The Climbing Majority

Our guest today is not a part of the majority; he is the very definition of a small minority of athletes doing unfathomable feats. Today Kyle and I are sitting down with Jack Kuenzle, a former Navy Seal who grew up in Dallas Texas. Jack attended Yale receiving his B.A before he joined the Navy Seals and completed Basic Underwater Demolition Seals Training (BUDS). He is best known for his pursuit o...

Climbing larger mountains, especially ones that are far away from home… takes a lot of planning, training, logistics, and a little bit of luck. We spend months preparing for what sometimes comes down to a single day on a mountain. So what happens when you're 700 ft from the summit, and you realize touching the top might mean you won’t come back? While that seems like an easy choice…. The weig...

As mountain athletes it's easy to get consumed by our objectives and our drive to continuously improve and get stronger can be draining. It can make us forget that one of the most meaningful parts of the mountains is the people we meet on the way, the bonds we form and the experiences shared. In this conversation we explore what drives a 25 year old who was born and raised in the flat state o...

The cool thing about climbing is that it means something different to everyone. From the weekend warrior trad dad to the dedicated dirtbag, each of us has our own reasons for interacting with the vertical plane. For Brenden, he has always wanted climbing to mean something to him, and for his efforts in the climbing community to mean something to others. With a natural proclivity to bouldering, Bre...

As climbers we all have our own goals and ambitions. In 2019 I had the goal of climbing the tallest mountain in North America. I had just recently completed an ironman and was looking for my next challenge. Life had other plans for me though. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic and a fall that nearly took my life all happened in 2021. Fast forward from 2019 to present day my girlfriend Rae and I...

As a budding trad climber, climbing hard and improving my grades is something I've struggled with the last several years. Time, energy, and life commitments can make it hard to focus on certain goals. As someone who is always looking to improve, sometimes I need help organizing and focusing on the correct things with my limited time. You've probably found yourself in a similar situation?...

As we’ve seen on this podcast, there can be some serious consequences to playing in the mountains. But one thing that seems to stay consistent, is that no matter how traumatic the injury, how devastating the loss, we are always finding our way back to the mountains. Why is that? What calls us back to the activity and environment that caused the pain in the first place? Our guest today is Steph Abe...

Have you ever walked up to a route saying “I can’t do this' ' or “I am going to fall, I just know it”. What happens? Chances are your prediction of the future comes true. Our own internal dialogue, whether negative or positive, shapes our reality. But how do we change our perception of ourselves, become aware of our internal dialogue, and learn to climb psychologically unencumbered? Our...

In today’s episode we sit down with Jacob Urban. Mountain athlete and Founder of The Jackson Hole Outdoor Leadership Institute. Climbing put Jacob on a path and in his words climbing is what “led him to himself”. Now with over 30 years in the industry of Outdoor Education he is here to teach us not only how to survive in the mountains, but how we view ourselves and our relationship with the world...

As an amateur alpinist I love climbing ice, it is such a foreboding medium to climb on. Here one day and gone the next, it is ephemeral in nature. But for anyone who has swung an ice axe into a beautiful line of frozen water, you know the satisfaction that the sport of ice climbing can provide. Our guest today is Philip Setter, Philip is an avid ice climber who has had the opportunity to climb wit...

In our last conversation we sat down with a gentleman by the name of Mike Tagg where talked about the ethics behind climbing on wet rocks and provided a way for us, The Majority, to make better, well informed decisions on when we can climb after a a rain. But, we did not have the chance to do what we normally do on this show, hear Mike’s story, because I don’t know about you but we are always inte...

I don’t know about you, but this winter has been insane for us on the west coast. Record snowfall, rainfall, and constant cold weather. While it does seem like we are finally coming to a close of this long winter as temps are warming up, one thing in my mind that has stuck out the most, and that is the debate of climbing on wet rocks. Wet rocks are a part of nature…but certain kinds of rock become...

 Most of the time we come across successful climbers after their massive accomplishments…the climbs, first ascents, and daring projects that put their name on the map. But rarely do we get to meet or hear about these people before their time. Before their groundbreaking achievements that cast them into the limelight.  Today is one of those days. We get to sit down with a young crusher by the name...

Everyone in their lives experiences suffering, trauma, depressed states and difficult times. Some people experience these events early in life and some later on. But ultimately, suffering and loss are both tragic and a natural part of the human experience. Our guest today reached out to Kyle and I. He is Ben Levoie. Ben had a traumatic car accident which left him badly injured and severely concuss...

As we are sure most of you know accidents happen to the best of us and when you spend enough time in places with severe hazards it's not a question of if, but when. Nevertheless, it is easy to get complacent, and comfortable and that's when things go wrong.  Today, we sit down with IFMGA certified mountain guide Dale Remsberg. We connected with Dale after hearing about an accident he had...

Recently I've been seeking mentorship and guidance to help improve my climbing. This can be a tricky endeavor, finding someone you trust and respect can be challenging. With this in mind, I reached out to a local Ice climbing group in search of such a person. With some amazing luck, I connected with Callum Nelson. Through our conversation, I quickly realized that Callum was an accomplished cl...

One thing I’ve learned about climbing over the years is that you never really know when something might go wrong, that human error and the randomness of nature are something we as climbers can’t really avoid. So instead we prepare ourselves to deal with the unknown, to come equipped with the tools necessary both physical and mental to rescue either ourselves or others when things go wrong. Remembe...

I don't know about you but when I first started climbing..creating a first ascent and developing a route was something my regular climbing partner and I would fantasize about—looking out the car window on long road trips for any rock formation that might have been untouched, a prize yet to be claimed. However, like most of you, I am sure, I was too enthralled in actually climbing to take the...

We are celebrating one year of our podcast and taking a look back at the growth and development of the show. From discussing how to cope with traumatic injuries to interviewing climbing legends like Alan Burgess, we've covered a wide range of topics in the past year. These have included belaying, mental health and addiction, physical therapy, adaptive athletes, fear and risk, and much more. W...

As I am sure all of you are aware. Max and I simultaneously injured ourselves in climbing accidents. After my injury, I started to look at climbing in a completely different way. And one of the main things that struck me was that we never really know whether a piece of trad protection is truly going to hold a fall…. until you fall on it. That didn’t seem very safe to me, how are we supposed to lea...

In this episode, we sit down with Adam Campell. Adam is a man in motion who has dedicated his life to the pursuit of athletics and movement in the mountains. During his years as an athlete, Adam has been a member of five Canadian national teams in the sports of mountain running, ski mountaineering, and the duathlon/triathlon. His deep athletic base and hard work ethic have allowed him to become on...

This episode really represents the foundational purpose of this podcast. That being, to hear climbing stories and chat about climbing topics with fellow recreational climbers. Climbers with full-time jobs, relationships, kids, and lives outside of their world of climbing. Climbing is such an amazing sport and one of the reasons is that you don’t need to climb extremely hard grades or dedicate your...

In our last episode, we sat down with legendary high-altitude climber Alan Burgess and discussed his upbringing and his most notable alpine & super alpine ascents. In this episode, we continue our conversation and dive into his most notable high-altitude climbs including the west ridge of Everest in winter, Dhaulagiri in winter, Annapurna IV in winter, and K2. We talk about the complicated log...

All right, people, today is a special day because we are sitting down with one of the most legendary high alpine climbers of the 20th century. His name is Alan Burgess. Alan first reached out to me after seeing a climbing majority poster at our local climbing gym here in Reno. We met at a coffee shop and I did not know what to expect, having not known who he was or about his stories up to this poi...

As a relatively larger climber, sitting around 200lbs and having gone through recent traumatic injuries… my weight… and my positivity around my own body image have fluctuated a lot. As fellow climbers, I am sure you know the struggle of trying to juggle performance, health, weight gain…or weight loss. In today’s conversation, we discuss a topic that so many of us struggle with. It's the found...