Episodes Feed
EP 41: Tonde Katiyo (Part 2)
This is part 2 of my conversation with Tonde Katiyo. We talked about RIC (Risk, Intensity, Complexity) as a tool for communicating about difficulty, about the appropriate responses to different types of bouldering challenges, about the value and importance of route setting in a growing industry, about The Lab, and keeping training in perspective.
EP 40: Tonde Katiyo (Part 1)
Tonde Katiyo is a professional route setter, a passionate climber, a father, and a coach. His mother is French and his father is Zimbabwean. We talked about the connection between route setting and coaching, about coaching Nathan Hadley, Sean Bailey, and Margo Hayes, about his discrimination and privilege resumés, about exposing his kids to risk, and about making better climbing to make a better world.
EP 38: Solomon Barth
Solomon Barth is a Stanford University graduate and software engineer. We talked about Solomon’s impressive two-week trip to Smith Rock, working with Alex Bridgewater to improve his footwork and bulletproof his fingers, training endurance using up-down-ups, veganism, working in tech, his desire to help make positive change in the world, and gunning for 5.15.
EP 37: Simon Carter
Simon Carter is an Australian photographer, and has been described by the editor of Rock and Ice Magazine as “arguably the greatest climbing photographer of all time”. We talked about building his first darkroom at age 15, pursuing full-time climbing in the early ’90s, action vs. landscape, camera equipment, the Taipan/Grampian closure, and Simon’s top 10 climbing photography tips.
BONUS: Charlie Manganiello
Charlie Manganiello has been coaching with Climb Strong for seven years and now heads the Elemental Strength program in Lander, WY. We talked about focusing all of your energy on one thing, misconceptions about deadlifting, maintenance strength training, Charlie’s go-to hangboard protocol, why climbing is important, and keeping things in perspective.
BONUS: Alex Bridgewater
Alex Bridgewater is a high-level rock climber who moved to Lander, WY in 2016, to train at Elemental as part of the Climb Strong Program. Alex now works for Climb Strong as a coach. We talked about his transition into coaching, managing a chronic back injury, favorite barbell and bodyweight exercises, speed walking, and the importance of self-belief.
EP 36: Climb Strong Team
This is a mashup episode from the 2020 Climb Strong Training Camp. We talked about hangboard training, strength as a skill, climbing performance, takeaways from the training camp, and lessons learned from coaching athletes. Featuring: Chrissy Vadovszki, Jonathan Siegrist, Ken Klein, Carly Cain, Alex Bridgewater, Kathryn Perkinson, Charlie Manganiello, and Amanda Sempert.
EP 35: Steve Bechtel
Steve Bechtel is a strength coach and the founder of Climb Strong. We talked about the gift of changing your mind, lessons from studying sprinting and how to apply them to climbing, developing aerobic capacity, why Jonathan Siegrist and BJ Tilden are such successful climbers, the “real secret” to success, creating better habits, and Logical Progression 2.
EP 33: Mike Kerzhner
Mike Kerzhner is a software engineer, an accomplished Yosemite climber, and an impressive all-rounder. We talked about growing up climbing and competing in Russia, moving to the States and climbing at the Red River Gorge, his path to trad and big wall climbing, free climbing El Cap, writing, poetry, speaking Russian, and discipline born out of necessity.
EP 31: Maya Madere
Maya Madere is a 21-year-old comp kid from Austin, TX. We talked about attending school at Stanford and studying computer science, the endurance training program that helped her transition from bouldering to sport climbing, gunning for the 2024 Olympics, competition strategies, outdoor goals, intuitive training and eating, power screams, and windsurfing.
EP 30: Connor Herson
Connor Herson is the kid who free climbed ‘The Nose’ at fifteen years old. What most people don’t know is that he is also an incredible sport climber. We talked about his sport climbing goal at age fourteen, his path to free climbing ‘The Nose’, big wall tactics, gear recommendations, headpointing, training power during COVID, recent sends, and future goals on El Cap.
EP 29: Tyson Schoene
Tyson Schoene has been the head coach of the Vertical World Climbing Team in Seattle, WA for nearly 20 years, and has shaped some of the best climbers in the world including Drew Ruana, Sean Bailey, and Quinn Mason. We talked about Tyson’s path to coaching, how he and his team build world-class athletes, the value of competition, climbing team as a family, and drills all of us can practice. You can learn more about Tyson at seattle.verticalworld.com
EP 28: Blake Cason
Blake Cason is a mindfulness and work/life balance coach, and the founder of Pivot Wellness. We talked about bringing awareness to our relationship with climbing, practicing radical honesty, ways of strengthening the mindfulness muscle, cycling priorities, and ways that both Blake and I have struggled to find balance between work and climbing.
EP 27: Audrey Sniezek
Audrey Sniezek is a software engineer for Microsoft and a former professional climber. We talked about her beginnings in both computer science and climbing, becoming a morning person, her 4 a.m. warmup routine, starting a climbing gym near the Red River Gorge, coaching in China, self-talk for confidence, and her most recent 5.14a.
EP 26: Ben Herrington
Ben Herrington is a professional route setter and likely Washington’s most prolific boulderer. We talked about why Ben performs best as a “weekend warrior”, his three go-to training sessions, mistakes he sees other boulderers making, climbing vs. skateboarding, his history with drug abuse and addiction, the path to sobriety, some of his most meaningful FAs, and V15 potential in Washington.
EP 25: Nathan Hadley
Nathan Hadley is a professional route setter and an all-around rock climber. We talked about completing the Canadian Alpine Trilogy, the benefits of training using bouldering circuits, how to practice onsighting skills in the climbing gym, establishing the first 5.14 at Index, WA, and the importance of following the psych. You can learn more about Nathan at nathanhadley.com
EP 24: Paige Claassen
Paige Claassen is a professional rock climber and the founder of the Southern Africa Education Fund. We talked about pre-send rituals, breathing techniques, how she changed her diet to improve recovery, recent training, how she structures bouldering and outdoor sessions, learning from each attempt, and favorite crag snacks.
EP 23: Jasna Hodzic
Jasna Hodžić is part writer, part scientific researcher, and part badass rock climber. We talked about sending her first 5.14a, ‘To Bolt Or Not To Be’ at Smith Rock, about practicing her anti-style to climb a route called ‘Voodoo’ 5.14b, and about her struggles with a misdiagnosed finger injury, compartment syndrome, and RED-S.
EP 22: Justin Brown
Justin Brown is the founder of Rhino Skin Solutions, a company that provides high-performance skincare products for rock climbers. We talked about best practices for skincare, tips for dialing skin for different rock types, how to grow a business while keeping things simple, and the connection between greatness and insanity.
EP 21: Ethan Pringle
Ethan Pringle is one of the best all-around rock climbers in the world. We talked about practice vs. training, lessons learned from 50 days projecting ‘The Nest’, taking care of his dad and his experience with chronic grief, the gift of heartbreak, discovering a new depth of love, projecting highballs, and the coolest rock climbing move he has ever done.