Dark Horses

Yves Gravelle returns to the podcast to help me get stronger fingers. We talked about my current finger strength goal, how to build a 3-month training program, best joint angles for edge lifting, limiting factors, the challenge for climbers with building finger strength, forearm hypertrophy exercises, how to know when you need more rest, how to combine board sessions with finger training, repeater protocols for long boulders, process goals, and much more.

Jana Švecová is a professional rock climber from the Czech Republic who has emerged as one of the top female boulderers in the world. We talked about her upbringing and her early success in competitions, her pivot to outdoor bouldering, her inspiration for choosing ‘Terranova’ 8C+/V16 as a project, making the first ascent of ‘Nova’ 8C/V15, using her finger injury as an opportunity, current training, and much more!

Keenan Takahashi is one of the top boulders in the world. We talked about the origin story of his clothing company ANTIGRAV, the importance of carving out space for creativity, establishing his latest V15 FA ‘The Gold Standard’, watching Sean Bailey send ‘Devilution’, unclimbed king lines in Bishop, shifting his focus to meaningful hard climbs, his stubbornness, why trying limit moves makes him a better climber, learning the macro from the micro, accessing try hard, why he started training, upcoming goals, and much more! I’ve wanted to talk to Keenan since the very beginning of the podcast, and this turned out to be one of my all-time favorite interviews.

Nathan Williams is obsessed with ‘Return of the Sleepwalker’ 9A/V17, and estimates he has spent 100+ days trying it. We talked about getting mentored by Jimmy Webb and Kasia Pietras and sending his first V10 within one year of climbing, why he took a year off, falling in love with ROTS, how to stay psyched after bad days, friction control, climbing with a purpose, gaining legendary finger strength in a few minutes per week, static feats of strength, and much more!

Davis Ngo (dr.climb) is a climber, Doctor of Physical Therapy, and Instagram personality. We talked about his upbringing as a first-generation Vietnamese American, blowing up on Instagram, why Sean Bailey deserves to make a living from climbing, breaking his back while highballing, overcoming fear after his injury, his dream of creating a bouldering competition in Bishop CA, and much more!

Adrian Vanoni is an up-and-coming finger crack wizard who has been on fire for the last few years. We talked about him breaking into 5.14, freeing El Cap ground up and then in a day, training for the famous ‘Cobra Crack’ using a campus board, doing the first free ascent of a 5.14 finger crack in the alpine, lucid dreaming about beta, going after hard routes that will force you to grow as a climber, and much more!

Will Anglin is an expert boulderer and the founder of Tension Climbing. I love the way this guy thinks, and there are many nuggets in this episode. We talked about the key principles of climbing hard, the most common confusion points about training for climbing, why we should treat climbing like baseball, the number one thing all climbers should do, the evolution of Tension, why it took 10+ years to develop the Tension Board 2 (TB2), why every detail matters when building a new product, and much more!

Mat Wright has quickly established himself as one of the best trad climbers in Britain and is a world-class all-rounder having climbed E11, 5.14c, and V15. We talked about his humble beginnings in low-income government housing, teaching himself how to rope solo as a teenager, reaching V13 and 5.14c in his first three years of climbing, pivoting to hardcore trad climbing, his upcoming film in the Brit Rock Film Tour, and much more!

Alex Biale is an elite boulderer based in CO. We talked about his family legacy of bootlegging wine in Napa Valley, how he got into climbing, his legendary training with Jon Glassberg, pushing himself to the breaking point to send V14, seriously injuring his knee, working with Ollie Torr to overhaul his style and become stronger than ever, the keys to a balanced and happy life, and much more!

Jesse Firestone is back on the podcast! We talked about his injury this spring and finding silver linings, why he focused more on weight training than climbing this summer, shifting his priorities to spending more time on projects, biggest lessons from the past three years of coaching, Adam Ondra’s hip flexibility, how to become more flexible through climbing, why visualization is an excellent use of your time, and much more!

Mattias Braach-Maksvytis is an expert boulderer and a doctor of PhysioTherapy from Australia. This episode is all about dynos! Ethan Pringle joins us for another fireside chat as we talk about how Mattias became “the dyno guy” in Rocklands, categories of difficulty and how to grade dynos, how training his legs made him a better all-around boulderer, the key to having the best trip of your life, changing his mindset and enjoying his climbing more than ever, and much more!

Nic Rummel is an applied mathematician and expert boulderer. Ethan Pringle joins as co-host for another fun episode from Rocklands. We talked about embracing his nickname “Thick Nic”, lessons from working with Matt Fultz, sending V13 crimp boulders at 185 lbs, epic math projects, taking ballet to practice movement, the keys to a good spray wall, go-to hangboard protocols for epic finger strength, how lifting weights led to his best trip ever, finding mentorship in an 80-year-old climbing legend, and much more!

Jenn DeBellis is an elite-level boulderer and software engineer. We sat down in Rocklands and talked about her biggest lessons from childhood gymnastics and collegiate athletics, trying V13s in Magic Wood and Rocklands, getting comfortable with failure, learning to embrace her style, her elaborate warmup routine, how she plans her 6-week training cycles, her role with KAYA, tips for sustaining a full-time job on the road, and much more!

Carlos Tkacz returns and is joined by his partner Steph Letourneau for a sitdown here in Rocklands. We talked about their diet habits, lessons from their 7 trips to Rocklands, learning to try harder, comparison games, respecting the difficulty of climbing, being good at being consistent, balancing your carbon footprint, making the most of a climbing trip to South Africa, writing novels, and much more!

It’s another Northeast takeover in Rocklands! Charlie Schreiber returns to the podcast and is joined by Adam Shahar, and brothers Noah and Benn Wheeler. Ethan Pringle joins us and keeps the fire stoked for this unhinged six-person podcast. The lads gave us the tick list from their first ten days in Rocklands, and we geeked out about board training, favorite FAs, and ultimate dream boulders and routes. Tune in for a dose of fun and inspiration with these young crushers!

It’s a Northeast takeover here in Rocklands! Austin Hoyt returns to the podcast and is joined by Troy Fauteux and Bryce Viola. The boys sat down with me and Ethan Pringle for a fireside chat at our cabin. These guys are all total crushers and most importantly, they have a lot of fun. Join us for a crackling good time!

Cat Runner is the winner of the HBO show The Climb. Cat sat down with me and Ethan Pringle at our cabin here in Rocklands to talk about what his life has looked like after The Climb, his experience filming the show, the stereotypical trans narrative in the media, why he chooses to be visible, his ungendered childhood, gender roles in sports, why people feel threatened by trans or queer identities, dealing with trolls, owning your accomplishments, building the Queer Climber’s Network, Rocklands highlights, and much more!

Charlie Schreiber is a world-class climbing coach who has helped day 1 athletes become National Champions, 5.14d sport climbers, and V15 boulderers. We talked about the value of asking “why”, giving kids hard work and then reward, finding fresh lemons to squeeze, puzzle books and getting inside the mind of the puzzle maker, our shared goal to climb V13, how to have a good poop in the morning (every time), and much more!

Sam Stroh is caffeinated, psyched, and ready to send everything from double-digit highballs to free routes on El Cap. We talked about his early climbing and onsighting Moonlight Buttress (5.12+), our coffee and chocolate addictions, finding the perfect climbing partner, the biggest lessons from each discipline of climbing, suffering on the side of El Cap, botching it with tactics, and harrowing sends.

Caleb Robinson is an ex-competitive soccer player, elite boulderer, route setter, and photographer. He started climbing at age 17 and sent his first V13 in just four years. We talked about the biggest lessons he learned from competitive soccer, how deadlifting fixed his back, a typical week of training, his finger training journey, the power of consistency over time, finding his artistic expression in photography, and much more!

Ollie Torr is an ex-gymnast, high-end rock climber, and co-founder of Lattice Training. We went deep in this conversation and covered Ollie’s top exercises for different types of climbers, how to climb more like Aidan Roberts, how to find your own superpowers and become a specialist, the secret to finger strength, balancing strength and fitness, overtraining vs. under recovering, taking action is six-week blocks, and much more!

Anna Hazelnutt is a professional climber who specializes in difficult single-pitch trad and slab climbing. But don’t let her specialization fool you—she’s an all-around badass! We talked about two of her biggest climbing achievements to date, leaning into her superpowers, top training exercises for slabs, dealing with negative comments online, embracing empathy, comedy as a mechanism for change, and much more!

Todd Perkins is one of those local legends who you’ve probably never heard of. That is unless you’ve climbed on some of his routes around St George, Utah. We talked about growing up in the Mormon church, the mind-opening effects of cannabis, climbing his first 5.14 in the 90s and maintaining that level for 25 years, near-death experiences, the intelligence of the cosmos, aliens, and much more.

Aidan Roberts is a 23-year-old from the UK, who has emerged as one of the strongest boulderers in the world. We talked about training for his trip to Switzerland to try Alphane V17, differences among top boulderers, how Aidan developed his climbing style, addressing finger weaknesses, training using replicas, his goal-setting philosophy, plans to train for Burden of Dreams V17, considering our environmental impact as climbers, and much more.

Jesse Firestone is an elite boulderer, a climbing coach, and a climbing philosopher. He’s also a good friend of mine from Oregon. We talked about quantum leaps in our progression as climbers, Jesse’s top 3 tips for climbers at different stages, non-physical factors that affect our performance, tips for flashing hard boulders, training changes after age 30, and much more.

*If you liked my episodes with Emil Abrahamsson and Martin Keller, don’t skip this one!

Yves Gravelle is a V15 boulderer from Canada and a 3x APL World Champion (i.e. grip competitions). We talked about lessons from grip training that we can apply to climbing, the importance of simplicity and consistency, how to break down a bouldering project, basing your training on the demands of a specific goal, top 3 finger training methods, how to train full crimps, and much more.

Jordan Cannon is a professional climber who exploded onto the Yosemite scene in recent years with multiple in-a-day free ascents of El Capitan, and hard big wall linkups. We covered Jordan’s climbing origin story, playing college soccer, seeking adventure in Yosemite, van life tips, big wall pooping stories, free climbing El Cap in a day vs. multiple days, the value of dirtbagging, and much more.

Ned Feehally is Shauna Coxsey’s husband. (Just teasing Ned!) Ned is a top-level boulderer from the UK, the cofounder of Beastmaker, and the author of Beastmaking. We talked about his background in climbing, how Beastmaker got started, Ned’s approach to finger training, the benefits of board climbing, using ankle weights for body tension, and much more.

Martin Keller is a Swiss boulderer, climbing coach, and teacher, and is known for his long-term dedication to his bouldering projects. We talked about spending 150+ days projecting his FA of ‘Ninja Skills Sit’ V15/16, how to change our brain chemistry, how Martin trains on his outdoor projects, and how changing his mindset unlocked his hardest climbs.

Brent Barghahn has rope soloed ‘The Nose’ in a day, freed multiple routes on El Cap, and is a former engineer at Black Diamond. We talked about how Brent combined van life and “house hacking” to effectively retire at 28-years-old, about motocross and extreme unicycling, cutting his teeth on hard trad routes in LCC, and his setup for redpoint rope soloing.