Evan Hau is a pro climber, but most Americans still don’t know his name. He’s the first Canadian to climb 5.15a, and swears his success comes from consistently honing his strengths (and mostly ignoring his weaknesses). In this episode, we chat about how he balances pushing his limits with his tutoring business, and the process of climbing his first 15a, Sacrifice. We cover the magic of the Bow Valley—the epic limestone crags near Canmore, Alberta—as well as what happens when Adam Ondra comes to town to try to flash your proj. We discuss trying hard on long trips, and his send of Death of Villains last year, his second 15a. Plus, we chat about aging as a climber, with his 40th birthday just around the corner.

Joanne Urioste is a powerhouse in Red Rocks climbing history, and we had her on the podcast to share stories from her recently published memoir, “Collages of Rock & Desire.” Her book is a detailed catalogue of the climbing legacy she shares with her husband Jorge Urioste (she also calls him George sometimes, and does so throughout the episode), including the creation of iconic multi pitch climbs like Epinephrine, Levitation 29, A Dream of Wild Turkeys, and many others. The book is also a detailed account of gear innovations and changing climbing ethics through the ‘70s and 80’s—from swami belts and belay plates, to early adoption of nuts and frontpointing on ice, and adding a run-out bolt here and there to connect discontinuous cracks and make many climbs possible on Red Rocks soaring faces. In the interview, we dive into all of this, plus Joanne and Jorge’s wild love story, managing fear on lead, and climbing as a metaphor for life.

You can find a copy of Joanne Urioste's book on Amazon.

In the 90s, Dave Hume was one of the Red River Gorge's original kid crushers. After climbing became a family hobby Dave Hume got obsessed—and left his own mark on the sport.

In this episode, we talk about what it was like being one of the original Lode Bros, bringing 5.14 to the Red with his ascent of Thanatopsis in 1996, and the one time he beat Chris Sharma in a competition.

He shares the story of how his dad and brother bolted the infamous Breakfast Burrito, one of the Red’s most classic 5.10s, and the sense of discovery of finding new crags like Drive By and Bob Marley.

Plus, we cover the early evolution of the Red from trad to sport climbing, reminisce about Miguel’s before they sold pizza, and how Dave repeated Just Do It, the U.S.’s first 14c, in an insulting few tries. Dive in to hear some fun stories from this Red River Gorge local hero.

***

If you believe conversations like this matter, a donation to the AAC helps us continue sharing stories, insights, and education for the entire climbing community. Donate today at americanalpineclub.org/donate

Russ Clune is a climbing lifer. He came up climbing at the Gunks, traveled around the world to climb with friends and legends like Wolfgang Gullich, and would help establish the iconic Gunks 5.13 Vandals, alongside Jeff Gruenberg, Lynn Hill, and Hugh Herr. He also shares about sending Mantronix, his hardest climb ever, “back when 5.14 was hard.” These days, he’s a keeper of stories from the Gunks and across the world, and has a running record of Gunks climbing history in his head. On this episode, we meander through stories from Russ’s many climbing travels, explore Gunks toproping ethics and the often forgotten tactic of yo-yo climbing, and set the record straight on some of the most iconic cutting edge Gunks ascents from the 70s and 80s.

****

If you believe conversations like this matter, a donation to the AAC helps us continue sharing stories, insights, and education for the entire climbing community. Donate today at americanalpineclub.org/donate

You’re in the thick of it. An accident just happened while you were out climbing, and now you have to decide: do I self-rescue, or do I call for outside help?

In this episode of the podcast, we dive into that moment of decision, and provide a series of questions that you can use as a matrix to help you decide what to do next. Our guests, Accidents Editor Pete Takeda, and IFMGA/AMGA Guide and Search and Rescue volunteer, Jason Antin, weigh in.

Pete reflects on accident reports from ANAC where individuals have self-rescued, called SAR, or had to do a little of both. We break down a few of these case studies to explore what circumstances caused the accident victims to make the decisions they did to initiate rescue.

Then, Jason shares what happens behind the scenes when you call Search and Rescue for help, and how self-rescue techniques can supplement a SAR team’s mission and help SAR get to an injured party faster. Dive in to help prepare yourself, in case you ever find yourself in that moment of decision on how to respond to an accident.

***

If you believe conversations like this matter, a donation to the AAC helps us continue sharing stories, insights, and education for the entire climbing community. Donate today at americanalpineclub.org/donate

In this episode of the podcast, we have adventure writer Owen Clarke on the pod to talk about rage bait, and how it’s showing up in climbing media and culture. Owen Clarke is a prolific writer, who regularly contributes to Summit Journal and Climbing.com, as well as many other media outlets. Recently, he covered rage bait for an article on Climbing.com, where he dove into a case study of the free soloist Lincoln Knowles. Rage bait is content that is intentionally created to elicit strong reactions from people—it’s trolling with intention, in order to drive clicks, comments, and other forms of engagement. Dive in to this episode to hear from this expert about why rage creates engagement, how shock-factor in traditional action sports media lends itself to evolving into rage bait, the unique elements of climbing rage bait, and why its specific to short-from media.

On this episode of the podcast, we chat with Lisa Roderick about her book: A Place Among Giants: 22 Seasons at Denali Base camp. As base camp manager at Denali (also known as Mt McKinley), Lisa was everywhere and doing everything—going out of her way to help climbers even when it wasn’t in her job description. Her job ended up panning out to include: coordinating planes dropping off and picking up climbers and tourists; reporting weather over the radio to nearby pilots maneuvering the Alaska Range; reporting weather to climbers up on Denali without service; and occasionally supporting Denali National Park Rangers in search and rescue efforts. Really only accessible by small planes, the Kahiltna Glacier is its own unique, isolated world—full of inspiration, history-making climbs, risk, worry, fascinating climbing personalities, days sunning on the glacier, and moody weather. Dive into the episode to learn more about Lisa’s decades of experience in one of the most volatile and vibrant climbing hubs on the planet.

In this episode of the podcast, we sit down with AAC Librarian Natalie Siciliano to chat about a fascinating part of the American Alpine Club’s history: the days when you used to have to apply to be a member of the Club. The application membership system lasted for nearly 90 years–which means we have extensive records in our archives that feature the climbing resumes and recommendation letters from thousands of climbing's most fascinating characters. In this episode, we dive into the how and why of this application system, why it got dismantled, and what membership at the Club looks like now. Plus, we take a look at some highlights from the applications of legends like Lynn Hill, Yvon Chouinard, Ichiro Yoshizawa, and more.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes topics of death and loss in the mountains, as well as mention of some specific accidents you may or may not be familiar with. Please take care of yourself when listening.

For this episode of the AAC podcast, we’re having a conversation with therapist Ashlee Langholz about grief, traumatic grief, and how the Climbing Grief Fund (CGF) can support climbers and other mountain athletes who are experiencing loss. While we’ve had a few CGF grant recipients on the podcast in recent years to reflect on their personal journeys with grief, this episode is more about demystifying grief therapy and what Ash has learned throughout the years of professionally supporting people in their grief journey. Plus, our host delves into some of her own personal experiences with the topic.

Do you need mental health services as you grapple with loss and injury related to the mountains and mountain sports? Apply to the Climbing Grief Fund today at americanalpineclub.org/grieffund.

The AAC’s Climbing Grief Fund has a directory of therapists who are specialists in the unique risks, challenges, joys, and euphoria of outdoor recreation, and are informed practitioners who support climbers experiencing grief and trauma. And though the directory is an invaluable resource when people need support in the face of the most intense kinds of grief and tragedy, these counselors also have expertise in other areas, including sports performance psychology. Because it's all connected–just as grief and trauma impacts our relationship to climbing, so too, does working on resilience, self-compassion, and other mental health skills help us excel at our goals in climbing. In this episode, we have CGF therapist and sports psychologist Neal Palles on to chat about how to practice and stack various mental training techniques and concepts on top of each other to build towards peak performance. We periodize our physical training, and according to Palles, we can apply that same concept to mental skills as well. Dive in!