The RunOut Podcast

Today’s guest is a climbing icon and legend: the great Beth Rodden. Beth was a youth national comp champ who went on to become one of the greatest female climbers of her time, with important first free ascents of El Cap and single-pitch trad test pieces such as Meltdown, a 5.14c crack that many say is harder and took a decade before it was repeated. Her new book is called A Light Through the Crack...

Josh Wharton is one of America’s top alpine climbers, with light and fast ascents of iconic peaks from Patagonia to Alaska to the Himalaya. His latest first free ascent with Vince Anderson, is called Suerte (5.13a, WI6, M7, 3,500 feet) and it’s located on Jirishanca (20,100 feet) in Peru. This ascent, which took years to “alpine redpoint,” is featured in a new film headlining Reel Rock 18. But fir...

Dean Fidelman is a legendary climbing photographer, whose body of work and portraitures have come as close to capturing the elusive soul of our sport as any photographer ever has. He’s perhaps best known for his Stone Nudes series of fine-art black-and-white bouldering photographs, but his career first began as a 16 year old kid with a camera, documenting the Stone Masters era of Yosemite and all...

Colorado Climber Get Goin’ from his EP Get Goin’ https://open.spotify.com/album/3rZ3LOjSIw92djPAPerMkG?si=wUR1_MyuQ12mJjrLYlHn_Q

Alex Waterhouse and Billy Ridal are both 26 years old, from Sheffield, England, and have been competing on plastic since they were 12. But once slapping plastic lost its allure, these two climbers found themselves dreaming of adventure. And adventure they found, as they spent a month fumbling their way into the world of big-wall climbing during a month long trip to Yosemite National Park earlier t...

Mary Catherine Eden is probably best known for popular Instagram account @tradprincess, but she’s far more than just another online influencer. She’s recently ticked one of the hardest crack climbs in the country, Black Mamba (5.14b), joining a small group of women, if not people of any flavor, who have climbed 5.14 on gear. We talk about her love of crack climbing, progression, “eating her veggie...

Jakob Schubert is a four-time World Champion, an Olympic bronze medalist, and he has more IFSC gold medals than any other male competitor. He’s also sent some of the hardest routes in the world, including, most recently, a first ascent of Project B.I.G. in Flatanger, which he rated 9c, making it only the third route ever to be given this grade. Our interview with Jakob takes us behind the scenes o...

Kris Hampton is the brains and brawn behind Power Company Climbing and the cohost of the podcast by the same name. His insatiable love of creating new things, whether that’s training plans for climbers or music, has led him to launch Written in Stone, a new climbing history podcast looking at monumental moments in our sport, decade by decade. But first, we respond to a couple of show listeners who...

RunOut #113: How a Race to Get a Climbing Record Turned Deadly This fall, two American women found themselves in an unlikely race to reach the summit of Shishapangma, and thereby earn themselves a place in the record books as being the first American woman to have done all 14 8,000-meter peaks (with oxygen). Unfortunately, both Anna Gutu and Gina Rzucidło, alongside their respective Sherpa guides...

Our guest today is Rich Johnston, the president and owner of Vertical World in Seattle, known as America’s First Climbing Gym (TM). He’s also the founding chairman of the Climbing Wall Association, where he served for 16 years, and a board member on The Mountaineers. Rich tells us about the earliest days of the climbing-wall industry, why he never thought climbing gyms would succeed, and how impor...

Today’s guest is Graham Zimmerman, an alpinist, a recipient of the Piolet d’Or and a director at Protect Our Winters, a climate-advocacy group. His new book is “A Fine Line: Searching for Balance Among Mountains.” But first, cave raves are all fun and games until your favorite crag gets shut down. Your favorite climbing podcaster hosts try to figure out where their personal boundaries lie for self...

Today, we’re releasing one of our bonus episodes from our Rope Gun feed on Patreon because the content is a PSA and super important for as many climbers out there to hear. Our conversation is with Alannah Yip, an Olympic sport climber from Canada with an incredible career. This summer, Alannah started a conversation about the prevalence of eating disorders in high-end comp climbing, fears ab...

Our guest today is the esteemed Russ Clune, a climbing legend of the Shawangunks in New York, where he has established notable first ascents and from where he bases in between trips to dozens of countries and crags around the world. His new book is “The Lifer: Rock Climbing Adventures In The Gunks And Beyond.” But first, yr hosts try to figure out why everyone hates trustfunding dirtbags so much....

Our guest today is a genuine legend and one of the pioneers of big-wall climbing. John Middendorf is a mechanical engineer, gear designer, researcher, writer, and teacher based in Tasmania. His climbing accomplishments pushed the limits of big-walls, adventure, and exploration throughout the 1980s and ‘90s. Most notably, he’s responsible for the first ascent of the East Face of Great Trango Tower,...

Our guest today is one of the all-time great alpinists of our time. Colin Haley joins to the show in the wake of an uneventful trip to Alaska, and explains why such missions are part of a healthy approach to pursuing a lifetime of adventure and alpine climbing in the mountains. But first, your hosts return from separate vacations and commiserate over how easy and glamorous it is to climb abroad wi...

Our guest today is Albert Ok, a YouTuber and speed-climbing coach. Albert goes by the handle Professor Ok, and creates content that breaks down movement. He tries to break climbing down into its most fundamental parts in order to best understand it. He’s also a talented speed climber, boulderer, and all-around athlete. But first, Andrew reports on a little local controversy from Chamonix regarding...

This episode is a proper mix of silly and seriousness, as we talk to Mike Penney, director of the Ontario Alliance of Climbers, who is currently pushing back on the government’s regulations threatening access to 75% of Ontario rock climbing, and even going so far as to actively chop bolts from cliffs. This a big deal, and worthy of the climbing community’s attention and energy, even if you’re not...

Luke Mehall is the publisher of The Climbing Zine, and the the creator of the Dirtbag State of Mind podcast. After America’s two most prominent climbing magazines either went under or went digital, the Climbing Zine now stands as an unlikely last remaining print vehicle for telling stories about rock climbing and dirtbag culture. We get into the future of print, the struggle in finding people will...

Savannah Cummins is a filmmaker, photographer, and all-around professional climber. We talk about some of her wildest expeditions to the farthest corners of the planet, dealing with injuries and medical malpractice, losing her partner in a tragic and freak accident in Mexico, and recently discovering a diagnosis that put all the pieces together for her. But first, we try to keep our heads above wa...

In an era of remote work and $200K Sprinter Vans, it may seem like the archetypal dirtbag of climbing lore is obsolete if not dead. Cedar Wright is on a mission, however, to keep it alive through a new program he’s starting to try to encourage young, stoked climbers to make the most of life by living on the least. But first, we dive into how Starlink is changing the climbing experience by keeping...

Our guest today is Christian Beckwith, a writer, podcaster, and co-founder of Alpinist Magazine and the Teton Climbers Coalition. His latest project is 90 Pound Rucksack, a historical podcast exploring the dawn of outdoor recreation in America through the story of the 10th Mountain Division. But first, the boys catch up after a run-in with some paparazzi at the Moab grocery store, and a few trips...

The Protect America’s Rock Climbing Act (H.R. 1380) is a bipartisan collaboration before Congress that aims to establish rock climbing as a legitimate activity across all federal lands, and direct relevant federal departments to include language in their management policy that addresses rock climbing and the placement and maintenance of fixed anchors. What does this bill say and what does its impl...

For our hundredth episode (has another podcast ever reached such a milestone?) we hosted a live conversation and Q&A with Tommy Caldwell for all of our RopeGuns, our supporters on Patreon . Join us if you’d like to support the show and be invited to our next live broadcast, whenever that is. Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, an...

Is climbing photography dead? In an era in which everyone has an iPhone and now generative AI can create realistic photographic “content,” what role does a professional photographer play in 2023? We talk about these issues and more with one of the most successful climbing photographers and directors of all time, Corey Rich. Corey isn’t just a talented creative, he’s a smart and savvy entrepreneur...

Majka Burhardt is a professional climber, author, and mother of twins. Her new book is More: Life on the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood. We talk to Majka about the struggle to find that elusive balance while holding out hope for having it all. But first, Chris gets the bad news that he’s been fired from the show, and will be replaced with a host who has more followers on Instagram. (We will repo...