, 26 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Contacted Davis over twitter publicly and she gave me correct info. She was born in Illinois. Wadewitz (talk) 18:52, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

NYTimes -- reassess
The NYTimes has singled out this article as an example of quality work being done on WP. I have reassessed as "B" (the highest level that can be given without attracting scrutiny), but it seems much higher to me (RIP Wadewitz; you done good). -- Michael Scott Cuthbert (talk) 08:02, 20 April 2014 (UTC)


 * In light of the NYT's link, let me give a warning. I am a climber, climbed for several decades, worldwide. I understand Ms Wadewitz was full of enthusiasm and just died (in a place where I have climbed many times, Joshua Tree), and that's VERY unfortunate. However, Ms Davis was NOT the first female climber to free solo 5-11+, by a long shot. Catherine Destivelle, in France, comes to mind. Ms. Davis belongs to a later generation of female climbers. Patrice Ayme 24.7.80.221 (talk) 15:22, 20 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Sometimes sources are wrong. An example comes to mind, where I could find a more reliable source than Wadewitz: the first female free ascent by Lynn Hill of the west face of the Leaning Tower. On a side note, I'm beginning a bit uncomfortable now that she died and I see some articles are taking unusual importance, not for covering the subject itself, but for it was written by her, or for that is was a Wikipedia article. In my humble opinion, an article about Fanny Bullock Workman should be made for Fanny Bullock Workman, not for Wikipedia, not for Wadewitz, an article about Steph Davis should be read for learning about Steph Davis, not for the fact it was Wadewitz who wrote it, and an article about Lynn Hill should be done for Lynn Hill, not for promoting Wikipedia..? Akseli9 (talk) 16:18, 20 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Agree with, that's probably also what would've thought, as well. &mdash; Cirt (talk) 10:29, 3 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Free soloing in 2008 is not notable for female climbing.  Catherine Destivelle was free soloing at that grade in 1992, and by 2005, female climbers had reached  on protected sport routes (which means they would have been free soloing at circa 5.11 comfortably). 78.18.249.143 (talk) 10:40, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

Personal life section
This page needs one. The info appears to be there, just needs separating out. The Dean Potter BLP page too. Likely same sources could be used on each, so both could be done at 'same' time. 220  of  Borg 17:26, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
 * The (apparently) correct code for spouse:
 * |spouse = Dean Potter (m. 2002-2010) (divorced)
 * Is in the infobox, but not appearing. Potters page has an but here it's, likely that is why. 220  of  Borg 17:41, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Note re this, Davis has been married twice. 'Ironically' both have died wingsuiting. 220  of  Borg 18:57, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

I have moved relevant paragraphs and copied relevant info into a new "Personal life" section as above. This text may not be as well integrated into the page as a whole now, it seemed to be more chronological before my edit. 220  of  Borg 18:57, 20 May 2015 (UTC)


 * This bit needs some elaboration: "In 2006, Davis' marriage to Potter ended after he controversially climbed Delicate Arch. The couple lost sponsorships over the climb and thus their financial stability."

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.64.142.162 (talk) 10:58, 21 August 2016 (UTC)

More work on Personal life, and a matter for climbing editors to address
Moved that P.l. section down per request in the article tag, and reduced the verbiage about her marriages to a single summary line in the lede. Did not remove all strayings into personal life in the career sections (but did mark them for review).

Note, please—if in the "Notable climbs" section, the source "climbandmore.com" is truly an independet source—it looks instead, simply to be summarising climbers commentary about their own climbs—then please remove the "citation check" tag from that section. It is simply the case when claiming firsts in any endeavour, the opinions that matter are other's than the participants, and so support for the contention of the many firsts in this section should be from true third-party sources.

Otherwise, much copyediting was done, to make all date and author styles uniform, etc. Cheers. 2601:246:C700:9B0:8D60:C6CB:25FF:FDDA (talk) 22:25, 14 November 2019 (UTC)