Episodes Feed
EP 110: “The Verm” Returns
This is round 2 with John Sherman aka “The Verm”. We sat in the desert near Hueco Tanks and chatted over a few beers. We talked about ‘Wheatiesgate’ and the lost art of heckling, finding and developing areas before the internet, dealing with aging, photographing and studying birds, life lessons, injury stories, and John’s favorite beers.
*I recommend listening to my first episode with Verm (EP 108) before this episode.
EP 103: Mina Leslie-Wujastyk
Mina Leslie-Wujastyk is a professional climber from the UK. She is also a writer, speaker, and co-host of the Curious Climber Podcast along with Hazel Findlay. We talked about her early life, impermanence, flow state, learning to try really hard, how she made the switch from hard boulders to hard sport routes, what sets high-level climbers apart, and the decision to become a mom.
EP 101: Nina Caprez
Nina Caprez is a professional rock climber from Switzerland, who is known for her many impressive ascents of hard multi-pitch climbs. We talked about her current trip to Greece and her newest passion project, trying to free climb ‘The Nose’ with Lynn Hill, why failing on the route was a gift, and about softening and leaning into womanness.
EP 96: Joe Kinder
Joe Kinder is one of the hardest-working route developers in North America. We talked about his recent ascent of ‘Kinder Cakes’ 5.15a in Rifle, CO, putting up routes in mediocre rock, leaving a legacy through route development, his love of projecting, current training approach, fashion influences, creating LOV, and his experience with cancellation and rebuilding a new life.
EP 95: Tyler Algeo
Tyler Algeo is a Canadian who moved to Africa and started a climbing gym, with the goal of creating a socio-economically inclusive climbing community in Malawi. We talked about learning to climb in Ireland, living in Africa, founding Climb Malawi, adopting and raising his two black sons, Tyler’s work with The Climbing Initiative, and creating a better world through climbing.
EP 93: Tom Herbert (Part 2)
This is part 2 of my conversation with Tom Herbert. Tom shared some clarifications about part 1, we talked about the nervous system and the mind-body connection, how to relax before a session to improve your performance and power, how to turn off in the evenings to optimize recovery, and Tom shared about his childhood and ongoing struggle with anxiety from a chronic bladder issue.
EP 91: Craig DeMartino
Craig DeMartino is a rock climber, motivational speaker, and teacher. His life changed in 2002 when he took a 100-foot ground fall. We talked about Craig’s accident and recovery, the decision to amputate his leg, climbing harder than ever after the accident, doing El Cap in a day, dealing with chronic pain, teaching adaptive climbing, and embracing a new normal.
EP 87: Alita Contreras
Alejandra (Alita) Contreras is a half Colombian half Venezualan professional rock climber, coach, and translator. We talked about the economic situation in Venezuela and why she moved to Colombia six years ago, about living in Germany and translating training books by Udo Neumann, about coaching women, our global climbing family, and her current 5.14a project.
EP 86: Dylan Barks
Dylan Barks is an elite-level boulder and sport climber, and a dark horse in the climbing scene. He sent ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’, his first V16, just two weeks after this interview. We talked about how Dylan uses a spray wall for 95% of his training, how he prepares for both bouldering and sport climbing trips, and about recovering from an eating disorder to climb his hardest ever.
EP 75: John Long
John Long is an American rock climber and author, and one of the original “Stonemasters”. We talked about his early climbing at Tahquitz and Suicide Rock, life in Yosemite in the early 70s, climbing The Nose in a day with Bridwell and Westbay, most humbling moments, John’s new book Icarus Syndrome, and his recent article about alcoholism and drug abuse in climbing.
EP 64: Christophe Bichet
Christophe Bichet is a world-class rock climber and a motivational speaker. He was born with a rare blood disorder called Fanconi Anemia and is also a cancer survivor. We talked about climbing as a metaphor for life, finding your “why”, learning new skills, how to achieve world-class endurance without training endurance, and holding on and letting go.
EP 59: My Eating Disorder
In this solo episode, I share my experience with an eating disorder. I talk about how an inaccurate DEXA scan and a desire to climb harder spiraled into body dysmorphia, failure, and shame. I also talk about what led me out of it, reframing the way I think about weight, key lessons and takeaways, where I am at now with weight and diet, and how I plan to move forward.
EP 58: Carlos Tkacz
Carlos Tkacz is a teacher, author, and lover of literature. He also lives in a van and climbs V13. We talked about many things, including a reading list given to him by his friend, impactful quotes, lessons learned from students, starting climbing in his 20’s and discovering training, writing a training book, self-publishing sci-fi novels, public speaking advice, and sharing ideas.
EP 55: Kai Lightner
Kai Lightner is a professional climber and the founder of Climbing for Change. We talked about how Kai discovered climbing, his reflections on an eating disorder, the importance of flexibility for tall climbers, early racist encounters, starting a non-profit to help open doors for other people, and some of Kai’s favorite training music.
EP 49: Darek Krol
Darek Krol was known by many as the “Mayor of Rifle”. He managed to climb 400+ of Rifle’s roughly 500 routes in his 23 years in the canyon. Darek was killed in an avalanche shortly after this interview. We talked about his love of climbing, about stewardship, and about his close friend, the late Dave Pegg. Darek was well-loved, and he will be deeply missed.
EP 47: Alex Johnson (Part 1)
Alex Johnson is a two-time world cup gold medalist and has been climbing at a professional level for a decade. We talked about sieging ‘The Swarm’ V13, her effort to qualify for the Olympics, telling an honest story, failing publicly, lessons from coaching, coming out as LGBTQ, learning about self-love from her partner Bree, and becoming a role model.
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 34: Roger Volkmann
Roger Volkmann is a retired Orthopedic Surgeon and a lifelong climber. Roger suffered a severe stroke in 2010 at age 55 and was not expected to walk again. Through sheer grit and determination, he managed not only to walk again but to climb. We talked about his stroke, his five principles of life, climbing in the Midwest as a kid, and his three attempts to summit Devils Tower after the stroke.
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.