Lynn Hill needs no intro. She’s best known as the individual who completed the first free ascent of the Nose of El Capitan, as well as the first person to free El Cap in a single day. The ascent broke gender barriers and progressed the sport. Today, Lynn is returning to the fundamentals, through a new video series that is designed to help climbers learn how to move as naturally, efficiently, and effectively as possible. We sat down with Lynn in her Boulder home to catch up with one of the sport’s absolute legends.

But first we get in the weeds with Viet Nguyen, a controversial coder responsible for OpenBeta.io, which has the goal of developing climbing’s first open-source route database. We try to unpack what open source means, and why it will become the future of climbing guides and apps.

Our final bit is a climber band called TKTK

Show Notes

Check out The Fundamentals of Climbing by Lynn Hill.

OpenBeta.io

The Future of Climbing Guides Must be Open Source on Evening Sends.

Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcastContact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

Thomas Huber is one of the most accomplished and beloved climbers of all time. Along with his brother Alex, Thomas helped pave the way for modern free climbing on El Capitan with FreeRider, Golden Gate, and host of other first free ascents. He’s a Piolet d’Or recipient for his first ascent with Iwan Wolf of the north pillar of Shivling. And his new book is In Den Bergen ist Freiheit — In the mountains, There is Freedom.

But first, we have a conversation with up-and-coming climber and comedian Bridget Epitropakis from Australia. She’s figured out how to fund her new climbing habit by murdering audiences in laugh clubs in Denver, CO, where she’ll be returning this year for another run of shows.

Last, we finish with “Brothers & Sisters,” the latest single from Thomas Huber’s band, Plastic Surgery Disaster.

Show Notes

Follow Thomas Huber on Facebook.

“In Den Bergen ist Freiheit”

Follow Bridget Epitropakis on Twitter.

Follow Plastic Surgery Disaster on Spotify.

Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcastContact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

New Year, New Us. We connect for the first podcast of 2023, and Chris shares his aspirations of becoming a climbing warrior while Andrew is back on his usual bullshit of planning for another year of truly unimpressive mediocrity.

Hazel Findlay comes to the rescue, with an inspiring conversation about her approach to mental training through her Strong Mind training program. She offers her wisdom on everything from what makes us all afraid to fall (and fail), to why Alex Honnold is, mentally, so special. Hazel reflects on her past year, in which she climbed 9a with Escalamasters, and established two remote big-wall first ascents in Greenland with Honnold, as well as battled lots of injuries. Be sure to check out StrongMind Climbing to register for Flight School, which is launching soon!

Our Final Bit comes from one of the most talented and unsung figures in the climbing and photography world, Celin Serbo, who has somehow found time to compose original music in his free time.

Show Notes

Check out StrongMind Climbing and follow them on Instagram

Of course, follow Hazel Findlay on Insta.

And you may as well follow Celin Serbo too while you’re at it.

Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcastContact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

What’s the best way to belay with a GriGri? How should you build an anchor? Is that CE-certified piece of webbing really strong enough for real-world climbing? The internet has an opinion on this and more! Walk with us through the muck of know-it-alls offering their two cents on everything.

Next, one of our favorite writers Jeff Smooth returns to the show to plug his new book All and Nothing: Inside Free Soloing, and regale us with his own experiences in this darkest of dark arts.

Last but never least, Madeleine Sorkin shares how her experience of sending the hardest route on the Diamond face of Long’s Peak inspired her in more ways than one.

Show Notes

All and Nothing: Inside Free Soloing, available from The Mountaineers or wherever you get books.

Check out episode #21 of The RunOut for our first interview with Jeff Smoot on his last book, Hangdog Days.

Follow Madeleine Sorkin on Instagram

Listen to our bonus interview with Madaleine by joining us on Patreon.

Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcastContact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

We kick it with Alex Honnold, the rock climber who was once on 60 Minutes. He has even done a few other impressive things since then … you know, like free soloing El-fucking-Cap. It’s been a big year for Honnold, from traversing the polar regions of Greenland in search of a 4,000-foot unclimbed sea cliff while doing extreme climate science, to going deep into the pain cave on his epic HURT traverse in Red Rock, to nearly killing Magnus Mitbo, to perhaps, most importantly, becoming a dad. All while expanding his reach as media star. Honnold was gracious enough to come down off his perch and roll around in the muck with us podcasting lowlifes for a candid and fun conversation that traverses all the great things that we love about climbing, proving that he’s still a dirtbag at heart.

To hear an extended cut of our interview with Alex Honnold, please support the show by becoming a Rope Gun on Patreon.

But first, we attend to some unfinished business in the form of arbitrating, litigating, and otherwise conversing about booty. The “crazy girl” from our recent debate about booty’d gear writes in with her side of the story, and we formally submit her complaint into the record. Court’s in session and all the booty is on the line.

Last but not least, we’re honored to share an excerpt from one of our favorite climbing podcasts in the world, the Jam Crack podcast with Niall Grimes. This interview excerpt with the great Ben Moon is not to be missed.

Show Notes

Alex Honnold in Greenland on National Geographic

Alex Honnold’s HURT traverse

Alex Honnold Free Solos with Magnus Mitbo

Part one of the great booty debate, Runout #88

Listen to the whole JamCrack Podcast 112 with Ben Moon

Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast

Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

We’ve got a double-header today with two amazing guests.

Our first guest is Scott Johnston, a coach, trainer, and co-author of Training for the New Alpinism, with over 200,000 copies sold. Scott recently left his perch at Uphill Athlete, along with many of the coaches, to continue their work at Evoke Endurance. We talk to Scott about a healthier approach to training for comprehensive fitness, whether on the rock or in the big mountains.

Next, we speak to Libby Sauter, a family nurse practitioner and trad climber who holds the women’s speed record on the Nose. She set that record in 2014 with Mayan Smith Gobat, clocking a time of 4:43. Libby took a big step back from speed climbing after seeing her dear friend Quinn Brett break her back while trying to beat her record. In the past few years, she’s been trying to start a family with her partner, but has suffered tragic loss many times over through multiple miscarriages. Libby shares the struggle of this journey honestly and openly, with the goal of influencing other female climbers and athletes to think about what it means to have it all.

Our final bit today is some Buddy Spray for friend of the pod Wendy Williams, who, at age 48, just climbed the hardest route of her life.

Show Notes

Connect with Scott Johnston at Evoke Endurance and follow him and his team on Instagram.

Training for the New Alpinism

Libby Sauter on Instagram.

Video: Libby and Mayan break the Nose speed record.

Free (Donation-based) pregnancy and infant loss counseling

Fertility Doctor YouTube

The Turnaway Study: Cost of being denied abortions

Wendy Williams: At 48, I tried everything. Here’s What Helped Me (Finally) Send.

Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast

Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

Last month, an 8-year-old boy and his dad “climbed” El Capitan with the help of two other anonymous climbers who presumably guided the father-son team, fixing all the ropes so they could jug up the wall. We look at the media attention this ascent received, and discuss our concerns over claiming these kinds of records.

Our main guest is a woman who Lynn Hill once called, “the greatest female sport climber” — Katie Brown. Katie has produced a new memoir about her precocious life as a world-class competition and sport climber, as well as her fraught relationship with her mom, her struggles with eating disorders, and how becoming a mom herself has helped her reframe everything.

Our final bit is pulled from the archives of The Davenports with this yacht rock classic cover of Jay Ferguson’s 1977 song Thunder Island. Who’s that on bass, you ask? None other than our own Chris Kalous.

Show Notes

Did an 8-year-old actually climb Yosemite’s El Capitan? Not really. It’s complicated

Father of 8-year-old who ascended El Capitan challenges criticism of his son’s feat

Unraveled: A Climber's Journey through Darkness and Back

Jay Ferguson - Thunder Island (1978 - HD)

Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcastContact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

If there is one thing you can say about this show, it’s that we are the most fair and balanced climbing podcast in the world. Following last episode’s discussion about Yosemite’s proposed overnight permits for big-wall climbers, we are speaking to two guests from the opposite side of the debate: Jesse McGahey is Yosemite National Park’s head climbing ranger. And Timmy O’Neill is a longtime professional athlete, founder of Paradox Sports, and board member of the Yosemite Climbing Association. Our discussion over this important rule-change proposal continues.

But first, we muse about the art of the sandbag. When is it totes aprops to hose your friend, and when is it just downright cruel? And what does it say about YOU when you’re the only climber not getting sandbagged by your peers?

Finally, Lucas Roman returns to the show to read an excerpt from his new book “The Greater Fool: Brad Gobright and the Blinding Shine of Originality.”

Show Notes

Read about the Wilderness Climbing Permits from the NPS

Add your voice to the discussion! Submit your comment about the Wilderness Climbing Permits here by November 16.

Lucas Roman’s new book “The Greater Fool: Brad Gobright and the Blinding Shine of Originality” is available at DiAngelo Publications.

Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcastContact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

The Yosemite National Park is attempting to make its Covid-era rule in which climbers are required to have a permit to spend the night on a big wall permanent—and predictably, climbers aren’t happy about it. We spoke to two of the most active big wall climbers in Yosemite in recent years about the current state of affairs in the Valley: Gena Wood is a former climbing ranger and a veteran of more than 20 ascents of El Cap. And Lance Colley has also worked for the park service, and has completed 29 ascents of El Cap in the past three years.

But first, the hosts catch up after two very different climbing experiences, and discuss the serial chipper on the loose in Utah and determine just who, or what, is to blame.

Finally, “Jefe” (Jeff Jackson) returns to the final bit with some Hawaiian-inflected jams.

Show Notes

Submit your comment on big-wall permits by November!

Follow Lance Colley on Instagram

Follow Gena Wood on Instagram

Watch the Park Service’s virtual town hall explaining their rationale for the permit

James Hornibrook’s Change petition against the permits

Read up on Booz Allen Hamilton in the NYT and again in the NYT.

Evening Sends article on chipping.

Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcastContact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

Who doesn’t love booty? Finding gear on a route can make a climber’s day, but what are the best practices for finding the owner’s gear? Court’s in order for your friendly podcast hosts as they debate the finer points of booty while litigating one listener’s story of being accused of not doing enough to return booty to its “rightful” owner.

Our main guest today is Jeff Jackson, aka “Jefe.” Jeff is easily one of climbing’s most prolific route developers and greatest writers and storytellers. A former editor of Rock and Ice magazine and successful screenplay writer, Jeff currently teaches creative writing at the University of Hawaii Maui College. While living on Maui, Jeff has helped develop hundreds of new rock climbs and crags. Some of the more famous routes of his career, however, are located in Mexico and include El Sendero Luminoso in El Potrero Chico and El Gavilan on La Popa, which happens to be the subject of a new climbing film.

Last and certainly least, “Whose PSSAT is this anyway?” returns for today’s final bit.

Show Notes

Read “Paradox of Paradise,” by Jeff Jackson, which was originally published by Rock and Ice and appeared in Best American Sports Writing 2019.

Read “A Climber’s Ghost Story, Unexplained,” also by Jefe.

Check out the trailer for the new El Gavilan film by Savannah Cummins.

Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcastContact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]