Trad/Big Wall

Adrian Ballinger is a renowned alpinist and mountain guide, and has summited Mt. Everest and K2 without supplemental oxygen. We talked about his childhood, misconceptions about what he does, what climbing Everest is actually like, skiing above 8,000 meters, risking his life to send K2, sending Fall of Man 5.13b, how mountaineering compares to projecting 5.13, meeting his wife Emily Harrington, how performance changes with age, lessons everyone should know, and much more. You can learn more about Adrian at adrianballinger.com

Caroline Ciavaldini is a French professional climber specializing in sport, trad, and multi-pitch climbing. We talked about growing up in La Réunion, early climbing, her mother’s suicide, the magic and selfishness of competitions, eating disorders, becoming adventurous, trips with Yuji Hirayama, meeting her husband James Pearson, discussing hard things with your kids, the color yellow, naming emotions, gentle feminism, and much more.

Randy Leavitt is a climbing pioneer, prolific route developer, pilot, and surfer. We talked about training on the Dune Cracks with Tony Yaniro, inventing the Leavittation offwidth technique, his journey from mountaineering to sport climbing, bolting Jumbo Love and other famous routes, why money equals freedom, his passion for surfing, reflections from almost drowning, aging gracefully, and much more.

Beth Rodden is one of the best female rock climbers of all time. We talked about her kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, facing backlash after her divorce, reflections on her climbing career, her history with Magic Line, disconnecting self-worth from achievement, the unwinnable game of climbing, personal evolution, why she loves human stories, and much more. Her new book, A Light Through the Cracks: A Climber’s Story is available now.

Thomas Huber is a German rock climbing and mountaineering legend. We talked about his most recent expedition to Pakistan, how to have fun at basecamp, exploring the impossible, his first trip to Buoux as a teenager, beer diets, his relationship with his brother Alex, challenges, silver linings, partying with the Stone Monkeys in Yosemite, his new book Freiheit, and much more.

Mat Wright returns to the podcast to talk about his send of ‘Rhapsody’! We talked about the emotional dip after a hard send, the power of letting things come to you, making your own luck, patience as a tactic, top-down projecting, feeding our internal climbing algorithms, his process and how it felt to send, his next project, learning how to take the pressure off, and much more!

Graham Zimmerman is an award-winning alpinist, writer, filmmaker, and climate advocate. We talked about his harrowing ascent of Mt. Bradley in his early 20s, getting injured in New Zealand, how his relationship with risk has evolved, losing friends in the mountains, the mystery of passion, the 100-year-plan, falling in love with his wife Shannon, getting shut down on K2 by global warming, the climate crisis, the concept of imperfect advocacy, and his new book, A Fine Line: Searching for Balance Among Mountains.

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!

James Pearson is one of the world’s best trad climbers. We discussed a 15-year-old controversy that nearly ended his career, how meeting his wife Caroline saved him, climbing his first 9a after learning how to train, eGrader and quantifying E grades, his decision to suggest E12 for his new route ‘Bon Voyage’, why he was afraid of becoming a dad, what kids taught him, and much more! This was one of my all-time favorite interviews.

Pete Whittaker is widely regarded as one of the best crack climbers of all time. We talked about his current trip to Moab trying Stranger Than Fiction, how he trained for the FA of Crown Royale 9a, the skills needed to climb cutting-edge cracks, why he is still working on improving at ring locks, the futuristic Crucifix Project, his most fun/rewarding/miserable/traumatic trips with Tom Randall, and much more!

Matt Segal is back on the podcast! Matt is one of the boldest trad climbers of his generation and just had his best climbing year ever at age 39. We talked about his new YouTube channel cooking show, his top cooking tips and the key to making delicious food, how he prepared to send Kryptonite 9a, and his ascent along with teammates Jesse Huey and Jordan Cannon of the famous Todd Skinner route ‘Cowboy Direct’ on the Nameless Tower in Pakistan.

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!

Leo Houlding is one of the greatest adventure climbers of all time. He’s put up new free routes worldwide from the Amazon Rainforest to the remote regions of Antarctica. We talked about his upcoming trip to Baffin Island, his childhood in the UK, using the fix-and-follow system to climb 2000’ big walls with his kids, epic stories from his El Cap days, what he learned from his worst injury, and much more!

Scott Johnston is a world-class coach who specializes in mountain endurance sports. This episode is a masterclass in training principles and is packed full of nuggets for climbers, including boulderers. We talked about why it’s a mistake to mimic top athletes, tips for balancing climbing with other sports, capacity vs. utilization, why to back off after a personal best, developing layers of endurance, the flaw with HRV, how to test your recovery before training, how to fail successfully, the future of alpinism and mountain running, and much more!

Alex Honnold is on the podcast! Who? The guy that free handed Yellowstone? Close enough. Seriously though, this was such a great interview. We talked about his two most epic solos that nobody heard about, near misses, lessons from other climbing legends like Tommy Caldwell, Jonathan Siegrist, and Peter Croft, pooping while free soloing stories, how the film Free Solo exceeded his hopes and dreams, the commitment to excellence, and much more!

Johnny Dawes is a legendary British rock climber known for his exceptional footwork and unique dynamic style. We talked about his first ascent of Indian Face (the first-ever E9) when it was likely the most dangerous route in the world, climbing 5.13b (8a) slabs without using his hands, tips for mastering footwork, his writing practice and current book project, and life lessons involving three-legged stools, omelets, pasta, icebergs, and 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.

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!

Robbie Phillips is a professional adventure climber and filmmaker from Scotland. We talked about his recent trip to the Western Isles of Scotland, his path from competitions to adventure climbing, top rope soloing to project hard routes, things he learned from climbing with Dave MacLeod, processing grief, capturing memories through filmmaking, and much more.

Tommy Caldwell is the most accomplished big wall free climber alive. He is best known for having free climbed The Dawn Wall, the most difficult big wall free route in the world. We talked about his achilles injury, doing the FA of Flex Luthor, training for V12 boulder problems on The Dawn Wall, undone lines on El Cap, exploring the limits of human endurance, being vulnerable through writing a book, parenting, and much more.

Lynn Hill is a living legend. She is best known for being the first person to free El Capitan via The Nose in 1993. We talked about what it is like to be Lynn Hill in the modern climbing world, her upbringing, what sets her apart, the story of freeing The Nose, tips for shorter climbers, her mindset and affirmations, self-belief, how she makes a living these days, upcoming video projects, and much more.

Neil Gresham is a British climber and coach who has been at the cutting edge for over two decades. We talked about using ballet as part of his training for his FA of ‘Lexicon’ E11, the importance of developing your finishing game, extensor training for stronger fingers, go-to ring and TRX exercises, sticking our training in the bank, thumb crimping, climbing his first 5.14c (8c+) at age 45, 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.

Hans Florine has held the speed record on ‘The Nose’ on El Capitan 8 separate times. He has climbed the route 112 times, with 100+ people. He loves ‘The Nose’ so much, he wrote a book about it. We talked about winning the first International Speed Climbing Championships in 1991, his earliest ascents of El Cap, top 3 big wall efficiency tips, and the value of doing hard things.

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.

Amity Warme is one of the most badass trad climbers you’ve never heard of. She also has a master’s in nutrition. We talked about her incredible season in Yosemite including ground-up free ascents of ‘Freerider’ and ‘Golden Gate’, the importance of logistics in big wall free climbing, what she learned growing up in gymnastics, training plans, and eating more to do more.

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.

Josh Wharton is one of the most badass climbers you’ve never heard of. He does it all at an elite level. We talked about tips for hard flashing and onsighting, how alpine climbing relates to rock climbing, training to flash El Cap, the value of taking risks in life, being a climbing parent, climbing in Pakistan, how to find an adventure without flying overseas, and the benefits of stiff shoes.

Hazel Findlay is a professional climber and mental training coach from the UK, known for her boldness on dangerous and difficult trad routes. We talked about common themes in mental coaching, how the ego manifests in our climbing, supporting your partners, fear of falling, and Hazel’s mental approach while projecting the legendary ‘Magic Line’, her first 5.14c.

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.