Professional ski mountaineer and adventurer Caroline Gleich boasts a wealth of career highlights; she’s graced magazine covers, scored sponsorships from the likes of REI and Patagonia, and was the first woman to ski all 90 lines in “The Chuting Gallery,” a feat only completed by three other people in the world.
She also regularly deals with abusive and threatening comments from users online, according to Outside. They regularly insult her looks, her abilities, and even taunt her with the painful memory of a close friend of hers who died in an avalanche.
“A lot of people say that when you put yourself out there, you just need to deal with this kind of thing,” Gleich told Outside. “But even after deleting the posts and blocking the person, it still got into my psyche.”
Gleich has also had to deal with these online abusers making copy accounts, continuing to harass her and even moving from her Instagram feed to her real world. She received a voicemail from an anonymous man that calls her “cross-eyed” and a “silver-spooned spoiled bitch.”
After the voicemail, which you can listen to in the video above, Gleich decided she wasn’t going to take it anymore.
“When your bully spends the time to find your phone number and calls to harass you during Thanksgiving dinner, it’s hard to ignore,” Gleich said in an Instagram post last December. “I know my story is one of many and just the tip of the iceberg. It happens to so many people. I’m tired of being silenced by it and silent about it. I’m taking a stand against cyberbullying.”
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