{VignetteVideo id=”E2C2390B7D2DFA0AC12B428FFB8BA1EF” autoplay=”off” aspectratio=”1.33″ assettitl=”girls+go+extreme” width=”375″ height=”281″ }

Forget about ballet and gymnastics. Many of today’s young girls are rock climbing!

The sport is exploding in popularity and an increasing number of women and teenage girls can be found hanging dozens if not hundreds of feet off of the ground on sheer rock cliffs and in climbing gyms across the country.

Thanks to indoor gyms, climbing has become much more accessible and is transitioning from a fringe activity to a mainstream sport and women and teenage girls are flocking to it. At the Gravity Vault in Chatham NJ, so many women were coming that the gym started a Ladies Night in 2006 and nightly passes have more than doubled since then, according to the gym owner.

Longtime guides and climbers say girls are just as good if not better than the boys at the sport thanks to their strength to weight ratio and to the way they approach the activity.