RunOut #127: Sensei and Sensibility: Climb Smarter with Justen Sjong

Armando Menocal was a civil rights lawyer and climber who helped found the Access Fund. It’s safe to say that without Armando’s silent but hugely significant contributions, climbing would look very different today. Sadly, Armando recently died at the age of 83 from cancer. Here today to help memorialize Armando is Armando’s friend and colleague Brady Robinson. Brady is the former Executive Director of the Access Fund. He is a veteran of numerous expeditions, with first ascents in Pakistan, Patagonia, and Peru. Today he works as the director of philanthropy at the Freja Foundation and is working on conservation projects in South America. But first, your hosts listen to another climbing podcast, get redpilled, freak out, and launch into a conspiracy of our own about Jimmy Chin and Sandy Irvine. Something’s afoot on Everest … For today’s final bit, climber / musician Jessica Roki Kilroy is back with Right Here Remix. Roki is a climber and musician from Montana, whose experimental, brooding, emotional folk music incorporates the sounds of the natural world, including those that she captured while on El Cap. Show Notes “Remembering Armando Menocal” on Climbing Cuba Climbing Armando Fund on Access Fund Freyja Foundation The Nugget’s Instagram Remains of Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine believed to have been found on Everest Rokifolk.com Follow Jessica Roki Kilroy on Instagram Jessica Roki Kilroy Bandcamp Jessica Roki Kilroy on Spotify Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

Last year, Becca Steinbrecher broke a foothold while climbing in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and took a 30-foot fall onto a ledge. It was only a couple of months later that Becca woke up and learned what had happened to her that day, including the heroic and miraculous search and rescue operation that navigated a thorny web of very tough decisions in order to get her out of the Black Canyon and to a hospital. Becca recounts the events of that fateful as they were told to her, and shares what her experience has been like living with a traumatic brain injury, and ultimately returning back to the sport she loves. But first, some lighter fare as your curmudgeonly podcast hosts go back for round two of ‘Mudgeon Mania. We roll up our sociologist sleeves and build a taxonomy of different curmudgeons in the climbing world, including: the Hermudgeon, the Newmudgeon, and the Sportmudgeon (all now TM properties of The RunOut podcast but available for a Creative Commons license as long as you support our podcast on Patreon.) Today’s final bit is from Moab-based rock climber Sam Newman, who created spooky, silly climbing-themed spoof of Edgar Allen Poe’s seminal poem, The Raven. Show Notes Climbing.com: Major Accident and Dramatic Rescue in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison YouTube: The Great White Wall: Black Canyon of the Gunnison Friends of the Black Canyon Search and Rescue Team Love Your Brain SOAR Adaptive Adventures High Fives Foundation Craig Hospital Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

Fitz Cahall is the founder of the Dirtbag Diaries, a podcast that’s been downloaded over 18 million times. His new book is “States of Adventure: 30 outdoor adventure stories about finding yourself by getting lost.” But first, childless cat ladies may be a topic for some politicians, but we look at the childless climbers bringing their cats to the crags. Suffice to say, crag dogs are not happy, but at least we have figured out what animal is the best crag companion of all. Today’s final bit comes from Dan Cauthorn’s Seattle-based band Dragontail Peak. Dan climbed Cerro Torre in 1992, which was a major influence on his life, including the inspiration for this song, also called Cerro Torre. Check out Dragontail Peak — links are in Show Notes. Show Notes “States of Adventure: 30 outdoor adventure stories about finding yourself by getting lost” Follow Fitz Cahall on social media Listen to The Dirtbag Diaries Dragontail Peak: Bandcamp // Facebook Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

Hobbs Kessler is a 21-year-old professional runner who ran a 3:34 in the 1500m in his senior year of high school. He has also climbed as hard as 5.14c with an ascent of Southern Smoke in the Red River Gorge. Hobbs just returned from the Paris Olympics, where he competed in both the 800 and 1500m races. But first, your curmudgeonly hosts roll their eyes at one of climbing’s most bitter personas: the climbing curmudgeon. It’s like we’re looking in the mirror! Today’s final bit is a mother-daughter violin performance of the Appalachian Waltz. The musicians behind this composition are my good friend Kate McGinnis, a nurse from Atlanta who is one of the most talented and strong climbers I’ve ever met, and her 13 year old daughter Annie, who is crushing rock climbs just like her mom. Show Notes Follow Hobbs on Instagram “Hobbs Kessler Climbs 5.14+ and Runs a Sub 4-Minute Mile. And He's Just 17.” Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

Amity Warme is a professional rock climber and dietician, who has not only free climbed El Capitan five times, but has done so each time in true ground-up style. This ground-up style is captured in an awesome new film that tells the story Amity and Brent Barghahn’s ground-up free ascent of El Niño via the Pineapple Express Variation on El Capitan. Our conversation ranges from big-wall style and ethics, to her philosophy and approach to nutrition. But first we dive into what the American Alpine Club is calling the greatest access issue in climbing: expensive day passes to climbing gyms. Last, Gunky and Professor Wayne Burleson brings us his livingroom version of the Dead's Franklin's Tower. Show Notes Amity Warme on Instagram Amity Warme website Amity Warme and Brent Barghahn free climb El Niño. Watch Amity climb Book of Hate “Can Climbing Outrun Its Own Elitism With Inclusive Gym Pricing?” on Climbing.com Pay What You Can Toolkit on the AAC

Out #131: Drew Ruana Climbs Hard and Thinks Ahead Drew Ruana started climbing on the slabs of Smith Rock, and has since become one of America’s most prolific boulderers, with over 100 V14 and harder problems ticked. He’s currently a student at the Colorado School of Mines, and thinking ahead of what kind of career he wants in life, and how climbing fits into it all. But first, yr friendly podcast hosts debrief on their Olympic fever, and talk about where Paris soared, and where it fell short. Today’s final bit is from the all-girl punk band Fire Party, who was part of the DC punk scene in the late 1980s. In true punk fashion, the members of Fire Party — including the lead singer, badass climber and friend of the pod Amy Pickering — rejected the label of being an all-girl band. Show Notes Watch Drew Ruana climb the Ice Knife Follow Drew on Instagram Follow Amy Pickering on Instagram

Thomas Huber is our favorite Huber brother—no offense to Alex. He needs little introduction, and is one of the most prolific climbers of the last 30 years thanks to a resume that includes establishing some of the best free climbs on El Capitan and across Europe, to winning the Piolet d’Or for his bold alpine ascents, to being a member of the beloved Stone Monkeys. His new book Freiheit, In the Mountains There is Freedom, is now available in English from DiAngelo. But first, yer hosts consider the question of giving and receiving encouragement while climbing. Why do we feel the need to yell, “You got it!” at people who clearly Do. Not. Have. It.? And is a little peace and silence too much to ask around here? Last but never least, our final bit is another awkward collision between climbing and mainstream media, as the news tries to capture the heroism of a dramatic, life-saving rescue. Show Notes Buy Thomas Huber’s book Follow Thomas Huber on Instagram Read an excerpt from Huber’s book on Evening Sends Follow Jordan Cannon Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

Allyson Gunsallus is a climber and lawyer who serves on the board of the American Alpine Club. She is also the producer and director of Hand Holds, a new film interview series providing resources for climbing parents. Our conversation explores how climbing parents navigate the risks inherent to our sport with the demands of their new identity, not to mention the little person in their lives. But first, we’ve got a tepid Olympic fever and the only cure is more speed climbing. We give the run-down on who to look for in the Olympics, and why it’s only Sam Watson. Last but never least, the great Steph Davis onsights an off-the-couch piano performance of the soundtrack of Interstellar. Show Notes Hand Holds is six free-to-watch episodes featuring interviews with well-known climbers, including Beth Rodden, Majka Burhardt, Eddie and Anna Taylor, Jon and Jess Glassberg, Kris Hampton, and Chris Kalous. Visit handholdsfilm.com for more information. Follow Allyson Gunsallus / Hand Holds on Instagram Follow Steph Davis on Instagram Who is in the Olympics? Watch Sam Watson set the world record Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

Miranda Oakley is an AMGA certified rock climbing guide, who set the record for being the first woman to rope solo the Nose in a day. As a Palestinian-American, she recently made headlines by hanging a political banner on the side of El Cap. We discuss this unlikely nexus between climbing and activism, and imagine how it can go right or wrong. But first, fresh off a week of climbing in America’s new favorite sport crag, Kalous has some observations he wants to share. For our final bit, we’re stoked to share the Salt Lake City progressive rock climber band Better in Color with their track “The Imprisoned One.” Show Notes Follow Miranda Oakley on Instagram Climbers Hang “Stop the Genocide” Banner from El Capitan Movement Lessons from Climbers With Palestine’s Yosemite Banner Hang Better in Color Follow Better in Color on Instagram Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]

Today’s guest is climbing coach Justen Sjong. Justen is known for his first free ascents of Magic Mushroom (VI 5.14a) and The PreMuir (VI 5.13c/d) on El Capitan, and redpoints of 5.14 sport climbs. His approach to improvement in climbing is far more cerebral than most standard training fare, and his intuitions and sensibilities as a coach have helped numerous climbers mine their untapped potential by clearly mental barriers and finding the present. But first, your egotistical hosts talk about the infamous climbing ego: the ways it can hold us back, and how it might be embraced so as to fully excel. Our final bit comes from a late evening in a dusty desert hill, as the campfire embers cooled and all the little boys and girls had already turned in to their sleeping bags. One of our favorite climbers and musicians, Lisa Hathaway, plays us a tune with Chris Kalous on the ukulele. Show Notes Climbing Sensei — Book a coaching session with Justen Follow Justen Sjong on Instagram Training with Justen, Part 2 — Evening Sends Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. [email protected] // [email protected]