Growing up in the competition scene, Alex has consistently been a member of the US Team for sixteen years, winning her first Youth National Championship at age twelve (2002), Adult National Championship at age thirteen (2003), and won a silver medal at the Youth World Championships and became Adult Pan American Champion at age fourteen (2004).
In 2008 Alex made history by becoming the first American to win a Bouldering World Cup on US soil. In 2010 she did it again, winning gold in Switzerland, becoming the first American to win a Bouldering World Cup abroad, the first American with two Bouldering World Cup golds, and she remains the only American to have won a gold medal overseas.
After competing on the World Cup Circuit from 2008 to 2014 and winning a silver medal at the Bouldering National Championships in 2015, Alex retired from climbing competitively and shifted her focus toward outdoor climbing projects, building an impressive tick-list filled with dozens of iconic first female ascents of numerous climbs rated up to V14 with her recent ascent of The Swarm, and established several first ascents around the Southwest.
In the fall of 2018, Alex decided to come out of retirement and return to competitive climbing to try to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Since then, she won a silver medal at the 2019 Bouldering National Championships, earning her spot back on the US Team, and competed in the entire 2019 Bouldering World Cup Circuit, finishing the season as the top ranked American athlete.
In 2018, AJ came out publicly as LGBTQ+ and proudly advocates for equality in sports, the outdoors, and across the country.
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