Becoming Human

For over 30 years Stephen Kesting has been practicing martial arts. Stephen is a black belt in various types of martial arts and he is known for helping many Jiu-Jitsu grapplers learn through his online training content at his websites grapplearts.com and beginningbjj.com. Stephen Paddled 1000 miles in his canoe in the Arctic alone. Stephen also serves as a firefighter.

“ I believe continual growth develops as we continually strive and raise our own personal bar.

We create our own barriers. The solution: develop mental strength by changing our mindset about failure.

Our determination along with our experiences from striving-to-achieve our goals will strengthen our self-confidence to not fear failure. “ - Ben Light

This week’s episode features Ben Light: an ultrarunner who raced more than 10 200+ mile races, coach, public speaker, and entrepreneur. Ben and I discuss balancing fatherhood with training and adventure. These interests pull everyone is two different directions at times, we can learn a lot from how other people draw their own lines. A large focus of our conversation was how training, seeking discomfort and accomplishing inherently meaningful goals affect our ability to perform in our daily life; for our children, partners, friends, and work.

Check out Ben on Instagram @ultralight007

In episode 124, Alfred Murillo(@pooh.jitsu) and I(@becominghumanpodcast) talk to Jordan Holy(@Jholy9) about being a competitive black belt in Jiu-Jitsu, owning a Jiu-Jitsu school, overcoming drug abuse in adolescence, lifestyle design and Christianity.

Check out Jordan’s video’s on Jiu-jitsu technique on youtube Holy Grail BJJ

To learn more about Jordan’s school, Holy Grail BJJ go to his website holygrailjiujitsu.com/

Jordan had some epic matches on Phil Schwarts’s tournament, Shugyo

Jordan was the semi-finalist in 2020 Combat Jiu-Jitsu Worlds

To learn more about Shugyo, check out episode #123 featuring Phil Schwarts

Phill Schwartz created the event Shugyo, a submission only Jiu-Jitsu competition with no time limit and Submission Hunters, a youtube series that follows 10th planet portland Jiu-Jitsu players. Phill is a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu under 10th planet head instructor Eddie Bravo, Phill is the owner/instructor of 10th Planet Portland and an entrepreneur.

In this episode, Alfred Murillo and I talk to Phill about what led him to practice Jiu-Jitsu, putting together Shugyo, bustin’ out of the 9 to 5 and more. Phill has the ingenuity and creative drive that has helped him express himself and tie together his diverse skillset to share with his community. What I love about my conversation with Phill is that he spoke on key points that are a powerful reminder of how we all can pursue our ideal lifestyle with a bit of creative thinking, persistence and a lot of dedicated attention.

If you liked this episode, check out the episode with Nathan Orchard

Kyle Mccrohan is an adventurer who loves to climb mountains. Kyle loves and practices a wide array of sports including rock climbing, ski mountaineering, ultra running and ice climbing. Kyle has great writeups on his high route(moving above treeline as much as possible) adventures in the Cascades and Sierras, his extensive personal journals and trip reports(one of my favorites), climbing his dream line up Sloan Peak, and more.

In this episode, Kyle and I talk about his adventures in the Cascades, developing his skillset and mindset, thoughts on risk assessment and commitment, and one of my favorite topics - our sense of meaning and fulfilling our needs. Kyle has some incredible writing at his website, climberkyle.com Towards the end of the episode, Kyle talks about his overall motivations for chasing adventure in the mountains. It is a fascinating study on what compels us to do rituals that go beyond imminent survival and dig deeper into who we are. It is in my observations that a ritual game that meets your personal needs is integral to a life well-lived, whatever that means.

Episode 121 features Chris Weidner’s stories of being mentored in his youth by the legendary climber of the Cascades, Dallas Kloke.

At 17, Chris was listed in a rock climbing directory for Christian climbers. One day, Dallas cold-called Chris form the climbing directory and Dallas arranged an alpine trip with Dallas. Chris was picked up in a rickety VW bus that was driven by none other than the 52-year-old Dallas Kloke. From that trip onward, Dallas and Chris developed a friendship, comradery and eventually it had the sentiments of a father/son relationship. On Chris’s climbing adventures, he felt compelled to write about his experiences. Early on in their climbing adventures, Dallas had encouraged Chris to pursue Chris’s compulsion to write about their trips. Over the years, Dallas and Chris would co-author articles in a local paper and eventually, Chris became a writer who has been published in several magazines like Climbing, HuffPost, The Daily Camera and more.

Through the years, Chris would begin to climb beyond Dallas’s abilities and Chris would then lend his knowledge to help Dallas. It was wild to learn about Dallas and Chris’s dynamics and how they had evolved over their lives. Check out Chris’s new guidebook for boulder canyon in Colorado

This is part 4 of the Dallas Kloke miniseries. Check out Part 1 to learn about Dallas through the eyes of one of his oldest climbing partners, Mark Desvoigne. Check out Part 2 to learn about the legendary climber of the Cascades through the stories of Scott Curtis. Part 3 tells of Dallas through the eyes of an experienced climber who one day would be a father with a very measured balance of family and adventuring into the mountains.

Episode 120 features stories about Dallas Kloke and thoughts on fatherhood from Jason Griffith.

Before Jason had been a father, he would climb with Dallas Kloke - a legendary climber with 50+ years of experience and a father of several children who had all grown up.

Jason shares the stories of his adventures with Dallas and thoughts on children, family and the call to the mountains.

Sometime after Dallas died in a climbing accident in 2010, Jason had his own kids. In our conversation, you can tell Dallas had a large impact on how Jason balanced fatherhood and climbing mountains. What’s more, is that Jason was very measured in his risk assessment in the mountains. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Dallas through Jason, enjoy!

This is part 3 of the Dallas Kloke miniseries. Check out Part 1 to learn about Dallas through the eyes of one of his oldest climbing partners, Mark Desvoigne. Check out Part 2 to learn about the legendary climber of the Cascades through the stories of Scott Curtis.

Episode #119 is part 2 of the Dallas Kloke mini-series. Listen to part 1. This episode features Scott Bingen, a rock climber, and mountaineer of ~ 20 years. Scott met Dallas when Dallas was in his 50’s. It’s interesting how we evolve over our lifetime; our goals change, our ambitions tempered with time. However, despite Dallas’s age, he was still firey hot with more energy than a youthful mountaineer. It’s wild to think that Scott is now in his fifty’s, the same age that Dallas was when Dallas became Scott’s climbing mentor. Dallas’s climbing partners saw all different sides of Dallas, it’s fascinating to unearth a vibrant and complicated man whose mountain adventures spanned decades. Scott share’s his experience learning from and adventuring with Dallas Kloke in mid-life.

This episode is about Dallas Kloke from the perspective of his oldest known climbing partners, Mark DesVoigen.This is going to be a multi-part series exploring Dallas Kloke through the eyes of his friends.

Episode 118 features Mark DesVoigne’s experiences climbing with a prolific adventurer in Washington’s climbing history, Dallas Kloke. Dallas did his best to balance his call to the mountains with his service to his family and community. Dallas died in 2010 in a climbing accident with a cohort of climbers that Dallas met throughout his decades of climbing. Whenever I think of service to family and passion, I often love to observe how people balance the two. As I began rock climbing in Washington, I would read books that described climbing routes. It was there that I would see Dallas’s name as the first ascent on many routes in the cascades. Dallas has put up many routes on Mt Erie, a mountain in the Puget Sound of Washington with some beautiful views of the surrounding islands.

Krissy Moehl has run several adventures up to 100 miles, winning races, setting records and seeing the world. Krissy is the author of, “Running Your First Ultra,” where she provides detailed training plans and stories to help any runner preparing for a race or adventure. Every year, Krissy holds the Chuckanut 50k which is an ultra race on the beautiful trails in the Chuckanuts in Bellingham.

To learn more about Krissy, her books, races and her coaching services go to krissymoehl.com

Check her out on instagram @krissymoehl