Climbing

Tommy: I started climbing soon after I learned to walk. Growing up with a mountain guide father, my talent and passion led me as a teenager to the top of climbing competitions and cutting-edge outdoor routes. In 2000, on a climbing expedition in Kyrgyzstan, my partners and I were captured and held hostage by armed rebels. Miraculously, after six days of captivity, our group managed to free ourselves. Upon returning to the United States and trying to piece together my life, I severed my index finger in a home remodeling accident. Managing to overcome the obstacles life was throwing at me, I came back stronger. My free climbing accomplishments in Yosemite National Park remain unmatched and made my one of the best rock climbers in the world, a perfect contender to be the first person to free climb The Dawn Wall.

Kevin: Like most kids, I grew up climbing ladders, trees and fences, until a visit to my local climbing gym changed my life forever. I steadily improved my climbing and started winning youth national championships. Once I discovered bouldering, I quickly made a name for myself as one of the sport’s best. At my home stomping grounds in the California’s Buttermilks, I made the first ascent of the terrifying Ambrosia, a 15-meter high boulder from which a fall near the top would be catastrophic. While searching to expand into other climbing disciplines, I learned about Tommy Caldwell’s initial forays on the Dawn Wall. Under the mentorship of Tommy, I proved a quick study as I transformed myself into a big wall climber capable of the completing the most continuously difficult route in the world.

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For 22 years, I made my living as a climber and mountain guide. During that time, I focused on being the best alpine climber I could be. My goal was to push the limits of what was possible for myself and build and learn from relationships with those I climbed with.

My biggest personal successes, or "successful" failures, were possible only because of dedicated, consistent, structured training rooted in conventional endurance training methodology. After a serious climbing accident in 2010, I realized that it was time to give back to the community that had supported me and from whom I had learned so much.

To realize this vision of giving back to the community, I started writing about training. That is how the Uphill Athlete community was born. Uphill Athlete's mission is to educate and inspire all mountain athletes (we currently serve over 2 million+ readers annually on our website). And we mean all mountain athletes, the outdoor community has underrepresented women and minorities, and this is something we wish to help change.

My goal for this AMA is to open the discussion to those who want to learn more about alpine climbing and endurance training and associated methodologies within the context of mountain sports. I hope to learn as much from you as you learn from me (or more). Please join me on January 12th, 2023, from 6 am-8 am CST, for this training-focused AMA.

Yours in training - Steve

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Here are some links to our social media:

Update: Thank you for all the great questions. I'm signing off but will check back in the next few days to see if there are any follow-up question on any of these threads. Appreciate all of you who posted and engaged with these discussions. - Steve

Hey guys!

I have a question. I am new to rope climbing (as I did it like 5 times) and been bouldering since this summer. I was never on rocks, just the plastic ones.

Today, I’ve flashed my first 6.1+ and sloppily tried some automats but couldn’t finish them as I was very tired from that grade up I did.

I was on this one automat just having blast. There were these other guys climbing and the belayer told my friend that I am a boulderer.

Can you please explain? Is it good or bad? I’m just confused-

I have a local competition coming up in a few months I'll be competing in the intermediate category for, and I'm wanting to make a funny fake climbing team shirt (I'm not on a team and not even close to being good enough for a sponsor). What brand would be super random and unrelated for a climber to be sponsored by so I can put it on my shirt as a joke. I was thinking like "Pringles" or "Little Debbie" but I wanna see if anyone has any more funny or ironic ideas.

Will post pics of the shirt when it's made.