EP 13: Bill Ramsey
April 13, 2020
Bill Ramsey is a professor of philosophy at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and at 59-years-old, still climbs 5.14. We talked about his coffee addiction, his legendary training days and how he uses the treadwall, replicas, and the fingerboard, his two-part climbing career, favorite articles he’s written, and the crossover between philosophy and climbing.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Google Podcasts
Patreon:
Follow-Ups:
thenuggetclimbing.com/follow-ups
Podcasts:
The Nugget Climbing Podcast — EP 04: Alan Watts
Training Beta — EP 22 (Bill's conversation with Neely)
The RunOut — EP 26: More Is More w/ Bill Ramsey
Power Company Podcast — EP 150 (Bill's conversation with Kris Hampton)
Training Beta — EP 109: Leif Gasch
Movies:
Reel Rock 5 [2010] (Video of daniel woods doing “finger ups” is in 'The Hardest Moves' segment)
Wide Boyz - Trailer (crack machine)
Articles:
Tyler Nelson’s simple finger strength article (talks about density hangs)
Rock & Ice: Bill’s article defending chipping
Evening Sends: ‘The Day I Sent Golden’
‘Bigotry and Religious Belief’ - Bill Ramsey
Books:
Performance Rock Climbing by Dale Goddard
Contemporary Stretching by Craig Berman
Routes Mentioned:
‘Transworld Depravity’ 5.14a, Red River Gorge, KY
‘Omaha Beach’ 5.14a, Red River Gorge, KY
‘Badman’ 5.14a, Smith Rock, OR
‘Thanatopsis’ 5.14b, Red River Gorge, KY
‘Bohica’ 5.13b, Red River Gorge, KY
‘Last of the Bohicans’ 5.13d, Red River Gorge, KY (extension to ‘Bohica’)
‘Just Do It’ 5.14c, Smith Rock, OR
‘To Bolt Or Not To Be’ 5.14a, Smith Rock, OR
‘Maple Jam’ 5.10a, Yosemite, CA
‘Route of All Evil’ 5.14a, Virgin River Gorge, AZ
‘Golden’ 5.14b, The Cathedral, UT
‘Jump Pumping Hate’ 5.14a, Clark Mountain, CA
‘Super Tweak’ 5.14b, Logan, UT
‘Separate Reality’ 5.12a, Yosemite, CA
‘The Phoenix’ 5.13a, Yosemite, CA
Other:
Nuggets:
1:47 – Skipping breakfast, one big meal per day, and red meat
3:35 – Fueling for a big training day
4:12 – How Bill’s legendary big training days came to be
7:20 – Shocking the body, and building the stamina to go all-day
9:03 – Coffee in bed
11:02 – Bill’s two-stage climbing career, how he started training for climbing, and self-coaching for the Marine Core Physical Fitness Test
15:01 – Climbing through the existing routes at the Red River Gorge, his first 5.14, climbing Omaha Beach and Transworld Depravity and playing a roll in the development of the Red and Smith Rock
19:39 – Feeling sorry for Alan and the wrongest Bill has ever been
22:32 – Climbing at the columns, Chris Jones, the contrivance rating system (C1-C4), and some of Alan’s one-handed ascents
26:44 – Focusing on academics and missing climbing and the climbing community
28:47 – What drew Bill to study philosophy
32:45 – Moving to Vegas and why Bill has never regretted making the move
37:20 – How Bill climbed all but one of his 26-27 5.14s after age 40 and
39:23 – Bill’s warmup and stretching routines
42:28 – How Bill combines training with projecting
43:58 – Bills hangboard routine
45:37 – Replicas, practicing the crux as the warmup, and comparing to gymnastics
47:51 – How Bill builds his replicas and makes custom holds
50:43 – Training on the treadwall, and why Bill thinks the treadwall is the most underutilized training tool for route climbers
55:31 – Targeting route lengths and ARCing with the treadwall
56:39 – Using the treadwall to work on climbing faster, and keeping a training journal
58:11 – Similar ingredients in each training day, Bill’s thoughts on training different energy systems, energy system training order, and why Bill doesn’t bother with skill training
1:01:33 – Training and simulating rest positions
1:03:07 – Opposition training and why Bill thinks ~85% of your training time should be climbing-specific
1:05:06 – Fingertip pullups and “finger ups”, and why Bill thinks both are beneficial
1:07:40 – Long duration (density) hangs
1:08:48 – An example of one of Bill’s legendary training days
1:09:35 – Being a local at 6 different crags, and trends and variation that Bill has noticed
1:12:09 – How Bill thinks about balancing building his route pyramid and quick ticks with big projects, his process on Jumbo Pumping Hate, and climbers as nerds trapped in athlete bodies
1:17:47 – The hidden secrets that routes have, Apollo 13, and problem solving
1:20:13 – Tinkering with new beta, and committing to trying 100% every try
1:23:44 – Bill’s writing, his article defending chipping, ‘The Day I Sent Golden’ and writing the forward to the new Smith Rock guidebook
1:28:16 – What Bill is most grateful for
1:29:38 – Crossover between philosophy and climbing
1:30:24 – ‘The Truth and Lies of Climbing’, climbing Separate Reality, and realizing they weren’t that far off from the top
1:35:52 – Bill and Alan’s influence on one another, why Bill feels so fortunate for his path through life and climbing, and feeling like Forest Gump
1:38:52 – Plans for a round 2 interview with Bill and Alan and the welcoming Vegas climbing community