Bill Ramsey is a professor of philosophy at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and at 59-years-old, still climbs 5.14. We talked about his coffee addiction, his legendary training days and how he uses the treadwall, replicas, and the fingerboard, his two-part climbing career, favorite articles he’s written, and the crossover between philosophy and climbing.  

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patreon.com/thenuggetclimbing  

Show Notes:  

http://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/bill-ramsey  

Nuggets:  

1:47 – Skipping breakfast, one big meal per day, and red meat  

3:35 – Fueling for a big training day  

4:12 – How Bill’s legendary big training days came to be  

7:20 – Shocking the body, and building the stamina to go all-day   

9:03 – Coffee in bed  

11:02 – Bill’s two-stage climbing career, how he started training for climbing, and self-coaching for the Marine Core Physical Fitness Test  

15:01 – Climbing through the existing routes at the Red River Gorge, his first 5.14, climbing Omaha Beach and Transworld Depravity and playing a roll in the development of the Red and Smith Rock  

19:39 – Feeling sorry for Alan and the wrongest Bill has ever been  

22:32 – Climbing at the columns, Chris Jones, the contrivance rating system (C1-C4), and some of Alan’s one-handed ascents  

26:44 – Focusing on academics and missing climbing and the climbing community  

28:47 – What drew Bill to study philosophy  

32:45 – Moving to Vegas and why Bill has never regretted making the move  

37:20 – How Bill climbed all but one of his 26-27 5.14s after age 40 and   

39:23 – Bill’s warmup and stretching routines  

42:28 – How Bill combines training with projecting  

43:58 – Bills hangboard routine  

45:37 – Replicas, practicing the crux as the warmup, and comparing to gymnastics  

47:51 – How Bill builds his replicas and makes custom holds  

50:43 – Training on the treadwall, and why Bill thinks the treadwall is the most underutilized training tool for route climbers  

55:31 – Targeting route lengths and ARCing with the treadwall  

56:39 – Using the treadwall to work on climbing faster, and keeping a training journal  

58:11 – Similar ingredients in each training day, Bill’s thoughts on training different energy systems, energy system training order, and why Bill doesn’t bother with skill training  

1:01:33 – Training and simulating rest positions  

1:03:07 – Opposition training and why Bill thinks ~85% of your training time should be climbing-specific  

1:05:06 – Fingertip pullups and “finger ups”, and why Bill thinks both are beneficial  

1:07:40 – Long duration (density) hangs  

1:08:48 – An example of one of Bill’s legendary training days  

1:09:35 – Being a local at 6 different crags, and trends and variation that Bill has noticed  

1:12:09 – How Bill thinks about balancing building his route pyramid and quick ticks with big projects, his process on Jumbo Pumping Hate, and climbers as nerds trapped in athlete bodies  

1:17:47 – The hidden secrets that routes have, Apollo 13, and problem solving  

1:20:13 – Tinkering with new beta, and committing to trying 100% every try  

1:23:44 – Bill’s writing, his article defending chipping, ‘The Day I Sent Golden’ and writing the forward to the new Smith Rock guidebook  

1:28:16 – What Bill is most grateful for  

1:29:38 – Crossover between philosophy and climbing  

1:30:24 – ‘The Truth and Lies of Climbing’, climbing Separate Reality, and realizing they weren’t that far off from the top  

1:35:52 – Bill and Alan’s influence on one another, why Bill feels so fortunate for his path through life and climbing, and feeling like Forest Gump  

1:38:52 – Plans for a round 2 interview with Bill and Alan and the welcoming Vegas climbing community