Mark Hudon is a Yosemite legend whose work in the late 1970s and early 1980s helped push big wall climbing into a new free climbing era.Mark Hudon is a Yosemite legend whose work in the late 1970s and early 1980s helped push big wall climbing into a new free climbing era. Often partnered with the equally groundbreaking Max Jones, Mark became known for his bold, ground-up style—blending meticulous preparation with a willingness to test the limits of free climbing on terrain that had previously...

On May 12th, 2026, Bryce and I took our first steps onto the most iconic big wall route in the world—The Nose on El Capitan. Three days later we woke up on the summit of 3,000 feet of vertical granite after a clean, smooth, and successful ascent. This conversation is our debrief. Bryce has done the Nose twice now. I had never set foot on El Cap. The experience gap between us was real, and we talk openly about how that shaped the dynamic—how Bryce became my cheat code for this objective and ho...

Brent Barghahn is a tinkerer first and a climber second and understanding that order tells you a lot about him. Since he was a child Brent saw the world through the lens of design, building gadgets to solve the problems he found along the way. He even had a charge account at his local hardware store that was funded by his parents. That same instinct to build, solve, and design has followed him through his life. He spent five years at Black Diamond as a product designer where he helped shape t...

Zach Dreher started highlining in Flagstaff until climbing came into his life, at which point he made a complete pivot with eyes on big walls. After only a year and a half into his climbing career he began cutting his teeth in Yosemite and created a huge foundation of experience with multiple big wall ascents and NIAD runs; all with the vision of even bigger international objectives. Zach made his living as a masonry worker, kept life simple, lived in a van, and saved until he could buy his f...

If you don't already know who Steph Abegg is, I can almost certainly say that you've used her work. Her detailed route topos, trip reports, and beta overlays appear all over the internet covering climbs from the North Cascades to Red Rocks. For nearly 20 years, she's been quietly building one of the most comprehensive free climbing resources on the internet—not for profit, not for sponsorship, but because she genuinely loves documenting routes and helping people have better days in the mounta...

Philip Setter is an insurance broker and software entrepreneur from Canada who's been climbing for over a decade. He is known to quietly solo some of the gnarliest ice the Canadian Rockies has to offer and has an affinity for chossy, runout, dangerous, and psychologically demanding routes. Phil has a tangible passion and enthusiasm to extract the most out of life. Whether its in business, his partnerships, or in climbing he gives everything 100%. Part of life's meaning for Phil is triumphin...

Drew Brodhead is the Staff Advocacy Coordinator and Anchor Maintenance Coordinator for the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance, one of the most respected local climbing organizations in the country. With 18+ years of climbing experience and SPRAT Level 3 certification, Drew leads a professional anchor maintenance program that rebolts routes across the Wasatch Range April through November. This episode explores what it actually means to professionally maintain climbing infrastructure, the ethics of re...

Paul Rogers is an active duty US Army Special Forces (Green Beret) officer who previously served as the commander of the Special Operations Mountain Warfare Training Center (SOMWTC), the specialized schoolhouse responsible for training all military mountaineers for US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). This episode explores what it actually takes to train elite operators for mountain warfare, why these skills matter in modern combat operations, and the staggering complexity of preparing so...

Jared Wicks has been a rock climber for over 30 years, he is a former SWAT officer, and one of seven full-time commissioned officers on the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Search and Rescue team. Born and raised in Montana, Jared served in the military and spent his off-duty hours climbing at Red Rock—falling so in love with the area that he moved to Las Vegas in 2006 specifically to combine his passion for climbing with a career in law enforcement. After nearly two decades working p...

Justin Sackett, an AMGA guide who googled "hardest hike" in college and ended up on a 20,000-foot peak in Ecuador with zero mountaineering experience. That failure lit a fire that led him from complete beginner to professional guide to running his own guide company at 28—all while training single-mindedly for Everest without supplemental oxygen. This episode explores his rapid progression to being an alpine guide, the mentor who gave him the technical foundation most climbers take years to de...