For the Love of Climbing

By Kathy Karlo

What's For the Love of Climbing about?

This is not a climbing podcast. Well, sorta. This is a podcast about choosing vulnerability and talking about our pain—and how we are all really just shining examples of this messy human existence.

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For the Love of Climbing episodes:

12.01.2023
55: A Price Too Big
On October 29, 2019, Michelle Xue and her climbing partner, Jenny Shedden, set off to climb Red Slate Mountain in the Sierra Nevada when they were struck by rockfall and killed. This story is told through the lens of her...
11.01.2023
54: Good Mom, Bad Mom
“Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” Glinda asked Dorothy when she crash-landed in Oz for the first time. The theory of everything is that every element has an opposite. And by this logic, if there are, in...
10.01.2023
53: A Guy Walks Out of a Bar...
Addiction is the kind of topic where judgment is easy, and empathy is hard. Shame is at the core of addiction. It thrives best in secrecy when we feel most alone, and keeps stories like these hidden in the dark.Lucas...
09.01.2023
52: My Friend Kris
This is Jess and Chelsea. They’re both climbers, they both live in Colorado. They both love dogs, and they’re forever inextricably tied together by these very common, uncomplicated things. They’re also forever connected because of this one very complicated big...
08.01.2023
Bonus Episode 51: 40 Years to Freedom (Part 2)
Amin has been climbing for over 23 years, starting in Shiraz, a historical city in Iran. In 2017, he moved to the U.S. to work as a head routesetter, and was shot in a senseless act of violence that critically...
08.01.2023
50: 40 Years to Freedom (Part 1)
Amin has been climbing for over 23 years, starting in Shiraz, a historical city in Iran. In 2017, he moved to the U.S. to work as a head routesetter, and was shot in a senseless act of violence that critically...
07.01.2023
49: Good Grief
There are those who see grief as the final form of love—this one final act that we give to those we’ve lost. It’s also been said that it’s the price we pay for love, which is a funny way to...
06.01.2023
48: We Are the Currents
Civil discourse is a dying art, a complex practice that takes patience and well-rounded perspective to really master. Asking folks to be brave enough to make their convictions vulnerable means really listening, for both sides—it's not a one-way street. Surrounding...
05.01.2023
47: How We Grow
Kids have a lot of questions when someone in their family is sick. But when you don't know to ask, certain things become the norm. In our parents' generation, bipolar disorder wasn't as widely talked about, nor given the compassionate...
04.28.2023
Mini-Episode 11: Climbing Doesn't Change You
Welcome back to the podcast. I’ve always been a huge advocate of change, but not always the good kind. Usually the “shake the snow globe, throw caution to the wind” chaotic kind. Lorca from episode sixteen, season three (https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Qna9nf5ug7sfgp1vZXGVz?si=vfoxtXpWT7aemxuAkONQBQ), sporadically...
04.24.2023
46: Mason’s Retirement Sucks Tour
Welcome back to the podcast. This is season five’s final episode which may or may not be two months late, but what are deadlines if not social constructs that we build to plan and schedule our lives around? And sometimes,...
01.01.2023
45: The Letter
Rebecca spent hours of her childhood, outside on her front lawn, catching caterpillars and fireflies. She was timid, liked to play alone, and was never one to venture off on her own to explore.Growing up, her mom’s addiction to alcohol...
12.01.2022
44: Mission Possible
Lucho grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District with the belief that the only way to survive his neighborhood was with the protection of a gang. So, he did the most logical thing: he joined a gang. Lucho started hanging...
11.01.2022
43: Becoming Katie
If you Google “Katie Brown” on the internet, there’s a Reddit thread called “What Ever Happened to Katie Brown?” and that’s a valid question. Katie wasn’t just a professional climber at the age of thirteen—she didn’t just win the X...
10.01.2022
42: Something's Gotta Give
The world of adaptive sports is changing, and quickly. Ronnie’s disability hasn’t held him back, but social stigmas that are still caught behind in outdated narratives can. And that’s where change comes. It takes a community, and Ronnie asks himself...
09.01.2022
41: Emily “Gwyneth Paltrow Rocked Apple” and She Doesn’t Want a Lemon Baby
Emily miscarried in March of 2021 and she struggled with how the experience felt so shameful. It was her job to keep him alive and growing, after all—right? Except, one of the worst parts about miscarriage is that it isn’t...
08.01.2022
40: Lowest Common Denominator
Kyle destigmatizes substance use and mental health by opening up about his own journey through recovery after a two-decade-long battle with drugs and alcohol that almost took his life in October of 2021.His fear of failure, fear of falling, and...
07.01.2022
39: Where the Redwoods Grow
Savannah lived in a truck for a year in an attempt to pursue a career in adventure photography. She learned that the privilege to electively suffer still comes at a cost. It didn’t give her more time with her aunt,...
06.01.2022
38. Are You Safe There?
Dan always knew he was different growing up, but he didn’t have a name for it. Growing up gay in rural America shaped the way he moved through the world, and it led him to believe that the outdoors wasn’t...
05.01.2022
37. The Arc
Pam didn’t have a lot of tragedy in her life, so she didn’t know about the arc. And as a grieving person, it was hard to look forward to anything, especially on top of the pandemic. But the world started...
04.25.2022
Mini-Episode 10: Hope is Here
Hope isn’t perpetual optimism. It’s an inherent part of being human that requires determination for things to change for the better. We’re back this May with ten new stories from climbers about what hope means to them. Because life can be...
02.01.2022
36: The Climber & the Poet
Climbing can be, er, kinda selfish. We go up, we go down—and then we do it all over again. It's also where Oliver and Alyssa’s interests diverge. For some, that’s a dealbreaker. Is this lifestyle sport so unique that it’s...
01.01.2022
35: The Bipolar Ape
Humans are capable of acts of such bravery but also, acts of such cowardice from one moment to the next. And of course, sometimes we’re going to do terrible things—and sometimes, we’re going to do amazing and beautiful things. For the...
12.01.2021
34: Dreamers Only
Dreams don’t just fall into our heads out of nowhere. They require patience, self-compassion, and the courage to pursue them, regardless of the odds. Debbie credits her resilience to her childhood struggles in Catalonia and learned that sometimes, you have...
11.01.2021
33: From the Inside, Out (Part 2)
This is one transgender climber’s story. And it’s hard to sum up in just a few sentences not just Lor’s identity, but the human being that they are. The impact that they’re having on our community in a meaningful way,...
11.01.2021
32: From the Inside, Out (Part 1)
Lor had to decide. They could go on hating themself, or could be a part of making the world a place that was more healed—and that started with healing themself. This is part one of a two-part story.For the Love...
10.01.2021
31: Sober as F***
What role does excessive boozing in a community of athletes play? And let’s be really clear—this isn’t just the outdoor industry and trade show happy hours. It’s not about climbing culture or the river or ski or mountain biking community,...
09.01.2021
30: The Prince
Phillip Schaal, an elite rock climber and one of the world’s best boulderers at the time, died in 2016 after a severe reaction to a suspicious drug overdose, as told by his mother Eloise. Francois Lebeau described Phillip as an...
08.01.2021
29: Cat Like a Cat
We’re increasingly pressured to parcel ourselves up in various social contexts, but identity is complex. Being transgender is just another way of being human, and the beauty within that is that it can mean whatever you want it to mean. For...
07.01.2021
28: Brittany
In 2017, a forty-foot fall broke Brittany’s L1 vertebrae, sending a piece of bone into her spinal cord. But Brittany has been gritting her way through life long before her accident. Despite her disability, she’s held fast—and what Brittany soon...
06.01.2021
27: A Splash in the Pan
On April 16th, 2019, elite climbers Jess Roskelley, David Lama, and Hansjörg Auer lost their lives in an avalanche climbing Howse Peak in Alberta’s BANFF National Park. The margin of error for alpinism is unnervingly thin, and the truth of...
05.01.2021
26: I’m a Liver, Not a Fighter
Cedar, who was named after a tree, has something called Progressive Familial Intrahepatic Cholestasis, otherwise known as PFIC 2. This devastating genetic disorder affects 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 100,000 live births and, if untreated, can be fatal by...
04.26.2021
Mini-Episode 9: I Did Not Know
How do you measure something that definitively changes your life forever—whether it be for better or worse? Like, what kind of metrics are we supposed to be using for that kinda thing? Is the entire idea of “change” just an...
02.01.2021
25: A Knot Like Infinity
Last September, North Bennett sent me a personal essay and told me that he thought it wasn’t send-y enough for most sports publications, but also a little too climb-y for others. And—that’s where we come in. As it turns out,...
01.01.2021
24: The Process
Just shy of twenty 5.12 free solos, Austin Howell had climbed nineteen unique routes without a rope—one of them without shoes and butt ass naked. In 2019, Austin died free soloing in Linville Gorge, North Carolina. His love for climbing...
12.01.2020
23: Si me muero, me muero
Jack used to do all the things, like surfing and jiu jitsu. But an incomplete spinal cord injury in 2018 changed his plans indefinitely. What’s a little neck fracture at C4 and C5, right? It still hasn’t slowed him down...
11.01.2020
22: The '59 Sound
On March 9th, 2016, Eric was working on linking the crux moves of Moonlight Buttress, one of the most classic test pieces for hard climbing in North America, when he fell from the upper pitches to his death. This is...
10.01.2020
21: Come As You Are
Body positivity isn’t about “fat” versus “skinny”, despite barrages of criticism from armchair philosophers. The body positivity movement is about feeling comfortable in the skin you’re in now, at this very moment. And it’s not just a women’s issue, but...
09.01.2020
20: Sarah
Addiction is a need-hate relationship. It can be a terrible secret, it can frame the very shape of your life. It’s the white noise behind many lives, and everyone’s experience with it is unique. For those who suffer from addiction,...
08.01.2020
19: Light at the End of the Tunnel
Throughout America’s history, hallmarks of our democracy have been largely reserved for cis white people through intentional exclusion of BIPOC people. Connie and Kai Lightner call attention to the role of race and how racism in the outdoor industry, public...
07.01.2020
18: Life Through a Sieve
Going through a traumatic experience is kind of like putting your life through a sieve. In 2009, Kareemah was diagnosed with cancer and underwent an amputation on her left leg below the knee. This episode is about strength in visibility...
06.01.2020
17: What We Know
If you’ve been paying attention to the news, this is what we know: Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd are victims of three separate crimes against black people. Cases like these have raised questions about racial profiling. We still...
05.01.2020
16: A Hunger For Joy
On May 12, 1986, students and teachers from the Oregon Episcopal School Basecamp Program set off to climb Mt. Hood. Three days later, nine of the climbers would die in what’s known as the second deadliest alpine accident in North...
02.02.2020
Mini-Episode 8: How The F*ck Are You? (No, really.)
We’ll be back on May 1st with new episodes. Until then, enjoy a mini-episode while I try to do things like not burn a film festival into the ground (just kidding...I think!) and if you’re in Denver, Colorado March 5th...
01.01.2020
15: A Winter in Pakistan
When you go on a climbing trip, everybody thinks it’s a vacation. And you can’t get PTSD from a vacation, right? Except that a winter in the Himalaya nearly destroyed Ian. He survived unroped crevasse falls, an avalanche, bivouacs in...
12.01.2019
14: Donuts for Savvy (Part 2)
To know Savannah was to love her. Nina and Court loved Savannah to the ends of the earth, and her unexpected death forever changed the climbing community. In their love and grief, Savannah’s parents turned everything that she was into...
11.01.2019
13: Donuts for Savvy (Part 1)
Grief is the one human experience that we all have in common, but there are no words for losing a child. Savannah Buik was 22 years old when she died in a climbing accident at Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin. Nina...
10.01.2019
12: Life, Interrupted
Life is full of interruptions we’re rarely ready for, so the more doctors tried to convince Hans how serious his condition was, the more he denied it. We most commonly associate grief with death, but what about the softer versions...
09.01.2019
11: A Woman Knows Her Place
Women are a lot of things. We’re complex, we’re coffee-fueled, we smell good—sometimes we smell bad. Sometimes we’re hangry. But one thing is certain—we’re hustlers, we are strong, and we are gritty. Welcome back to the second season of For...
08.18.2019
Mini-Episode 7: The Moral of the Story
It's Still (Mostly) Not a Climbing Podcast. We took the summer off to stand fully in our truth, which means sometimes we have to sit in those uncomfortable feelings, too. But we’re back this September with ten new episodes that...

What's For the Love of Climbing about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

For the Love of Climbing episodes:

55: A Price Too Big

54: Good Mom, Bad Mom

53: A Guy Walks Out of a Bar...

52: My Friend Kris

Bonus Episode 51: 40 Years to Freedom (Part 2)

50: 40 Years to Freedom (Part 1)

49: Good Grief

48: We Are the Currents

47: How We Grow

Mini-Episode 11: Climbing Doesn't Change You

46: Mason’s Retirement Sucks Tour

45: The Letter

44: Mission Possible

43: Becoming Katie

42: Something's Gotta Give

41: Emily “Gwyneth Paltrow Rocked Apple” and She Doesn’t Want a Lemon Baby

40: Lowest Common Denominator

39: Where the Redwoods Grow

38. Are You Safe There?

37. The Arc

Mini-Episode 10: Hope is Here

36: The Climber & the Poet

35: The Bipolar Ape

34: Dreamers Only

33: From the Inside, Out (Part 2)

32: From the Inside, Out (Part 1)

31: Sober as F***

30: The Prince

29: Cat Like a Cat

28: Brittany

27: A Splash in the Pan

26: I’m a Liver, Not a Fighter

Mini-Episode 9: I Did Not Know

25: A Knot Like Infinity

24: The Process

23: Si me muero, me muero

22: The '59 Sound

21: Come As You Are

20: Sarah

19: Light at the End of the Tunnel

18: Life Through a Sieve

17: What We Know

16: A Hunger For Joy

Mini-Episode 8: How The F*ck Are You? (No, really.)

15: A Winter in Pakistan

14: Donuts for Savvy (Part 2)

13: Donuts for Savvy (Part 1)

12: Life, Interrupted

11: A Woman Knows Her Place

Mini-Episode 7: The Moral of the Story