Climbing Business Journal Podcasts

Bryan Pletta founded Stone Age Climbing Gym in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the 1990s. On this episode of the CBJ Podcast, Pletta details what it was like to create the gym, and he expounds on the gym’s progression over the years—ultimately resulting in two current locations, Stone Age North and Stone Age Midtown. Pletta also discusses “gym culture” of the 1990s: How that culture has changed since...

On this episode of The Impact Driver Podcast, Holly Chen—routesetter, journalist, and contributing writer at CBJ—hosts Kasia Pietras, a legendary, OG routesetter. Kasia has been climbing since 1996 and setting since 2003. She has set for almost 100 competitions—91 to be exact—at the time of recording. Kasia is a USAC Level 4 routesetter, SPI and CWI certified, teaches USAC Setting Clinics on occas...

Javier Díaz co-founded a gym, Sierra Elevation , in Mexico with business partner Adrian Hovelman in 2021. Two years later, Sierra Elevation merged with Adamanta , the leading climbing gym chain in Mexico. Packed into that multi-year period was an on-the-ground education for Díaz, as he learned what it took to operate a gym in Mexico, realized the advantages of partnering with a larger entity, and...

Joining Holly Chen on the Impact Driver podcast this week is Claire Kawainui Miller, a crew leader at Touchstone Climbing, USAC Level 2 Routesetter, climbing movement enthusiast and loving mother of two cats. Claire and Holly’s simultaneously fun and serious conversation meanders from gender inequities to ladder fiascos and covers Claire’s most controversial setting opinion, the pervasiveness of i...

Jen Piperno is the Executive Director at Teton Rock Gym in Driggs, Idaho. Teton Rock Gym is unique because it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and that designation frames the gym’s operation, outlook and funding. In this episode, Piperno explains more about what it means for a climbing gym to be a nonprofit business and how such designation can allow a facility to uniquely connect with the local communit...

Routesetting as a shorter setter doesn’t come with a shortage of challenges and frustrations. But that’s far from the full story for Abby Tran, Assistant Headsetter at The Circuit Bouldering Gyms in Portland, Oregon. On this episode of the Impact Driver podcast, unabashedly short setters Abby and Holly Chen discuss some of the benefits that shorter people bring to the setting world; the importance...

Today I talk to Mathieu Ackermann, who is one of the shapers at Flathold , the other creative mastermind there being Manuel Hassler, whose name you will hear mentioned in this episode as well. But back to Mathieu. He is a fascinating subject because his shaping at Flathold combines a love for outdoor climbing with some formal art training and education, and all with an open embrace of what Mathieu...

Today’s guest is John McGowan. I don't even know the single best way to describe John. Entrepreneur, business developer, old school climber but new school visionary, adventurer, all of the above. I will say this: If someone were putting together a list of the most important figures of the climbing gym industry of the past 35 or 40 years, basically as long as there has been some semblance of an Ame...

Today's guests are Foxman McCarthy-James and Justin Wright. Foxman is the Head Setter at Alta Climbing & Fitness and Alta Boulders in Arizona, while Justin is the Director of Routesetting at Edgeworks Climbing & Fitness in Washington. Between the two, they have over 25 years of setting experience and even more climbing experience. Together, they cofounded Vortex Routesetting , a company th...

We are talking industry trade shows today. Specifically, today's guest is Travis Williams, who founded sToKed Climbing with his wife, Kimberly, and more recently founded the Indoor Climbing Expo . More than a trade show, the Expo is a new industry gathering, or festival, that combines routesetting clinics, educational sessions, roundtables, competitions, local crag tours, and of course plenty of n...

Today’s guest is Dean Privett. He's the founder of Iron City Boulders in Pittsburgh and Blue Swan Boulders in Orlando; he's also the president of Moments Climbing , a European gym chain operating three facilities in Finland. Privett gives his take on some of the ways the U.S. climbing gym industry and the European climbing gym industry are similar and different, based on his experience and convers...

In this episode of the CBJ Podcast, we’re chatting with Jean-Marc de la Plante, who is a business leader in the Canadian climbing gym scene. He owns or co-owns several gyms in Canada under the UPLIFY development banner: three Allez Up gyms (Montreal), two Seven Bays Bouldering gyms (Halifax), two BoulderHouse gyms (Victoria), Up The Bloc (Mississauga), The Rock Oasis and Joe Rockhead’s (Toronto)....

Today's guest is Stephanie Myr , a climber of almost a decade and a routesetter for just as long. Myr is currently the head setter at Climb Tacoma in Tacoma, Washington. She began her setting career volunteering at the local YMCA before joining the Climb Tacoma staff. In addition to routesetting, Myr also manages the gym and coaches the youth team. If you're wondering why she sounds so familiar, i...

Retail plays a key role in most gyms’ day-to-day operations, while also being a visual component of the facility, so today's conversation is all about gym retail: what sales strategies work well, what doesn’t work so well; what sells, what doesn't sell. We speak with Brad Werntz, President of the two Boulders climbing gyms in Madison, Wisconsin, both of which have retail components. As a longtime...

Today we sit down with Sam Van Boxtel, who runs the popular Climbers Crag channels on Instagram and YouTube and has teamed up with Tom Randall to manage social media profiles for top climbing brands through their Climbers Crag agency. Van Boxtel has been around the block in the climbing gym industry, having worked on the ground in front desk, routesetting and marketing roles. The intersection of m...

Jackson Scott told his parents that he wanted to open a climbing gym, and although there was a lot of hard work along the way, the end result was Crux Climbing , which is operated and co-owned by Scott and his parents. It was a family dream that became a family reality. Scott talks about that process of starting a family-owned gym in this episode. He also reflects on some of the lessons learned wi...

A couple weeks ago, Dr. Eugen Burtscher and Dr. Volker Schöffl (@volkerschoeffl) made headlines when they resigned from their volunteer positions on the IFSC’s Medical Commission. Dr. Burtscher served as the Chair of the Commission, and Dr. Schöffl was a Commission member for more than a decade. Following their resignations, a lengthy post on Dr. Schöffl’s Instagram page cited repeated “non-acti...

Siege Climbing is a competition series set for and by women, non-binary and gender minorities in the community. With us today is Hannah Barker (pronouns she/her), founder of Siege Climbing. Hannah is deep in the competition setting scene, and she works to mentor and uplift other underrepresented people in the industry. We also have Jiarra Chiang here (pronouns she/he/they), head routesetter and ma...

Wade Desai is the Director of Climbing at ASCEND in the Pittsburgh area. As you'll hear, he certainly loves climbing, but he's also passionate about slacklining and accomplished at it too. Since starting at ASCEND in 2017, he's seen slacklining take off as a programming offering and has been helping lead the charge. Could more climbing gyms offer slacklining? And if so, what are some of the steps...

Jackie Pettitt has been coaching for the past 12 years and specializes in climbing movement, technique, and mental toughness training. Over the years, she has helped athletes reach Nationals, Youth Worlds and other championship events. She also mentors head coaches, helping them become great leaders and establish well-rounded programs. In this episode, Pettitt brought her knowledge of the industry...

Today’s episode features a conversation with attorney Jason Pill. Jason is a longtime climber, and he currently works with the Phelps Dunbar law firm in Tampa, Florida. His main areas of focus tend to be labor and employment law, but he's written articles for CBJ on a wide range of legal topics , including an entire Ask a Lawyer series . In this episode, Jason shares some insights about waivers an...

Today's guest is Louie Anderson, a setter who needs no introduction, but we're going to introduce him anyway for the listeners who may be new to routesetting. Louie has been heavily involved in the U.S. setting industry since its beginning. Setting since 1987, Louie is also a route developer, a hold shaper, and he owns the Ten Sleep Rock Ranch in Wyoming. Nowadays, Louie is known for hosting advan...

Dave Hudson has been involved in climbing business for a long time, specifically on the youth coaching and organizational and competition judging sides of things, and his involvement in all that actually predates much of the youth comp climbing scene we know today. Hudson’s currently the youth manager at First Ascent; he's also the head coach there. In our conversation together, we dove into his j...

In this episode we sit down with routesetter and wildlife biologist Sierra McMurry. They experience obstacles every routesetter experiences, such as navigating fair pay and equitable workloads, but they also navigate obstacles that others might not, like how they take up space as a queer setter and communicate about sensitive topics with colleagues. We discussed the sustainability of routesetting...

It's almost hard to label Garrett because he has done so much. He's been a coach at Team ABC. He's been a routesetter for gyms and for international competitions. He was one of the setters at the Tokyo Olympics, and so he's become this wealth of experience and wisdom as it pertains to, not only the evolution of routesetting, but also just the evolution of the climbing industry. We get into all of...