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Review > Thrive > Snaggletooth Slopers and Moonpie Crimps

Based out of Phoenix, Arizona you have a team of three Ryan, Nicholas and Nic and a company that's been around for about a year producing climbing holds... no great surprise there as we're a company that reviews holds.

What can we say about Thrive Climbing LLC that's not been said? Well we could wax lyrical about their shapes which when you look at them pretty well talk for themselves, or we could talk about their mix (which of course we will) or the colors or the fact that it's a small home grown company that's doing a great job... but we won't, we'll let Thrive introduce themselves;

Ryan Wurm; Owner: We started making climbing holds for fun in my garage, and then we realized that we really enjoyed doing it. We thought we had something to contribute to the climbing industry, so we decided to make hold on a larger scale and to see where it will go. After one year of making holds we are expanding our company and product lines. 

We are a small climbing hold manufacturer Based In Phoenix, AZ running out of a tiny little shop. We have been making climbing holds for only one year now. Our product line is very simplistic, with the occasional artistic design. We have big plans for Thrive Climbing as we continue to grow, and we love what we do.


Take that!! Add the fact that they're getting shapes from Tony Reynaldo who shapes and has shaped for more company's that you can actually count on both hands... don't believe us, check this out, that's just a sample of his work:

And that's just a sample of his work and now he's added Thrive to his ever expanding resume and props to Thrive for getting him on-board, it only means that Thrive is going to be a very interesting company to watch in the future.

So we have two sets currently the Snaggletooth slopers which are a pair of slopers that are opposites, sloped on one side that's slightly incut and then the outside that is just sloped out. When we say opposites we mean there is a left hand and right hand version of these holds (why don't more people do this?)

 And the Moonpie Crimps, a set of eight holds that we're using the term 360 degree holds for because (and yes all holds are usable most of the time in 360 degrees) but these give you a little more...

Review > Atomik Climbing > Simple Slopers

So it's been a while eh folks? Between Noodles being just flat out injured (he had ankle surgery on Oct 7th) and everyone just being busy as all hell. This series of reviews have been a long time coming!

What do they say? Without the head the body doesn't function; Noodles is the head and they body stopped for a while... but now he's back, climbing and getting stronger and so we're back

DID YOU HEAR THAT PEOPLE? WE'RE BACK!!!

What do we have planned? Atomik... bit ol slopers
Lets look at what we're kicking off with:

These guys are the XL Simple Slopers and the guys below are the large version:

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The Big Bad Impact Review

So since we've been away for a while! Noodles has been injured and without the head the body cannot function; we're back now and for our first review we're looking at what we've been doing whilst he heals a little more

What could we have planned? Well it's a little impromptu that's for sure because we were planning on doing a hold review... but as Gui and Noodles brought themselves some new toys this week we're going head to head on two things; impactors, yes impactors!!

We're looking at two, the new Dewalt 20v and the Makita 12v:

more new comps

New Companies

F Bomb

New Comps Nov 2013

Enix Peak

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Cheeta / God and Orange

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The Seeming Death of An Ankle Pt2 > Active Ankle Review

Phew, if you didn't read my last post about my ankle you should go and read it: here. It's a heart warming tale of woe with a pinch of pity from myself thrown in for good measure :)

Now you've read that last post read this one... it's part review and update on what's going on with my ankle and one of the reasons reviews are taking so long to get posted.

The last time I wrote about my ankle I was on the brink of getting a MRI. So in early Feb I wandered down to the hospital for something that I thought would be an intrusive procedure ended up being a very quick 20 minute procedure where the scan went well. Results were quick coming and I headed on back to see the doctor again. She basically said that it was swollen and she couldn't see anything :) (Yey technology and huge magnets) So that was useful I guess... and she request I go get a CT scan. Basically another waiting procedure for a few months.... so what's been happening since then?


The fine people at Active Ankle sent me a couple of braces to try. They sent two the T2 and the EZ Lacer; one of them is a solid type of brace and the other one is a sock that laces up... and lets get to the nitty gritty on this. At this point I was still climbing a little and trying to keep up my training; between that and going to physio a few times a week I was on a good track; managing my injury pretty well and feeling OK. Because of the injury I was being very careful with what I climbed, I didn't drop to the mats at all. That was until these braces turned up...

Active Ankle: T2

Sitting on the couch without climbing shoes both of the braces are nice and comfortable, the T2 being the easier and quicker one to get on and off, the EZ lace being something very close to taping your ankle. (Look up taping a sprained ankle... you'll need a few trys to get it right and a whole bunch of tape) Trying both of them side by side it seemed that the T2 felt less secure than the EZ Lace mainly because the EZ Lace is a full on sock that you can lace up as tight as you want.

Active Ankle: EZ Lace

Lets face it the opening on a pair of climbing shoes is waaaay smaller than a pair of running shoes! What's interesting (and why the kind folks at Active Ankle sent me this stuff to review in the first place) is that the EZ lace isn't great in climbing shoes, sure if you're wearing boots to climb a mountiain or to go on a hike the EZ is awesome but it bunches up in climbing shoes and gets in the way... it was kind of a shame because it was the one I was kind of rooting for in all of this mainly because MC Dion had showed me how to tape my ankle properly; The T2 is the bomb in climbing shoes, as it just fits under your heal and is an easy on - off it means you can climb and then when you take off your shoes you can lose the brace for a little bit. Sitting on the couch is all fine and well, but you know us and therefore you know me and despite a few complaints from MC I started climbing a little now and then.

Both braces performed exceptionally well with the T2 being the one I'd actually opt for when climbing. It gives a level of support that I was totally surprised by and allows you to actively use your ankle despite your injury.

So if you have a tendency to roll your ankles, have weak ankles etc then the T2, the T1 or maybe the Volt will actually give you some of the support that you need (I kind of want a Volt so I can compare the T2 against it in a full on review) The only downside of the brace apart from the below is you do end up a little sweatier where the pads support your ankle.

Climbing in a brace is a very strange and yet interesting process. Where I climb people know that I'd injured myself and that I wasn't climbing, for them to see me back on the wall bumbling around, well it seemed like all was well and I was back again. I spent a lot of time pulling up my pant leg and showing them the brace, talking them through it and then explaining that "I wasn't back" I was just trying to keep a base level of climbing fitness so when it was better I wouldn't be back at ground zero and finding a very hard to get back to where I was :) It's also of note that when I was setting there would be corresponding routes close to each other (one harder than the other) that had opposing moves!! People at the gym didn't notice, but what I did was where there was going to be a crux move I'd have a different route that had a handily placed jug in the right place so I always had a "get out" just in case. Why a get out? Despite being able to climb with a brace, and I'll talk about that later, I wasn't really to take any huge falls or impacts on my ankle, mainly because after getting my Tib / Fib back into place (it apparently was slightly out of place) we really didn't want to see any impacts!!

Now any impacts is an interesting thought right? Walking impacts your ankle and of course your body, running, cycling, hell anything that involves your feet is engaging your ankle in some way and here's the catch 22 of any ankle injury. You kind of need to stay off of it, like a lot, let the swelling get down and take care of it; I'm not that kind of person, I was walking on this less than a week after it happened and I climbed on and off without the brace and then always with the brace since. Here's the catch, with an injury like this using it makes it swell, icing it or contrast baths can help the swelling so it's not so bad... I walk to work, sure I work at a desk for Ubisoft but I walk to work, I also ride my bike a bunch so my ankle was never NOT swollen. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Who knows, maybe there will be a study, it wasn't hurting too much so I was doing ok... hell we even got some reviews out there for a second :)

Brace on for water frisbee

Let me get back to climbing in a brace, The EZ Lace, despite being brilliant for a running shoe wasn't my choice for climbing (although it is in my bag and I use it for other activity's), the T2 was (and will always be it seems)... Putting the T2 on is simple, getting your climbing shoe on is simple and then climbing. Climbing is a different matter, to climb something where it's very face on (toes on the wall, no back steps etc) is easy, you don't even notice the brace being there, nothing, nadda... it's when you get into heel hooks and having to torque your toe in pockets that you begin to notice it. Hooking a heel, we all do it, roll over on your toe and crank on up; with the T2 it's a little different to begin with. You don't have all of your range of motion (the brace is there to stop the twist in the ankle) but it also actually limits your movement when doing this move a little, you can't quite roll over your foot as you would normally do. Its the same when you're say back stepping your toe into a pocket, once your foot is there then you're kinda fine, to get there when your ankle is less flexible is tricky but again once you get there you're ok, you need to learn that one of your ankles is a little bit thicker than it was before. What I'm saying is that you need to adapt your climbing style to not work around the brace but to encompass it. You need to adapt on the side that was injured (or still is) and work from there; I've had many CHR people see me climb when I first started with the brace see that I was really favoring my right ankle and powering through moves and making unneeded foot changes (making life harder). BAD BAD BAD!! A little brain power and you can get over this kind of thing, I wanted to work the bad ankle so favoring the good one was just a bad idea.

So a few months pass, my T2 is in my bag at all times. Setting, climbing, skydiving... it's always there, if I'm doing anything that could impact my ankle or twist it it is ALWAYS there. It's like an American Express Card, "Don't leave home without it"

And then... isn't there always a "And then"

Something happened.

I was doing the reset for two days and after my ankle started playing up. Not bad bad, but bad enough... after the event I realized that two days on a ladder was a heavy load; what's worse is that I didn't wear my brace. Something went wrong, after we finished Sunday my ankle was miserable, just pain and not fun at all; this is April time. I'm booked for my CT scan so I take it really easy, don't do anything before I head to the hospital. We have the CT scan and I wait for the next appointment with my Doc.. it's a long time, it's a long wait, this is the point where we see what's really up with my ankle, I sit back and chill for a bit... but I don't really chill do I?

During this time Gui has hooked up with L'Ecurie, it's a local gym that trains people... HA! My trainer is seeing a trainer and when he tells me about it I see that he's become beast on the wall I go to see them and talk through my problems, I tell them that since setting without the brace I've stopped climbing as it hurts and that I'd like to you-know, sort myself out and train but not on the wall for a while, something that will help the ankle a little and keep me in shape without impacting it.

Phew, I never managed to get through one of their programs. This isn't through not trying, they will push you to your max and keep you going. The main aim was low impact exercise on the ankle to get it stronger and to sort out my posture from 26 years of climbing (I have ape shoulders)... it was going well, I was putting time in, working hard, standing straighter... feeling good and then... and then my ankle said no, it wasn't a warning shot across the bows it was a NO. I had to drop some painkillers (which I hate) to even walk, it was so on and off again that I'd even have Chris offer to carry me home because of the look on my face (yeah it was that bad) So that stopped my training at L'Ecurie (BTW: they are the most amazing guys and they really give a shit about what you want to achieve, the only place I've ever really felt like that (in a professional training sense) is when Gui trains me and with my family at Shakti. I cannot say enough good about them, they keep an eye on you, correct you when you're doing something wrong and will work step by step with you to your goals... I'll be back there soon))

I fucked up, the setting and the load on my ankle was too much for it and despite physio we were seeing no progress... and then MC left McGill to be the trainer for the Canadian Hugging Team (Judo (and yeah she is that good!!)) so with holidays and weddings and stuff at McGill I was kind of stuck on my own for a while... no physio and no L'Ecurie... me my brace and no climbing; dark times!!

So where are we at right now? Good question, I'm not climbing. That's where were at and it's heart breaking to say, I miss it, but I still set so others can enjoy my work (brace on of course); I'm riding a bunch but I'm not training at L'Ecurie... but here's the good news, I'm getting surgery in Sept or Oct of this year!! My ankle is going to get cleaned up and fixed and after some physio I should be back on the wall again. Yep, I actually thought about selling my pads and hanging up my spurs and getting back on a rope! I've talked to people about this, I've seriously considered shutting down this site and just not doing what I'm passionate about. Walking away and just not climbing anymore... but now there is hope, with surgery and my brace I should be able to climb and with a little adaption hopefully I should be climbing fit again a year after I hurt myself... but I guess that's another post :)

Now let me get back to the braces... they're kind of the reason why I've been able to climb whilst being injured! If I'm honest the EZ Lace doesn't really work for me, everything it does the T2 does. IF you have an injury that really needs taping then it's the one to go for (just get some different shoes (remember to wear it when trying them on!!)) the T2 is a god send, it fits in your climbing shoe and although you have to learn to adapt to climbing with it on it gives you the confidence to do what you want. Hell I was taking 15 footers off of the wall into the pads not worrying about twisting my ankle and making my injury worse, yes I know I shouldn't have done that but sometimes you've just go to, y'know :P

I'd like to thank Leah Blakemore from Active Ankle for even reading my email and sending me some braces to try out, of course I'd not have known about the braces if it wasn't for MC Dion my athletic trainer from McGill Sports for taking me to the girls volley ball game (want to stand out, be a guy at a girls volley ball game) and showing me that they were using them and doing just fine. I'd also like to thank you guys the readers for reading about why we're slower on reviews etc and for keeping up with us. We're, hell I own the place, I'm sorry for whats happened and for not being able to review holds, I'm coming back and when I do I'm going to be smarter and stronger than before.. I'll just be wearing my Active Ankle T2 brace and i'll kick all your ass'

Again I'm going to point out that this is my experience and that Active Ankle kindly (thank god) sent me some stuff to review. This whole piece is about my injury and what I have learnt through it, with and without a brace.Please listen to your Doctor or sports professional before you do what I did, I listened to them and then started climbing harder than I should of before I should have; I am a dumbass, a climbing dumbass, please take a professionals advice because in all honesty I did re-injure myself; standing on a ladder for hours at a time, my fault for not wearing my brace.. my bad, I'll hold my hands up and say so. This is just what I have learnt. Without the Active Ankle T2 i'd have not been on the wall whilst injured doing what I love - climb, I'd have gone crazy and would have probably have gone insane, it saved my sanity and if I'd have been wiser I'd have worn it when setting and would have been on a much better track than now, I'd still have surgery but I'd still be climbing and reviewing

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Interview > Dave McAllister > Climb Talk Radio

Here's a question... what do John Long, Royal Robbins, Jim Bridwell, Lynn Hill, Daniel Woods, Dave Graham,  Josh Wharton and Alex Johnson all have in common, other than being super famous climbers? Read on and all will (hopefully be revealed)...

A while back Noodles was schmoozing around the interwebs looking for some climbing news and he stumbled upon a link to Climb Talk Radio on youtube.com. What he found was an interview with Ian Powell, you know Ian Powell; the guy who was in Rock & Ice a while back, you know the guy who started E-Grips and has just started a new company called Kilter.

What was super interesting was his interview took place with Clark Shelk, you know the guy who owns Pusher and Revolution; you know the guy who pretty much invented the modern crash pad as you know it!! 

So Ian and Clark on the radio, they're both known to be a little wild and will drop an f-bomb or two sitting infront of a camera being interviewed... how awesome was it? Pretty damn, here's a weee taster :)

Now, we contacted Climb Talk to interview them (an interesting turn of tables for them we're sure) and Dave McAllister was happy enough to drop us a reply to what we wanted to know... enjoy!!

1) Name and job?

Dave McAllister, Co-host ClimbTalk and freelance writer and day-time blue collar dude

2) We stumbled upon Climb Talk Radio... how long has it been going?

I wasn't around for it's inception, but I think we're at about five and a half years now.

3) Tell us a little about how this all started, obviously being in Boulder helps a bunch :)

Mike Brooks, a pretty legendary Boulder climber (he has his own page in the Eldo guidebook for his hundreds of bold first ascents, many free solo), kicked off the show over a half decade ago, after compiling a ton of audio interviews and doing a brief stint on Boulder community television with another co-host.  He's addicted to climbing media, just churns it out like a fiend.  I have no idea what drives him to never miss a show, never miss an event.  Anyway, he burned through a couple co-hosts, the tv show went under and he did a demo for the radio station, and a bit over three years ago he asked me on the show for an interview about my climbing overseas.  We'd known each other for years, and initially I ended up dropping by the shows to record, transcribe and post the suckers on my website.  Eventually I wound up behind the mic.

4) Boulder is full of climbers, how hard is it to get people to come and be on the show?

Obviously getting people like Clark on isn't hard, he probably didn't know where he was :)

Clark may not have known where he was, but that dude is as sharp as a filed tack.  He can definitely drop some industry knowledge that will put your head spinning. 

But, getting guests isn't all that easy, even considering our location.  Back when we were on twice a month, it was way easier with a two week prep time.  Now that we're on every Friday night, it's a stretch.  Although this country is full of amazing climbers and business folks and writers and photographers, they aren't the easiest people to wrangle in for an interview on a college radio station, despite the fact we have an iTunes feed and all of our shows are archived either there or on archive.org.  And it's the only streaming live climbing talk show...ever, I think.  But, people are busy, they're traveling or training or 17 pitches up a project in the Valley.  It's tough to put it all together on a weekly basis, especially when Mike and I have full-time jobs away from the show.

I think the crux of the issue is that Mike and I aren't the most promotion savvy guys.  We don't post a bunch of media all over the internet, we don't hunt for sponsors, we don't make fliers and tee shirts and stickers.  All of this, probably, to our own detriment.  Without that kind of push in today's podcast world, you're going to be cast by the wayside a bit, even though we've had the world's best climbers on numerous times, from interviews with John Long and Royal Robbins and Jim Bridwell and Lynn Hill to Daniel Woods and Dave Graham and Josh Wharton and Alex Johnson.  We've had most of the film guys and a ton of writers, heads of companies, Access Fund guys and gals and a lot of regular folks who bleed and sweat climbing.  But, again, mostly because we don't have time but also because we could give a shit about advertising ourselves, we haven't really cultivated the national audience that a lot of these interviews deserve, especially since they are live, unedited, and unscripted in any way.  I reckon if we did a better job promoting the show and getting it out into the national consciousness, our booking would become less of a crux...

In the end, though, it's a climbing talk show, and even the most random climbers have stories stacked in the back of their brains that would make the average non-climber go pale and shit himself.  When the clock is ticking to the eleventh hour and we don't have a guest, we could always pull some hippy climber out of the Boulder ped mall and ask him his opinion on the banning of marijuana on the World Cup circuit.  Bam.  Hour filled.

5) The format of the show is pretty loose and fancy free, is that on purpose or does it depend upon the guests that are on that evening?

That's actually a pretty good question.  I can't speak for Mike, but I prepare pretty relentlessly for every show, which makes me seem a bit of a cyber stalker to some of our guests.  In other words, I bring pre-written questions to the table.  However, this isn't Charlie Rose in his dark room with note cards and a guest uncomfortably fidgeting on the other side of a ginormous round table.  This is a show that happens in a basement studio in a college town with two climbing dudes manning a pirate ship, of sorts.  We don't try to steer the conversation through a predetermined outline.  Really, if it comes off as NOT an interview, we've done our job.  Speaking for myself again, I don't want to interview people, per se.  I want to have a conversation.  We spend time with every guest before the show in the "lounge," bullshitting and sussing out what lights them up.  We talk to them on the phone or via email before the show.  I've interviewed some of the guests in freelance gigs, so we already have a relationship.  So, hopefully, by the time the red light pops in the studio, we're comfortable and ready to just go into cruise control.  The best interviews are when I get to about 20% of my questions because we're falling down tangential rabbit holes.

Every time Arno Ilgner is on I don't even know what to do with myself.  His philosophies on climbing and mental preparedness fascinate me so much that I lose my mind in the interview and just lean into him with personal questions about where in the hell he cobbled all of this together.  I mean, would you rather hear Arno talking about how to fall correctly or how he fused the teachings of Don Juan from Carlos Castaneda together with Dan Millman's metaphysical take on physical performance and mental balance?  Like, Arno, did you eat peyote in the desert or not?

And Dave Graham.  Gimme a break.  You're wasting your time if you go into an interview with him with more than an entry question.  The dude will riff whether you want him to or not.  Best to embrace the riff.  I mean, really, his riff is probably gonna be better than mine anyway, so sit back and relax and find a way in when you can.

In the end, if it's not loose and freewheeling, it's not the show I want to do.  I think Mike would agree.  Athletes that give us canned answers make me want to scrape out my eyes with a shrimp fork.  Finding the way around those canned answers is the trick, and asking canned questions isn't the road to solving that trick.  A regular, real conversation is.

6) There's obviously you and your co-hort that host the show, you're never seen; are you that ugly or international men of mystery?

Amazingly, we are both incredibly hideous looking AND international men of mystery.

7) You're all climbers, any favorite areas to go climb? Yes we know you have world class bouldering on your doorstep

That's always a rough question, because the areas you're passionate about today are the areas you've dismissed ten years from now (sometimes).  I've been in a bouldering phase for a number of years now, although I came up trad and sport climbing, and I reckon my favorite areas in the States are Bishop and Joe's Valley.  I've been to Bishop every year for the last 12, Joe's about twice a year, and I love 'em ridiculously.  But, for my dollar, having climbed in India and Thailand and pretty much extensively in Asia, the most beautiful place I've ever climbed in is Rocky Mountain National Park.  The setting is friggin' stupefying; alpine lakes, snow covered peaks, deep conifer forests...you really can't beat it.

I mean, I live in Colorado, next to Utah, which is hours from Nevada and California.  I'm spoiled.  And I'm from Iowa, so in the end, it's all gravy.

8) If the weathers crap outside do you go inside? If so where and why?

I prefer the gym to outdoors!  The air conditioning and unsolicited beta and shirtless masses doing their best Sharma scream impressions!  Wait, no.  Yeah, I climb indoors for sure.  Colorado is great, but when it's 95 degrees out and you get off work at 5:00 and don't feel like driving to altitude, it's time to hit up the gym.  I actually live in Denver and commute to the show every Friday night, so my gym sessions are mostly spent in the Denver Bouldering Club.  Eight minutes from my house.  A lot closer than Mt. Evans in rush hour...

9) Anyone coming into the show soon that should be worth a listen?

Well, it's such a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants deal that I rarely know who is coming onto the show until Tuesday or Wednesday.  That's part of the promotional crux.  We recently did some shows with Alex Honnold (while he sat on a portaledge seven pitches up the Nose), a couple former Navy SEALs who have become first ascencsionist bad asses and Access Fund advocates, Layton Kor's climbing partners Steve "Crusher" Bartlett and Bob Culp, had Jason Kehl on last week, and this coming week with USA Climbing Team member and ABC Team coach Garrett Gregor...I seriously have no idea who will be on in the coming weeks.  It's a week by week hustle....

10) Swearing is off of the cards, are there any subjects that don't get talked about?

Oh, fuck yes.  Swearing definitely impacts the show, as folks have to dig down deep to not drop those F or S bombs.  Had we the forum to swear and go blue humor, it would definitely be a spicier show, but there is something to be said about restraint.  Pulling the reins back on language really does nothing to curb the humor and often you find it focuses the guests to hone in more on locution and being succinct.  After all these years, I can barely tell that we aren't allowed to swear.  Still, with all the "shits" that are dropped on the show (Christian Griffith, I'm talking about you)...if the FCC was actually listening we'd be off the air with a huge fine to tow.

To be fair, there's only one F bomb that has ever been dropped.  In my first year we were wrapping up the show with some phone-in interview, let him go, and were doing our outro.  Mike gave me the thumbs up, which I thought signaled that we were free from the air.  But, I noticed the needle on the board was still jumping when I was talking to Mike.

"Motherfucker, what's wrong with this mic!?" I shouted into my microphone.  Mike couldn't have looked any more pale had he just given birth to a fainting goat.

"Aaaaand," he said, "stay tuned for 'Blues till Dawn,'" flipping off our board and falling on his hands.  I haven't cursed once live since then...

11) Any funny stories that you want to relate about having the show?

That's an entire interview unto itself.  When you're doing live radio, shit going sideways is a way of life, not a silly exception you don't quite know how to deal with.  We've had guests bail at the last minute, leaving Mike and I to blather on about gym climbing and chipping for an hour on end.  We've had Chuck Fryberger turn our shows upside down until I thought both Mike and I would go insane.  John Long admitted to doing steroids on our show, for the first time. The co-host that preceded me fell asleep, drunk, his head resting against the foam mic, as Jason Kehl tried to tell a serious story about climbing overseas.  "Is he asleep?" Jason whispered to me.  I looked over and nudged him, pot smoke billowing from his arm, and said, "Yeah, he's tapped out..."  This same guy asked Royal Robbins "what the ledges were like and could he get a tent up there" during his FA assaults in the 60s in Yosemite.  We once had a counselor that said she specialized in climbing therapy show up, with a body guard, who turned out to be a sex therapist.  An hour of talking about why climbers have such soft dicks ensued, in hyperbole.  I almost made a prominent female climber cry on air when asking a question about a friend of hers who had been accused of egregious chipping, which brought the show to a hasty halt.  It's always a crap shoot.  To wit, it's usually exciting as hell.

12) How hard was it for Ian Powell to not swear when you had him on?
That dude is like a politician.  He didn't even come close to swearing!  Perhaps that had something to do with the piece of paper we presented him before the show, which said "NO CURSING" and which he held in his lap the entire hour, occasionally looking down at.  We liked him so much we had him on twice in three weeks, once with Clark and once with Matt Samet.  You asked about swearing earlier, which dovetails into talking about things that can't really be talked about outside of VERY late night radio and on satellite radio.  The deepest veins winding down into drugs and crime, irrevocable and bad decisions and all that.  Had we the opportunity to get down to the heart of the matter with Ian -- despite FCC constrictions -- those shows would have been ten times what they were.  He's got a fascinating story, and I'd love to interview him in my own time.  He's had a helluva rocky road, which he paved himself and entirely owns...  He's also paving his comeback trail, which I have no doubt will be filled with success.

13) How hard was the entire show to set up? Are you in an established studio somewhere or are you in a basement?
We actually work out of a fully functional radio studio on the campus of CU.  It's hot as shit, cramped, full of vinyl and CDs, and it's pretty much heaven.  We get a different time slot every semester, shifting time with college-aged DJs, who look at us like freaks.  Imagine that:  college DJs looking at us like freaks.  The dudes wearing Patagonia ball caps and La Sportiva Boulder shoes and that white dusty shit on their hands...we are the freaks in the studio, which is pretty amazing when considering those hipster college DJs which know more about the underground indie scene than Spin Magazine writers...

14) Any tips for anyone that's thinking about setting something like this up?

Do it.  Find a way.  Here's the thing:  who else is cataloguing these amazing voices in our climbing world?  Who is putting this down in perpetuity, on a weekly basis?  We've been interviewing famous and interesting climbers for over five years, recording and saving all of it, whether people are listening or not.  We do not get paid and we are not sponsored.  Mike and I do it entirely out of love for this sport that has changed our lives and shifted the entire paradigm of how we see the world.  I remember almost fainting when John Long said he dabbled with steroids shortly after he quit climbing professionally.  I've been brought to tears by climbers talking about surviving avalanches in the Himalaya.  I've laughed like a hyena listening to Kelly Cordes, dropped into an existential tailspin listening to Jim Bridwell, been amazed by talking to Honnold half way up the Captain -- on live radio, and boggled by Killian Fischhuber and Anna Stohr's stories of being sponsored by the Austrian military!

The rub is, there is room for more, and we want more.  There are other podcasts out there.  Hell, we had Chris Kalous from the Enormocast as a guest on our show!  He should be our rival, but that's not how it works, not in the climbing world.  We aren't mags fighting for ad space and the best writers.  We are all here to hear stories, a harbor so rich in our sport that it's ridiculous.  Go out and buy Podcasting for Dummies.  Interview your friends.  Like I said before, the most banal climbing stories would still blanche the face of a professional linebacker in the NFL. What we do, hyperbole aside, is truly life and death for the love of scaling a rock.  How ridiculous and awesome is that...

15) Where can people hear you?

radio1190.org every Friday night at 9:00 pm, streaming live.  We also have an iTunes podcast (which is currently under a little reconstruction).  You can also find us on Facebook.  And, if all else fails, www.archive.org searching ClimbTalk will bring you every episode we've ever done.  You can find me there for feedback anytime, as well.

14) Anyone you want to thank?

Mike Brooks, the man with the plan and the fella who kicked this all off.  Also, all those suckers who said "yes" and continue to say "yes" to all our interview requests.  And you, Jeremy, for giving us a bit of space to stretch those promo wings that we don't know how to use!

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THRIVE AND KILTER