Ethan Salvo is a Squamish-based climber. He's been climbing just over 7 years and has climbed some of the hardest boulders in North America. Last summer he broke out of his boulderer shell and climbed the Cobra Crack, a notorious 5.14 gear climb.

I had the chance to write some training for him late last year, and we reconnected to talk about his experience trying one of the hardest boulders in Bishop over the winter.

We talked about:

- Personal growth and trying Lucid Dreaming V15

- Doing all the best and hardest climbs in Squamish

- Future projects in Squamish

- Skin management & tactics

- Northwest climbing conditions (kind of a Squamish conditions masterclass)

- Why Ethan doesn't practice flashing

- The ups and downs of dirtbagging

- My general training advice for someone at Ethan's level

0:00:00 Intro

0:03:34 Ethan's trip to Bishop to try Lucid Dreaming

0:15:15 Summoning the try-hard in Bishop vs Squamish

0:23:24 Was Ethan "strong enough" to do Lucid right off the bat?

0:29:01 Is Ethan a physical outlier? (I put my foot in my mouth)

0:34:23 Penrose Step & the insane minutiae of hard grips

0:40:22 Skin management

0:45:09 Living in a 2002 Subaru for months (tips for unwelcome mouse friends)

0:53:00 Ethan's current climbing and upcoming plans

1:05:10 Weather

1:13:51 Maximizing time vs other variables

1:17:25 What to look for on the weather forecast & learning micro-climates

1:22:52 Ethan's flash of Mad Bush V12 (nuts)

1:26:40 Discussion on flashing/onsighting in general

1:34:00 Squamish weather details

1:36:10 Return to Lucid, skin management details

1:45:18 Manufactured condies and bouldering ethics

1:54:43 Strength training suggestions for Ethan

2:02:22 What do good genes get you?

2:03:37 Wrap up