5/28/24
Erin is a boulder and lead climber from team GB who has been having a stellar 2024 season so far, making finals for boulder in Keqiao, lead in Wujiang, and getting bronze in Shanghai OQS! In this episode, we’ll get some insight into how she seemed to rise out of nowhere, her brutal off-season training, we’ll learn a bit about team GB, and stay for the end to hear about where the Erin McBeast nickname came from.
5/14/24
Eddie is an ex-IFSC photographer, who worked with them from 2014-2020. In this episode, we’ll get his thoughts on the ethics and purpose of photojournalism, hear about the chaos behind the scenes traveling around for world cups, and discuss ideas on how to get athletes better paid.
4/22/24
Chloé is a boulder and lead climber competing in the world cup circuit for the Belgian team! This is my first time talking to a Belgian climber, so in this episode we’ll learn a lot about their fairly newly established national team and how funding works, and we also talk about body image with being a more muscular climber, as well as the difficulties that come with being a female climber.
4/1/24
Charlie is a broadcaster and writer who preceded Matt Groom as an IFSC commentator and EpicTV host. In this episode, we’ll learn about his rough start to IFSC commentating in 2016, ways that he thinks the IFSC could improve competitions, and get some insight into what it’s like traveling around with athletes. He also shares his unique story about traveling to North Korea!
3/18/24
Cloe is a French/American boulderer who has competed for team USA in the international youth and elite circuit. In this episode, we’ll learn about how she “accidentally” ended up competing in lead world cups, the difficulties of trying to make it onto a highly competitive US national team, and we give some love to good old gym climbing and plastic pulling!
3/5/24
Tyler is a fellow competition climbing nerd and podcaster, who has been involved in the space much longer than I have, and you may be familiar with his channel, Plastic Weekly! In this episode, we’ll talk about what it’s like MCing at a world cup, commiserate on the hardships that come with climbing podcasting, go over some climbing HOT TAKES, and talk about the upcoming 2024 season!
2/20/24
Cody is the USA national chief routesetter, and in the 2023 IFSC season he had the opportunity to set boulders in Hachioji, Prague, Innsbruck, and the Bern world champs! In this episode, we’ll watch him read Youtube hate comments, and we’ll learn about the differences between IFSC vs USA vs commercial routesetting, as well as hear about a crazy cool gym that he will be opening up soon.
2/5/24
Carlie is the FIRST female chief setter at an IFSC world championship, where she led a team of 5 to set the world paraclimbing championships in Bern 2023! She has been climbing for over 20 years and setting for almost just as long, so she has a lot of experience. In this episode, we’ll learn about all the things you have to keep in mind when setting world championship routes for paraclimbers, what it’s like in the routesetting scene as a female setter, and what it’s like owning a climbing gym.
1/22/24
Anita Aggarwal and Christiane Luttikhuizen are paraclimbers who have competed in world cups as part of the RP3 sports class. RP3 is a classification for limited reach, power or stability. In this episode, we’ll learn about what it’s like climbing with a disability, the difficulties dealing with classification and class merging, whether or not the IFSC does a good job with accommodations, and the possibility of joining the Paralympics in LA 2028.
1/8/24
Stasa is a boulder and lead climber (specializing in boulder) from Serbia who has been competing in international cups since 2011 as a youth climber. Most recently, she took the silver medal in the Laval European Qualifiers. In this episode, we’ll learn about Serbian funding in the sport and OQS, we’ll get a glimpse into what bouldering isolation is like, hear some tales from the commentary booth, and hear her reflect on the 2023 season.
