PODCAST · sports
Climbing Gold
by Duct Tape Then Beer
When climbing was a fringe sport, the epic tales of achievement were told around the campfire. As the sport continues to grow, Alex Honnold and co-host Fitz Cahall grab the mic to share stories from the people who define climbing by pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo of the previous generation. Watch full length episodes at https://dub.sh/CGYouTube
Episodes
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Christina Koch: The Astronaut Climber
Christina Koch made history when she became the first woman to travel around the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis II mission. Her path to space began with climbing. We find out how the lessons learned in the vertical carried through to her journey as an astronaut. Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube...
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Adrian Ballinger: The Future of Everest
Guide, climber and ski mountaineer Adrian Ballinger’s life centered around the world’s biggest mountains. His company pioneered new tactics and Adrian helped bring the mountain to a new generation via social apps. Climbing big mountains may seem like a well trodden path these days, but when…
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The Last Dirtbag
Passion before comfort. It’s arguably the defining ethos of dirtbag culture. While there is handwringing and consternation in the online world about whether climbing has lost its way from its origins in Camp Four, we sit down with James Lucas and Josh McCoy to put an end to the speculation that…
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Do Grades Matter?
Grades. Love them or hate them, they’re part of our sport. Today, we sit down with Summit Journal’s Owen Clarke, coach Juliet Hammer and professional climber Jonathan Siegrist to talk Darth Grader, what holds us back and how to break through. Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors...
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Jan Conn: Catching Pinecones
Who was the first dirtbag? In collaboration with filmmakers Chad Heddleston and Parker Michels-Boyce, we go back in time to meet Jan Conn. Jan and Herb Conn took what might have been the first climbing road trip, created one of the first climbing magazines and films and pioneered first ascents...
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Palestinian Climbers
Climbing feels like freedom. It’s a sentiment that most of us can relate to. In the midst of war and violence in the Middle East, we return to the climbers of Resistance Climbing and learn how they’ve kept finding joy and hope even as the walls close in. We talk with Asia Zughaiar, Faris Abu Gosh...
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Jordan Cannon: A Place In History
What’s the Venn diagram on Indiana Jones, El Cap and climbing history? Jordan Cannon. Jordan walks us down the path from hyper-stoked teenager to professional climber and El Cap ace. Arguably, it’s what Jordan’s done away from the wall that’s been his most recognizable contribution to our sport....
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Cheat Code: Tanner Wanish and Michael Vaill
Michael Vaill and Tanner Wanish found the cheat code to adventure climbing – each other. Since they linked up on Mountain Project, it’s looked like they’ve been playing the climbing game on easy mode. We dive into one of the most incredible partnerships we’ve ever encountered. Watch Climbing Gold...
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Pete Whittaker: Beyond Wide
Pete Whittaker may have captured climbing’s hearts through his and fellow Wide Boy Tom Randall’s quest to complete the hardest offwidth on the planet, but he’s also quietly become one of the best traditional climbers of his generation. After the offwidth roundtable, we knew we had more to talk...
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Wide Ponies and Offwidths
Offwidths – for most climbers they are a necessary evil, but for a fringe fraction, hard, often inverted offwidth climbing is the main attraction. We talk with offwidth climbers Sam MacIlwaine, associate editor for Climbing Magazine, and Pete Whittaker of Wide Boyz fame to discuss the dark art of...
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Will Moss: Happy Little Accident
Last year, Will Moss became the first person to onsight El Cap in a day. It might not have happened though if the food and coconut water in his haul bag hadn’t gone bad, forcing him to make a game time decision to go for it. Will possesses a preternatural talent for the big stone and his tactical...
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Jon Krakauer: The Mountain's Shadow
Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air chronicled the 1996 Everest disaster and launched a generation of interest in climbing and the natural world, but for Jon the tragedy that unfolded around him left him struggling with PTSD and searching for peace. Now 30 years later, Jon reflects on his career, the...
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Getting It Right: Charlize Theron and Beth Rodden
Will Hollywood ever get climbing right? Or at least passable? When Academy Award winner Charlize Theron went to work making her latest film Apex, the crew brought in climbing legend Beth Rodden to make it feel realistic. Sometimes you don’t have to climb 5.12 to look like you climb 5.12. Watch...
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Connor Herson: Just Getting Started
Connor Herson couldn’t legally drive when he freed the Nose in 2018, competently navigating up his way up a route only Lynn Hill and Tommy Caldwell had freed. The climbing world wondered where this prodigy would take traditional climbing. In the years that followed, Connor was busy with regular...
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Going Pro: Lincoln Knowles and Zander Waller
The path to professionalism is murky at best. Even for established world-class athletes, it’s a struggle to make it work. Two friends chart very different paths in the hopes of getting paid to do what they love. Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors The North Face Check out Summit...
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Sean Bailey: Duality Of Man
Sean Bailey flies beneath the radar and he wants you to know he’s cool with that. Most of the time. After retiring from a decorated comp career, Sean has sent multiple v17 boulder problems and North America’s first 5.15d, but America’s best climber seems far more interested in the hunt for the…
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Nasim Eshqi: The Fighter
When protests erupted in Iran in fall of 2022, human rights activist and professional climber Nasim Eshqi was climbing in France. As she watched the uprising back home unfold, Nasim knew that returning home at that moment would mean arrest and imprisonment at the hands of the government. She...
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Jimmy Chin: Always Difficult
Jimmy Chin refuses to play the game on easy mode. Whether it’s climbing, photography or filmmaking, Jimmy has spent a career figuring out the most bad ass goal in whatever medium and then making it happen. He’s had some mentors along the way, a little luck and an unparalleled work ethic, but his...
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Enter the Dragon: Taipei 101 Recap
In the days after Alex’s successful climb of Taipei 101, Fitz and Alex debrief on the whirlwind week, including ending up in an SNL skit and the joy that comes from doing what you love. Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors The North Face Check out Summit Series at…
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James Bond Principles: Taipei 101
The internet is talking. Why is Alex so psyched to climb a skyscraper on live TV? How hard is Taipei 101? Is this a gimmick? The answers go deeper than you might expect. Fitz sat down with Alex to break it down before he left for Taipei. Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors The...
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Alain Robert: The French Spiderman
Later this month, Alex will set out to climb the Taipei 101 skyscraper, but he certainly won’t be the first. For the last three decades, Alain Robert has been the living legend of the underground scene of climbing buildings. Arrested more than 170 times, his passion for buildings stemmed out of…
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Year In Review
2025 – what a year in climbing. Jonathan Siegrist and Leici Hendrix join us to break down the highlights. First woman to climb 5.15c. V17 in a session. El Cap flashed in a day. The next generation is now firmly in the driver seat and ready to carry climbing into its next chapter. Watch Climbing...
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Behind The Line: Biographie
In 2001, Chris Sharma ushered in 5.15a when he completed Biographie after pouring years into the long standing project. Its position, aesthetic, history and heartbreaking sequences that have spit off the best climbers cemented the route into climbing’s memory. Today, we dive into Biographie with...
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I'm Just A Climber
As climbers, are we powerless in the face of what’s happening to our public lands? We sat down with retired Senator Mark Udall and Heather Thorne, Executive Director of Access Fund, to talk about what we can do to help the future of American climbing and our public lands. Watch Climbing Gold on...
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Southern Climbing: Underrated or Overrated?
Alex has climbed all over the world, but he’s never visited some of our country’s best climbing areas. Today, three devoted southern climbers – Andrew Kornylak, Karen Lane and Colette McInerney – lay out the case for why the Southeast should be on his tick list. Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube...
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Live with David Letterman
Last year, Alex sat down with legendary comedian and interviewer David Letterman in front of a live audience in New York City. Buckle up for a hilarious ride down memory lane. Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors The North Face Check out Summit Series at thenorthface.com Kodiak...
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Brett Lowell: Front Row Seat
If there is a common thread between the greatest rock climbing achievements of the last few decades, it’s that cinematographer Brett Lowell was probably filming it. In high school, Brett found himself pulled into the world of climbing creativity and has never looked back. Watch Climbing Gold on...
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Who The F@#k is Hamish McArthur?
Nearly unknown to the greater climbing world, Hamish McArthur walked on the mats at the Paris Olympics the epitome of an underdog. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to be there. When the dust settled, he’d placed fifth, ahead of legends and rising stars. Since then, Hamish upended the climbing world…
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Life On Everest: Melissa Arnot Reid
Climber Melissa Arnot Reid blazed her way into the elite circle of high altitude guides, but her ascent into rarified air came amidst deep personal struggles that no amount of Everest summits or accolades could fix. Today, we talk about the state of Everest, Ueli Steck and Melissa’s new book...
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John Bachar: The Interview
John Bachar may have been the Stonemasters brightest star. His audacious free climbs and even more audacious free solos turned heads around the globe. Sadly, John fell while free soloing in 2009. Last winter, longtime climber and author Mark Kroese approached us with a tape marked Bachar, a…
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Girl Climber: Emily Harrington
El Cap. Free. In a day. It's an accomplishment that puts a climber in lofty company. In 2020, Emily Harrington succeeded on Golden Gate. It was a multi-year effort that required finding her outermost limits and letting go of perfectionism. Now, that journey comes to the big screen with Louder…
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Katie Lamb: The Dark Side
Katie Lamb has been cutting her teeth on a steady diet of some of the country’s hardest boulders. When she became the first woman to climb V16, she was surprised by the spotlight that came with that breakthrough and the ensuing online drama after the problem was downgraded. Today, Katie has…
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Climbing Blind: The Duftons
Together, Jesse and Molly Dufton create one of the most unique partnerships in rock climbing. Jesse knew two things from a young age. The feeling that traditional climbing gave him was something that he wanted to pursue through life and that a genetic disorder would eventually rob him of his…
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Uplifted: Sonnie Trotter
Sonnie Trotter would never admit to being Canada’s best rock climber, but his multi-decade career of cutting-edge trad climbs and nails-hard sport routes certainly puts him in that conversation. In his new book, Sonnie looks back to the people, experiences and community that defined his path into...
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Thirty Below: Cassidy Randall
Writer Cassidy Randall’s new book Thirty Below unearths the story of the first all-female ascent of Denali in 1970 and reveals a deeper story of ambition and teamwork. It’s an incredible story with complex characters. In a sport obsessed with legends and heroics, why did the Denali Damsels nearly...
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Chris Sharma: Olympic Hopeful
Elite competition is a young person's game, but when 44-year-old legend Chris Sharma witnessed climbing on the Olympic stage last summer, it lit a fire in him, or at least a small flame. Chris undeniably changed climbing bringing the sport into its modern era, establishing the 5.15 grade, winning...
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TryHardness: Amity Warme
Amity Warme first showed up in Yosemite Valley in 2019 young, scrappy and in love with the adventurous side of our sport. What’s followed since is a meteoric rise through the discipline of traditional and big wall free climbing. What’s taken some of the world’s best to do over decades, Amity has...
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Vitaliy and Goliath
In 2021, Vitaliy Musiyenko closed the chapter on a years-long obsession with a 32-mile-ridge line featuring 60 summits in the heart of the Sierra. The Goliath Traverse is likely the longest ridge traverse ever completed on the planet. For Vitaliy, it was part of a much larger journey that began...
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Michaela Kiersch: The Path To Dreamtime
In 2024, Michaela Kiersch became the first woman to climb both V15 and 5.15 putting her on climbing’s global radar. To midwest climbers and those in the know, she was already a legend for her incredible training sessions and ability to balance a career outside climbing. Alex and Michaela chat…
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Ups and Downs: Cody Townsend
After rising to the highest echelon of professional skiing, Cody Townsend took a step back and embraced climbing to take him to the next chapter of his career. Today, Cody sits on the cusp of completing an all-time goal – climbing and skiing the 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America. Watch...
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Janja Garnbret: The Lioness
We are back with the Greatest of All Time – Janja Garnbret. For the last decade, Janja has dominated competitive climbing, capping it off with her second gold medal at the Olympics last summer. Where does she find the motivation to keep improving when she’s won everything there is to win? Watch...
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Ben Mayforth: Growth Mindset
Ben Mayforth’s strength is a sight to behold. The professional paraclimber’s social clips of campusing double digit boulder problems may have made it into your social feed, but his story runs much deeper than any grade or route. It’s a story of hard work, belonging and finding a path in the…
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The Devil's Climb
Last summer, Alex and Tommy Caldwell rode bikes from Estes Park, Colorado to SE Alaska where they boarded a sailboat which dropped them beneath the fabled Devil’s Thumb. Their adventure is now a film on Disney+, but a lot of the experience got left on the cutting room floor. We sat down with…
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Saving Cochamó
Tucked away in a corner of Chilean Patagonia, Valle Cochamó wasn’t going to stay hidden forever. The soaring unclimbed granite walls instilled dreams of first ascents in climbers. Industrialists eyed its free flowing rivers with their potential for hydroelectric power. Conservationists hoped it...
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Jamie Logan: Going The Distance
5.13 at 78. That’s staggering, but the numbers don’t capture the breadth of Jamie Logan’s climbing career, which now spans seven decades. Through every chapter of our sport, Jamie has been a contributor from pioneering free climbing in the 1960’s to leading design trends of the modern gym. The…
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Cory Richards: The Unquiet Mind
Alpinist and photographer Cory Richards was living at full speed. A steady stream of Himalayan expeditions and assignments from National Geographic kept him relentlessly moving around the world. Meanwhile, his long struggle with bi-polar disorder, PTSD, alcoholism, and sex addiction hit new lows...
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Lynn Hill: A Magician Needs A Stage
El Cap. Free. In a day. Putting those words on your resume puts you in the league of legends. How did that become the bar? Lynn Hill. A singular athlete who stepped up to the biggest stage in climbing, Lynn redefined what was athletically possible not just for her generation, but generations to...
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Margo Hayes: Renaissance Woman
Ms. 5.15 – that was the moniker the climbing world bestowed on Margo Hayes after she became the first woman to climb the grade. Two more 5.15’s followed and Margo seemed poised to be a defining climber of her generation. Yet, in the background, Margo was quietly struggling with Lyme disease and...
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Babsi and Jacopo: The Flame Burns Bright
While most of the elite climbing world has turned its attention to raw difficulty in sport and bouldering, Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher have been carrying the torch for hard, sometimes dangerous, traditional climbing. We talk about Eternal Flame, managing risk and getting sandbagged in...
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Beth Rodden: A Light Through The Cracks
Beth Rodden started climbing in 1995, and it wasn’t long before she radically changed the sport. Within three years, she’d become the first woman to climb 5.14; within five, she established a still unrepeated free route on Yosemite’s El Capitan. Today, Beth is making waves in a different way: by...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
When climbing was a fringe sport, the epic tales of achievement were told around the campfire. As the sport continues to grow, Alex Honnold and co-host Fitz Cahall grab the mic to share stories from the people who define climbing by pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo of the previous generation.
Watch full length episodes at https://dub.sh/CGYouTube
HOSTED BY
Duct Tape Then Beer
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Climbing Gold have?
Climbing Gold currently has 139 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Climbing Gold about?
When climbing was a fringe sport, the epic tales of achievement were told around the campfire. As the sport continues to grow, Alex Honnold and co-host Fitz Cahall grab the mic to share stories from the people who define climbing by pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo of the...
How often does Climbing Gold release new episodes?
Climbing Gold publishes regularly with 139 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Climbing Gold?
You can listen to Climbing Gold on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Climbing Gold?
Climbing Gold is created and hosted by Duct Tape Then Beer.
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