Climbing Business Journal Podcasts

This week on the CBJ Podcast, Scott Rennak sits down with Mike Palmer and Mitch Eadens, co-owners of The Knot gym and Cascade Specialty flooring, to talk all about the grind and unexpected twists that can accompany entrepreneurship in the climbing industry. Before they were gym owners, Mike Palmer was a self-described “climbing hobo” living out of his truck and running early internet-marketing sid...

The Impact Driver Podcast has featured routesetters who are also gym directors, competition chiefs, nonprofit founders and industry veterans. This episode features its own host. After more than three years of putting guests in the hot seat, Holly Chen finally sat down in it herself, getting interviewed by Head Routesetter of the Spot Max Donovan. Chen works a dual career of both routesetter and wr...

Most climbing gyms have youth climbers, whether they’re a part of recreational clubs, elite climbing teams, or hanging around with their parents. Most setters will set for youth climbers one way or another. What happens when a coach turned routesetter decides to merge the two professions? What can one reveal about the other? On this episode of the Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen talks with...

Theresa Morris has practically spent her life on the rock, ever since she started as a kid climbing the Flatirons above Boulder with her uncle before climbing gyms existed. That early love of climbing followed her into a 30-year teaching career at Cherry Creek School District, where she built outdoor education programs, and that work eventually led her to found what would become the American Schol...

Routesetters spend years developing an instinct for what works and what doesn’t. Today’s guest of The Impact Driver Podcast has developed a framework to explain why it works. On this episode of The Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen talks with Salt Lake City-based routesetter and Momentum Climbing Director of Setting Kenny Benson about what it actually means to set with intention. Kenny explai...

In the climbing industry, we talk a lot about diversifying setting teams. Less often do we talk about what it actually takes to lead one with humility and empathy. On this episode of the Impact Driver Podcast, host Holy Chen chats with Altana Elings-Haynie (she/they)—Assistant Routesetting Director at Movement Philadelphia—about team dynamics, leadership, and what it really means to build a settin...

Alice Kao is the CEO, co-founder and driving force behind Sender One, a Southern California climbing gym chain, which she has led over 13 years from a single location in Santa Ana to six gyms—with more on the way. Her path to the climbing industry was anything but conventional: A first-generation immigrant who interned at Lehman Brothers, worked in international toy sales, and discovered climbing...

What does it really mean to push an industry forward without losing sight of the people climbing on your walls? On this episode of the Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen invited Rylan Marshall-Meistrich (he/him) into the studio to hear his answer. Rylan has been climbing since 2004 and setting since 2005, starting out at ROCK’n & JAM’n (now The Spot Thornton), one of Colorado's earliest cl...

In this week’s episode, Scott Rennak interviews Jason Haas, co-founder of G1 Climbing + Fitness. Jason shares his extensive journey in climbing, from his early days on Michigan sandstone and dirtbagging out of a Saturn to climbing on nearly every continent. He reflects on his work as a prolific first ascensionist with over 700 routes, authoring 12 guidebooks, contributing to the early development...

Today’s episode of the Impact Driver Podcast welcomes Zoey Grinstead (she/they), Los Angeles-based routesetter and Queer Crush founder, to the recording studio. In a sport that prides itself on counter-cultural roots and community values, the gap between that identity and lived reality for many climbers is still very much worth talking about. The question of who belongs in routesetting—and who fee...

In this week’s episode, Scott Rennak sits down with Marc Norman, CEO of USA Climbing, who has been in this role for eight years and came to it with unique credentials. Previously, Marc spent two decades at the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, finishing as VP of Sport and Venues—overseeing three Olympic facilities, 300 employees, and the kind of large-scale operations that come with hosting some of...

Today’s guest is Zuoyi (pronounced: Zoe) Phang, a routesetter based in Durham, North Carolina, and a member of the setting team at Triangle Rock Club. Zuoyi began climbing in 2018 after a friend invited her to a gym birthday party and she quickly “fell down the rabbit hold,” climbing nearly every day while balancing long shifts in the service industry. Not long after, she was recruited into routes...

In this episode, Scott Rennak interviews Brett Jessen, the Head of Climbing Environments at Bouldering Project. Brett talks about his extensive journey in the climbing industry, from his early days as a climber and routesetter in the ‘90s to his current role in building cutting-edge climbing gyms. He discusses the evolution of climbing gyms, the design and construction process, and the importance...

Today’s guest is Jeremy Ho, who many  know as JHo, one of the most recognizable names in the U.S. setting community. Jeremy has worked in the climbing industry since 2007, primarily as a routesetter, and has been a National Routesetter with USA Climbing since 2012. He now serves as USAC's National Routesetting Program Manager, helping shape education, pathways, and standards across the country. Pr...

Today’s episode is a rare interview with Anne-Worley Moelter, one of the most accomplished and experienced professionals in the climbing industry. Currently she serves as CEO of Movement Climbing Gyms, the largest chain of climbing gyms in the world. But her start in our industry began over 25 years ago in Colorado, when she was a manager at Boulder’s first full climbing gym. She later co-founded...

Today’s guest brings us back full circle to our first-ever episode of the Impact Driver Podcast, as we welcome Sierra McMurry (they/them) back to the show after two years. Sierra has been climbing for over a decade and routesetting for nearly as long, working at commercial gyms and competitions as a contract setter while balancing life as a PhD candidate in wildlife biology at North Carolina State...

The USA Climbing competition season is well underway and athletes are showing up to qualification events across the country. On this episode of The Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen invites former USAC Routesetting Director Mike Bockino to chat all about competition setting. Mike is someone who needs no introduction, but we’re going to introduce him anyway. Climbing since 1999 and setting com...

Today's episode features an interview with Parker Sims, founder of Gravity Bear, a new bouldering gym built inside a century-old, renovated building in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. Parker talks with host John Burgman about the process it took to bring this ambitious project to life, from managing construction timelines and subcontractors to refining the gym’s vision around a “minimum-viable-product”...

As the routesetting field continues to become more professionalized, so do our standards and expectations. On this episode of The Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen talks with Colorado-based routesetter Daniel Cornella about the state of routesetting education and the elements of good competition sport routes. Dan first discovered climbing thanks to his high school biology teacher, took a deto...

This episode of the Climbing Business Journal podcast is a little historical. There is so much that is often recounted and celebrated related to the heritage and lineage of outdoor climbing, and there is an equally fascinating counterpart to that history with the history of indoor climbing. The wonderful industry that we have now with climbing gyms includes components that are largely unique to th...

On this episode of The Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen sits down with Nickolas Gagliardi to get us thinking about USAC events as routesetters gear up for the upcoming youth competition season. Nick started setting in 2015 in St. Paul, Minnesota. While that beginning was only ten years ago, Nick experienced the industry when many setters were still getting paid by the route and boulder, spec...

Today's podcast episode features an interview with gym founder Eric Hires. Eric is the co-owner of Stone Climbing, the first location of which opened in St. Augustine, Florida, several years ago. Now, there's a second Stone Climbing gym that is quickly approaching its grand opening in Jacksonville, Florida. Eric talks with host John Burgman about the development and the construction of both those...

On this expansive episode of The Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen brings on two setters—Nat Vorel and Mia DePaolis—to talk about paraclimbing and parasetting, diving into fundamentals and tips that any setter can put into practice. Nat Vorel is based in Oklahoma City and has been climbing for ten years, paraclimbing for around five of them. They are a four-time National Champion and have fiv...

On this episode of the Climbing Business Journal Podcast, host John Burgman checks out a new gym, ROQ , that is currently expected to open this fall in Seattle. The gym is quite unique in concept within the climbing gym industry, although somewhat par for the course in the fitness gym industry. Guest Michael Hauss is the founder and CEO of ROQ. The boutique climbing gym will feature high-intensity...

Jesse Safford (they/them) started climbing during college in Montana, but it wasn’t until they moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, that they stumbled upon setting. Now Jesse is the Head Setter at Terra Firma. Jesse is also an avid comp setter, chiefing and setting their annual in-house Rabble Rouser competition at Terra Firma, and has set for Death Moth, Siege the Southeast and Flight of the Phoenix,...