Jan. 22, 2024
#4 Games Within the Game — Mastery, Humor, and Climbing for Life
Get ready to hang with the one and only Tom Addison from Northern California; low-key but outperforming with a lifetime of big wall ascents and a knack for crushing sport climbing up to 5.14. But hold on, there's more to Tom than just climbing—he's opened up countless first ascents across the country and fought tirelessly to preserve public lands. In today's episode, we're diving into Tom's stories, extracting nuggets of wisdom you can apply to your own adventures. From training tricks and overcoming injuries to the joy and wisdom of building a climbing community, we cover it all. Don't miss his key takeaways on resilience, improvement at any age, and the secret to lifelong power training. Plus, he's got a wit sharper than a carabiner! Until next time, keep defying gravity and stay ageless! 🧗♂️✨
References:
Tom’s Instagram
Kush's Instagram
Ageless Athlete Instagram
Advocacy:
Access Fund: A national organization related to climbing advocacy. It is suggested that climbers can find ways to protect climbing areas, participate in existing projects, contribute to the organization, and find resources on their website.
American Safe Climbing Association. Arranging hardware replacement work for climber safety.
Bay Area Climbing Coalition. Place to find local climbing projects that need help in Northern California
Bookshelf:
Covenant for Water by Abraham Verghese (I read Cutting for Stone, loved it, so this one is next for me)
Podcast Chapters:
00:19 Introduction and Welcome
00:40 Introducing Guest: Tom Addison
00:53 Tom's Climbing Achievements and Advocacy
02:04 Catching Up with Tom
02:19 Discussing Climbing Locations
06:44 Tom's Climbing Journey
08:21 Influences and Mentors
14:29 The Climbing Community
15:20 Tom's First Ascents and Advocacy
24:35 Challenges and Triumphs in Climbing
45:37 Early Career and Passion for Climbing
46:42 Transitioning to Retirement and Side Hustles
47:14 Balancing Climbing and Other Life Obligations
48:24 The Importance of a Balanced Lifestyle
50:22 Diet and Nutrition Habits
55:04 The Role of Genetics and Lifestyle in Climbing Success
57:22 The Impact of Training and Persistence
01:12:53 The Joy of Reading and Learning
01:16:00 Getting Involved in Environmental Advocacy
01:20:07 Final Thoughts and Takeaways
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Friends, welcome back to the Ageless Athlete Podcast.
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This is your host, Kush from my bunker in the Mission District, San Francisco.
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Thank you for your fantastic response to the launch.
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If you enjoy.
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This show, please do rate us online as it helps others find the show.
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Delighted today to have Tom Addison from San Francisco on the show.
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Tom is 61 and under the radar, super achieving rock climber with multiple credits to his name.
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Tom crushes on all types of climbing with a lifetime of pig wall ascents as well as sport climbing grades up to 514.
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But Tom also gives back with a plomb.
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He has opened up a monumental number of first ascents across the country for all of us to enjoy.
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That's not all.
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Tom has been tirelessly advocating for preservation of public lands and for climbing access for decades.
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In fact, if you have climbed anywhere in the San Francisco area, chances are you have benefited from Tom's environmental efforts.
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I'm eager to dive into these juicy stories with Tom and take away some nuggets that we can apply to our own lives.
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But of course, we'll talk about all the other regular stuff.
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Training, progression, injuries, and how building community can be so vital to one's goals.
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Tom, hey! How are you?
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I'm well.
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I went rock climbing yesterday, so life is good.
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Excellent.
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Life is always good when one is able to Rock climb.
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The last couple of times I think, or maybe the last time we tried to connect over this, once you were in Turkey, another time you were in South Africa.
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So can I ask, where the climbing was and where do we find you today?
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Yesterday I was climbing locally.
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I was climbing at a cliff called Jailhouse in the foothills near Sonora.
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And today I am home.
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Various things to do today, but yeah, just climbing locally yesterday.
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Excellent.
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And if I remember correctly, this is indeed a jailhouse season, though sometimes we have.
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The rainy weather that can, that can interrupt.
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Yeah, for sure.
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Jail is nice in that it's got a real long season for a cliff and the winter conditions can be excellent depending on the route you're trying to do.
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Things can be wet.
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Winter is good temperatures.
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That's great.
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Sometimes stuff is wet, but that's always good to get outside regardless if conditions are perfect or not.
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It's been, it's been a few years since I've been out that way and I understand you have been climbing there, establishing roots there for many years.
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Don't want to dwell on this too much, but what is the story Tom behind?
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This, the name of this, uh, local climbing area called, uh, Jailhouse.
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Oh, well, there's a prison, the Jamestown Correctional Facility.
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It's a state prison, a medium security prison, and it's really quite close to the cliff.
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And so the guy who first started climbing there, a guy named Dave Schultz, who super nice guy, probably well known for his roots in Yosemite, doing a lot of.
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Like wall linkups, speed linkups, some pretty impressive free climbing.
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He just came up with that moniker just because it's, there's a prison nearby.
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Got it.
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And isn't that true that a lot of the names of the routes there are named after prison like expressions?
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Oh yeah, no, that's definitely true.
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I'd say that's, yeah, I'm not sure if that's a good thing.
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People have different feelings about Correctional facilities, and I think there's a lot of problems with our justice system in this country, but yeah, most of the names do are reflective of that sort of prison theme.
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That's for sure.
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My, I haven't spent a ton of time there, just a couple of seasons, but one of the names that jumps to mind, a route that I did, maybe.
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14 odd years ago was called Soap on a Rope, and I did not understand that, that name until some time had passed.
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Maybe we'll spare the listeners.
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Yeah, I've always thought that was a pretty obnoxious name, but yeah, but it's a cliff that's got some climbing that's close to the Bay Area.
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For somebody like me, it's kind of a lifetime cliff because they're are plenty of routes there that are challenging for me.
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And so while I've climbed there a lot, I still have, uh, plenty of things to do there.
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And so that's nice to have someplace nearby where you can push yourself and get out to reasonably easily.
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Yeah.
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Fantastic.
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Step, taking a step back, Tom, would love to hear a little bit about how you got started into the outdoors and.
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And what pulled you into rock climbing, particularly?
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Well, I certainly was enthusiastic about doing stuff outside, probably starting in junior high school or something, I guess, and did a lot of backpacking and canoeing and kayaking and things like that, and knew that I wanted to try climbing.
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And so, when I went to college, I started climbing in 1980 and there was an outing club program there with people going climbing and I was like, wow, this is really fun.
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This is super enjoyable and learn to do things like rock climbing and ice climbing and that sort of set of activities.
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Yeah, and I've kind of been doing, I've been climbing a lot really since 1980.
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It's certainly been something I've really enjoyed and continue to just love to do.
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Any early mentors or influences that may have shaped your climbing?
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I was really impressed at the 80s when we were climbing at an area in New York called the Gunks to see a fellow named Fritz Wiesner who was one of the leading climbers in the world and probably the 40s and the 50s, maybe this, yeah, probably really the 40s and the 50s and we would see him out and I think at that point he was probably in his 80s and he was soloing Uh, Easy Roots at the Gunks, and I was super impressed by this friendly, short little guy who was out having a ton of fun, so that's something that stands out.
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I remember in 1982, watching a guy named John Backer, who I would argue was the best climber in the world at the time, watching his soloing routine at Josh and going out and seeing what he would do in the morning before.
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Most of us lackers that even had breakfast, let alone gotten out of the tent.
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So it's always impressive to see people who climb really well or do anything really well with, with real grace.
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And certainly John Backer was in that category.
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So I remember being very impressed with him, I think first, probably in 1982.
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And then, subsequently, for a number of years as I got to know him, yeah, maybe that's what I'd say.
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Yeah, I can't imagine a few things more inspiring than watching.
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In the world of climbing, then watching John Backer at the peak of his powers, and climbing in some of his favorite, well known places.
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I have a tiny memory of John Backer myself, which is sometime in the mid 2000s, being out at Bishop, bouldering at, I believe, the Happys, on a very windy day, when there were very few people there.
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And I Showed up with a couple of friends.
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I mean the kind of day where the crash pads were flying, as you're trying to hold them down.
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And there was this, this, this guy, maybe on the other side of this one boulder, and he simply had, he didn't have a crash pad, he had a little, uh, I think a towel of sorts and he would set the towel down meticulously and then climb about the towel and climb back down.
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And I think he wasn't actually doing very hard grades, but yeah, something about his flow seemed, uh, um, arresting the way he moved.
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And I did not know that at the time, but I think maybe a couple of days later I realized that that was indeed, uh, John Bakker.
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So yeah, I consider that.
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as a lucky, uh, happenstance that I got to see, uh, jump back a climb.
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That man could rock climb.
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That's for sure.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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It's very strong.
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Any
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of these.
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Luminaries from those days that you actually had the occasion to, to climb with.
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Oh, well, Kush, things used to be quite different in climbing.
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The world of people who were actually climbing a lot was much smaller.
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And so we ended up all, you knew everyone.
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So yeah, I mean, I've, I've had the opportunity to, to climb with John.
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That's true for a lot of people.
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I mean, I've, guys like Jerry Moffat and Ben Moon and G.
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Betribeau, I mean, and Todd Skinner.
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I mean, these were all people who you hung out with and saw and climbed with.
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So, the world used to be a lot smaller in climbing, and so we all kind of knew each other.
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And, I think that it seems a little different today, just because there's so many more people climbing.
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But one of the, the fun things about climbing is that, We're all playing on the same court, so you end up seeing everyone.
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And that's, that certainly continues, I think, to be true today, but yeah, I think anybody who's my age, who's really old and ancient like me, you end up seeing a lot of folks and climbing with folks just because the world was smaller.
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Certainly how, what held today about the, about the coziness, so to speak, of the community A few days ago holds true to, to, to some degree today as well.
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And I think a lot of us, a lot of the climbing folks would agree that is one of their favorite things besides the actual sport where one can show up at a specific crag in season.
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almost anywhere in the world and be, uh, be greeted with a friendly face from, uh, from a different place.
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So, you know, you have to love that about a niche, maybe not so niche anymore, but a smaller sport and the places that Climbing allows you to
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visit.
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Yeah, I mean, certainly one of the best things about climbing is the community and a sense of shared community.
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And it doesn't, the fact, I mean, it's irrelevant if the people are well known or not, but the, it's a friendly, inclusive, welcoming community, I think, generally.
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And that really is true across the world, wherever you end up or find yourself.
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And that's a wonderful thing about the activity, I think.
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Dom, you've been climbing for several decades and climbing quite prodigiously.
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I also believe that you have established many first ascents all over the place.
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Any particular area stand out where you've had the most fun putting up routes and wondering if you had a story or two to share about any, any particularly memorable FAs?
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Oh, well, I do.
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And I do enjoy.
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Establishing routes really is, I would suggest that it's kind of a, not a particularly useful activity if you want to improve as a climber, but it's a lot of fun.
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I've established over 2, 000 new pitches in my life, I think in 19 different states.
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Whoa! So I have routes kind of all over the country and it's always fun.
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People I don't really know will travel somewhere like a wild iris or the city of rocks or cliffs in Massachusetts or New Hampshire and reach out to me and say oh, hey, I did this route of yours It was really fun and that's better dating.
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But yeah, I do enjoy doing new routes.
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I'm always psyched about new routes I've got projects that I'm working on now that I'm super looking forward to When the snow melts, trying to get back and climb, but I would say in general doing new routes is kind of a silly thing.
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It's not particularly good for your climbing.
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I think we would all be much better climbers if you're putting up routes, if you didn't put up routes and climbed other people's routes, but it's a fun game to play.
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It's just another sort of game within climbing that certainly I enjoyed, enjoy and have enjoyed for, yeah, for quite a long time.
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I can imagine.
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I mean, not just imagine, but I know that climbing being as all absorbing and as time intensive as is, one needs different things to, to stay motivated and sometimes maybe pushing the, the performance pyramid could be, is valid and, but then sometimes also to be able to, uh, seek out new areas and possibilities for, uh, for new routes is also part of the, part of the pallet.
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There's tons
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of games.
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Yeah, there's tons of different games to play in climbing and I think a lot of them are really fun.
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Um, and it is helpful to play more than one game, um, that keep you motivated and psyched, but generally being motivated has never been my problem.
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I, uh, I quite enjoy climbing and that's been a constant for Yeah, for 40, 44 years or something now.
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So that, that doesn't seem to change, but it is fun to, uh, to travel new places, to see new areas, to try different styles of climbing.
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All that stuff is really enjoyable, or it has been for me.
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Along with doing first ascents in all kinds of places, one thing that It goes hand in hand is making sure that the land and the facilities that allow us to go climb stay available and accessible.
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And we have also been quite engaged with advocacy work with the public lands and with climbing coalitions.
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One of the things that we had the pleasure of doing, actually something you led recently, that I had the The delight of joining was we were helping build a trail to one of our local climbing areas out in Sonora.
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One thing I'm, I'm, I'm wondering is what is one thing that climbers have done well over the last few decades?
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They have really kind of gotten the act together with being able to, able to secure access.
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And one thing where we are still struggling and we could, we could do better.
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And I'll add one more question to this and then give you time, which is if one had to begin the climbing.
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Access movement today, and there are people listening to this from other parts of the world where the access movement isn't as mature as it is in the U.
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S.
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Maybe what could be one piece of advice you would give them that, hey, let's say you are in India for that matter, and you were to begin some advocacy work to, to help, I mean, how would you go about and what would be the right thing to
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do?
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Ooh, that's, I'm not sure I'm So qualified to say, but I do think the strength of the climbing community is that it's a shared community.
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And so I think we're at our best when we come together collectively to try to protect the areas that we all love and that we recreate.
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And I think we're at our worst when we Let divisions within the tribe of climbers come to the floor.
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There are some real challenges that we face as climbers at being able to keep using, uh, the places that we do.
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Look currently at the situation with this proposed, the fixed anchor regulations.
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If you're not familiar with that, I'd encourage everybody who's listening to go to the accessfund.
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org homepage and to weigh in on that.
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We'll post something in the show notes, so people can get more educated on what's happening.
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Very important, I would agree.
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But I always think that as a community, we're at our best when we remember that we have shared interests in common.
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And, uh, when we Go astray is where we tend to forget that.
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And we squabble internally about the style of climbing, how the bolts were placed, when people do things like alter the rock, all the sorts of things that have the potential to hurt ourselves.
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And our reputation as climbers with folks like land managers.
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So, how do you get stuff like the Access Fund, or the ASCA, sort of going and organized?
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Usually it comes down to motivated people, but what you need is you need buy in from the community and support from the community.
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I certainly hope that if you're a climber, you realize that there are folks out there working on your behalf.
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These are wonderful organizations.
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Man, I encourage us all to be part of, of those organizations, but also to think about in your own life and at your own cliff.
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What could we do to improve things?
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What could we do to improve our collective experience to make sure that people 20 years or 100 years from now will be able to climb these same crags that we get to enjoy and just, just essentially be responsible members of our shared climbing tribe?
00:26:31.120 --> 00:26:45.350
One thing that I sometimes wonder, uh, is, uh, within the, within us climbers, we hold these, these styles of climbing in high reverence.
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Certain types of climbs, let's say sport climbing, they require many balls.
00:26:51.160 --> 00:26:56.569
But traditional climbing may require a couple, but maybe no balls.
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And I think within us, for us, these things become very important because We live these realities and go climbing, but sometimes when we communicate these to the outside, to people we are negotiating with, I feel we don't abstract out these nuances enough, where to the outside person, a person, a climb is just a climb, and a bolt is just a bolt, and maybe, maybe we need to find like a unified voice which can communicate it.
00:27:34.970 --> 00:27:37.490
these issues in a more, in a simpler language.
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I mean, another thing that I find sometimes amusing is how we get caught up on, on style and what's, what's, what's, what's free climbing and what's free soloing and what's like aided climbing.
00:27:52.890 --> 00:28:01.890
And I just feel like whoever came up with these names, whenever they did, they should have maybe just come up with simpler names.
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Maybe one name could be.
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Just regular climbing, which the rest of us do.
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And one could be a free soloing, which some, some small niche of people engage in.
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And I think there's a need for like, maybe, I think the need to simplify and avoid jargon, like communicating.
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Yeah,
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I mean, I think often as climbers, we tend to fixate on details that are maybe not as significant or even important to folks outside our community.
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I mean, one of the ways that we.
00:28:41.769 --> 00:29:09.940
Historically have gotten in trouble is when there is a schism within the climbing community and rather than solve that issue internally and talk to each other and have a dialogue and come to some resolution internally is when we go outside to external land managers and say, Oh, my little brother hit me, mom.
00:29:11.329 --> 00:29:14.960
That usually doesn't solve the problem, doesn't solve it well.
00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:20.890
And there are a lot of examples, for example, locally, the Pinnacles.
00:29:22.730 --> 00:29:30.430
There was a guy who was doing roots in a style that was not appreciated by some of the locals.
00:29:31.910 --> 00:29:34.569
And actually, both of these two people are now dead.
00:29:36.350 --> 00:29:46.360
But a sort of strong traditional voice in climbing, a guy named Tom Higgins, who I knew both through climbing, but also professionally.
00:29:48.250 --> 00:30:10.265
Rather than address the issue internally, he's We went to the land manager, in this case, the federal land manager at Pinnacles, and the result, I think, did not help us as a climbing community at all, because their response is that they don't care about the distinctions of style, which they see as trivial.
00:30:11.505 --> 00:30:23.170
They're the sort of easy response for land managers to just close an area, or to just prohibit certain kinds of climbing, like say something like no bolts, regardless of how the bolts are placed, or not placed.
00:30:23.799 --> 00:30:36.759
And so I think it's always best and smartest if we can, as a community, try to resolve our issues internally rather than asking somebody else to adjudicate differences for us.
00:30:38.450 --> 00:31:11.029
And time again, whether it's someplace like Pinnacles 25 years ago, or whether it's someplace like Tensleep Canyon much more recently, just a few years ago, it's usually best if we can communicate internally, talk to each other, essentially just be Neuro civilized human adults and come to some resolution internally rather than going outside the climbing community.
00:31:13.309 --> 00:31:15.569
Absolutely, Tom, absolutely.
00:31:15.569 --> 00:31:21.019
We need to be, yeah, we need to unite before we, or at least we should not be.
00:31:22.019 --> 00:31:26.069
Washing our dirty laundry in front of land managers.
00:31:26.769 --> 00:31:30.009
I do want to acknowledge and thank you, Tom.
00:31:30.460 --> 00:31:49.360
Thank you for the amazing work that you've done that at least I have personally benefited from and other people in San Francisco, which is a jailhouse for one, which is the first time I started hearing about the work that you have done to ease access and then other areas in Sonora.
00:31:49.360 --> 00:31:52.880
So thank you for your continued.
00:31:54.505 --> 00:32:06.339
Continued support there and yeah, please continue engaging some of the rest of us who are not quite as Alert and prodigious as you are.
00:32:06.339 --> 00:32:07.799
So thank you for doing that.
00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:08.650
Oh, that's very kind.
00:32:08.700 --> 00:32:12.019
I wanted to, uh, absolutely.
00:32:12.019 --> 00:32:12.490
Thank you.
00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:20.769
You have climbed, you've been climbing Dom and been doing first ascents over the last several decades.
00:32:20.809 --> 00:32:30.519
And I think you are far too humble to likely say this yourself, but you've also been climbing at a fairly high level.
00:32:32.390 --> 00:32:49.500
Even in light of today's higher standards of performance, I believe you, uh, you still climb into 514s and which is a lofty grade in the, I would say elite grade in, in, in sport climbing.
00:32:50.009 --> 00:32:56.230
And then also are able to OnSite and Redpoint, also high levels.
00:32:56.900 --> 00:33:10.779
I would love to actually hear about maybe a couple of Recent climbs or recent ascents that you might be a bit proud of to, to, to kick this off.
00:33:11.460 --> 00:33:20.279
Well, I guess I'd say that people today are pretty darn strong and I'm really not so strong, but I tend to be persistent.
00:33:22.279 --> 00:33:26.960
I mean, my projects, my kids today warm up on.
00:33:28.890 --> 00:33:35.509
So, yeah, I do think that persistence really can get, help you get a lot done.
00:33:37.450 --> 00:33:38.460
What am I psyched about?
00:33:38.460 --> 00:33:45.000
I'm really psyched on something that I've got bolted on the granite in the Sierra right now.
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:48.610
It's, it's a one pitch bolted sport route.
00:33:50.059 --> 00:33:51.319
It's kind of kicking my butt.
00:33:52.850 --> 00:33:54.230
15 bolts long.
00:33:55.410 --> 00:33:57.250
Probably, it's probably not 14a.
00:33:58.210 --> 00:34:01.220
It's probably not 13c.
00:34:01.220 --> 00:34:03.640
It's probably like 13d or 8b.
00:34:06.809 --> 00:34:09.760
really psyched to get back on that when the snow melts.
00:34:09.930 --> 00:34:16.710
But yeah, I mean, it's fun to have goals.
00:34:16.710 --> 00:34:18.570
It's fun, always fun to try to push yourself.
00:34:18.910 --> 00:34:24.300
I don't really think it matters what that level is, as long as like you're pushing yourself.
00:34:24.360 --> 00:34:46.780
Like that's really, it's kind of the same, whether it's, you know, you're trying to, uh, on site 13a or trying to on site like 11c it's really pretty much the same thing and you get the same satisfaction out of it but it is it's certainly fun to try to push yourself at least it's been I quite enjoy that.
00:34:48.740 --> 00:34:50.700
All climbing is fun, really.
00:34:50.760 --> 00:35:00.250
It doesn't, regardless of the difficulty level, it can be super fun just to go out and have mellow cruiser days.
00:35:01.380 --> 00:35:04.019
Do some volume, do some mileage, do some volume.
00:35:04.589 --> 00:35:10.000
And it's also super fun to try to push yourself to break into a new grade.
00:35:12.769 --> 00:35:14.960
I'm trying to do that here in my old age.
00:35:14.980 --> 00:35:16.309
Will I be successful?
00:35:16.329 --> 00:35:17.309
Probably not.
00:35:18.170 --> 00:35:22.380
But you know, I'm still trying to climb harder than I have before.
00:35:25.114 --> 00:35:27.684
Stuff like that will keep you entertained for quite a while.
00:35:28.944 --> 00:35:30.804
Tend to keep you out of trouble generally.
00:35:30.924 --> 00:35:32.505
Or maybe that's getting into trouble.
00:35:33.054 --> 00:35:34.684
I'm not quite sure what the difference is.
00:35:34.684 --> 00:35:37.884
Uh, for sure.
00:35:39.654 --> 00:35:51.815
I think, uh, I mean, as humans, we are, uh, conditioned to, to seek progress and seek improvement, whatever our chosen discipline might be.
00:35:52.235 --> 00:36:05.764
And yes, I also love this about timing that one is usually only competing with, with oneself unless it's actually a competition or you're trying to get ahead of your, ahead of your friend at the cliff.
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