EP 51: Chris and Heather Weidner — Kneebar Wizardry, Projecting Tips, and Supporting Each Other’s Goals

Chris and Heather Weidner are a hardcore climbing couple, both with many 5.14s under their belt across multiple rock climbing disciplines. We talked about drink counting, New Year resolutions, current injuries, the steps to becoming a kneebar wizard, projecting tips, hard conversations, and balancing climbing goals with maintaining a healthy relationship.  Support on Patreon:  patreon.com/thenuggetclimbing  Show Notes:  http://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/chris-and-heather-weidner  Nuggets:  2:41 – How Heather broke her own finger climbing at Shelf Road, and being injured together  5:52 – Counting drinks  9:24 – New Year resolutions, goal setting, and the Green River trip  13:52 – Heather’s climbing origin story, her background in dance, and the choreography of projecting  18:48 – Chris’s climbing origin story, and being introduced to rock climbing and mountains  21:05 – Living in Boulder and maintaining roots in Vegas  21:50 – The art of becoming a kneebar wizard  29:35 – Philosophy of kneebaring, getting better vs. training, and beta tactics  35:06 – Tinkering with beta  38:35 – How Chris breaks down a new project, and training the rests  41:28 – Kneerbar training exercises  44:04 – How Chris broke his pinkie by kneebaring  45:44 – Sourcing kneepads, Send pads, and kneecap tape explanation   49:45 – Heather’s kneebar beta, and why women can handle pain better than men  51:35 – Go-to shoes for kneebars  53:20 – Adam Ondra is making kneebaring cool again  54:37 – Send pads, leg warmers, and man warmers  57:33 – ‘Gambler’s Fallacy’  1:03:18 – How Chris hurt his shoulder  1:04:38 – Balancing climbing together with climbing with other people  1:09:14 – Chris’s passion for climbing (and ticking boxes), and Heather’s love for projecting  1:13:11 – Expectations going into a hard project, and being ok with not doing all of the moves the first day (or several days)  1:16:12 – ‘Stockboy’s Revenge’  1:18:15 – “Ask Chris what it’s like for him to have Heather outperform him on his project?”  1:19:22 – Heather’s “bullheadedness” in projecting, and focus vs. adaptability  1:21:01 – Hitting rock bottom on ‘China Doll’, and addressing inner demons   1:23:28 – Getting mental coaching from Arno Ilgner, meditation, and therapy  1:25:23 – Heather’s meditation practice, and the flow state of climbing   1:26:53 – Breakdown of ‘China Doll’  1:30:23 – What Chris learned from ‘Gambler’s Fallacy’  1:32:53 – Heather’s mindset when tying in for a project burn, and how Chris’s projecting philosophy has changed  1:35:57 – Learning to adapt, and the power of letting go  1:37:04 – Why Heather is excited about bouldering  1:38:20 – Gratitude  1:41:17 – Kids and hard conversations  1:45:12 – Another decade of improvement