Ethan Pringle is a 29 year-old professional rock climber who's had immense success in the competition scene as well as on real rock. He made the 2nd ascent of Jumbo Love (5.15b) and has done a few V14s and is working on his first V15 (The Nest). He's an all around strong, determined climber, and I wanted to know what makes him tick.

• How he prepared for Jumbo Love

• Ethan on Jumbo Love (Video)

Matt Helliker is a notable alpinist who's done quite a few first ascents. He's originally from England, but now lives, climbs, and guides in Chamonix, France. As an ice climber, a mixed climber, a trad climber, a sport climber, and a boulderer, I was really interested in knowing how Matt trains to stay strong for it all. You can find out more about him and his first ascents on his athlete page at Patagonia and on his personal site. 

• What winter alpine climbs entail

• Video trailer of Citadel, a film about Matt Helliker and Jon Bracey in Alaska 

I've been hearing more and more about the ketogenic diet in the climbing world. For instance, Dave MacLeod and Neil Gresham have had success with it and I expect that a lot of people will want to try it for themselves.

I researched the diet quite a bit a few years back and then experimented with it on my own. I've helped nutrition clients onboard to a ketogenic diet, and I've talked with a lot of people about the difficulties and successes they've had with it.

It's a really interesting topic, partly because everyone is so different that it may or may not work for you. It didn't work for me (for reasons I'll explain in the episode), but it may work for you. And who knows - if I'd done things differently it may have worked for me.

In this episode, I explain:

What the ketogenic diet is

I'd love to know what your personal experience with it has been, and if you have any questions about it just leave them in the comments below! Thanks for listening :)

David Mason is a British boulderer who's climbed up to V13/14 (King of Limbs in South Africa) and many boulders between V10 and V13. In 2014, he managed to send 20 boulder problems between V11 and V13 during a 17-day trip to Vastervik, Sweden. He's a Senior Coach at The Climbing Works, a gym in Sheffield, England, and he does personal training/coaching for people there. He's known for his relentless training, and that's what we talked about in this interview. 

• Dealing with failure

• Video of David Mason on King of Limbs

• Check out our Route Climbing Training Program for route climbers of all abilities.

Date: January 27th, 2016

Matt Lloyd is a long-time friend of my husband, Seth, having started climbing on the same team in Denver about 15 years ago. He's known for his bold R and X-rated ascents, and now for having started a small gym in Denver called Mountain Strong that's devoted to training for climbing.

What We Talked About

How he prepares for free solos

Matt Lloyd's gym: www.mountainstrongdenver.com

Nina Williams is a boulderer (and budding trad climber) who lives and trains in Boulder, CO. She's climbed V13 and she won the Dark Horse comp in 2015, but she spends most of her energy climbing outdoors and training for that. Being a full-time sponsored climber, she's able to travel often, and she's spent time in Australia, South Africa, Switzerland, Hueco Tanks, and other popular climbing destinations. I sat down with Nina to talk about how she trains, what she eats, her attitude toward climbing, and what it's like training and climbing with Alex Puccio.  

• Why she did highball boulders and why she doesn't anymore

• Nina Williams on Instagram

• Check out our Route Climbing Training Program for route climbers of all abilities.

Dave MacLeod is one of the most famous climbers, having put up many first ascents of sport, boulder, mixed, and trad climbs. Honestly, I'm not going to do him justice with a short introduction of his climbing and career, as he's accomplished so much in his 37 years. So here's his Wikipedia page. Please read it - it's fascinating. 

• His climbing career

• Dave's blog: www.davemacleod.blogspot.com

• Check out our Route Climbing Training Program for route climbers of all abilities.

Tom Randall is one of the infamous Wide Boyz offwidth climbers from Sheffield, England. He's climbed 5.14 offwidth, trad, and sport climbs, and he's a professional climbing trainer as well. He and his team at Lattice Training put hard science and historical data from other climbers into their training plans and robust assessments of their clients. He's pretty nerdy, in the best way possible. 

• His assessment of Seth's climbing strengths and weaknesses

• Lattice Training: www.latticetraining.co.uk

• Check out our Route Climbing Training Program for route climbers of all abilities.

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

Podcast is on iTunes is HERE

Thomasina Pidgeon is a Canadian boulderer - one of the strongest Canadian female climbers, actually, having done over 40 boulders V11 to V12. She's also competed quite a bit, and been quite successful on national and international levels. She does this at the age of 40, all while living out of her van, which she's done since she was 19 years old, and while raising her 9 year-old daughter. 

• Van life and being a mom

• Thomasina's website: www.thomasinapidgeon.blogspot.com

• Check out our Route Climbing Training Program for route climbers of all abilities.

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

Mike Chapman

I was honored and excited to interview the great Steve Bechtel for a second time. Steve is a long-time climber and trainer who knows his stuff when it comes to getting strong, catering to individual training needs, and staying lean, among many other things. Steve runs ClimbStrong.com, a website where he writes articles and training programs for climbers. You can subscribe to the site to get full access to all of his info. He also runs a gym in Lander, WY called Elemental Fitness, where he works with climbers and athletes of all kinds.

• What makes a good climbing trainer

• Steve’s website, Climb Strong at www.climbstrong.com

• Check out our Route Climbing Training Program for route climbers of all abilities.