Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 137. Emily Harrington, Pro Rock Climber

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137. Emily Harrington, Pro Rock Climber · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: When you find those places of discomfort and fears, when
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: you learn the most about yourself, and it's when you
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: can really like do things that maybe you didn't think
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  Speaker 1: could before.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Hurdler's Emily A Badi here bringing you Episode one
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  Speaker 2: thirty seven of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast where I
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  Speaker 2: sit down with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from
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  Speaker 2: their big wins to how they've gotten through some of
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: life's toughest moments. On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes to aspiring
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurs on what it really takes to follow your passions.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: My mission is simple to inspire you to be your
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  Speaker 2: best self, move with intention, and have some fun along
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  Speaker 2: the way. For today's episode, I am so geek about this,
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  Speaker 2: Like I feel like such a total fangirl. I am
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  Speaker 2: chatting with climber Emily Harrington. Now, if you don't know
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: about Emily Harrington just yet, I'm about to blow your mind.
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  Speaker 2: When so many of us had our eyes glued to
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  Speaker 2: the television on election night, Emily was doing something absolutely insane,
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  Speaker 2: beginning a free climb of the route Golden Gate on
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  Speaker 2: El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Over the course of
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  Speaker 2: the next twenty one plus hours, she became the first
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  Speaker 2: woman to free climb this route in under a day.
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  Speaker 2: I can't even fully do it justice. Just how risky
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  Speaker 2: it was what she did, how big of a deal
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  Speaker 2: it is what she did. When I got the call
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: that I would have the opportunity to chat with her
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: for hurdle, it was an absolute no brainer. In today's episode,
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  Speaker 2: she talks to me all about all of this and
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  Speaker 2: how long she had had this goal, what went into
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  Speaker 2: the planning to execute this goal, and she also tells
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  Speaker 2: me all about a really scary moment when she actually
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  Speaker 2: fell during her climb and just totally gashed open her forehead.
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  Speaker 2: Like the grit and the bravery that it required to
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  Speaker 2: get back into the swing of things to get back
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  Speaker 2: to climbing after having that kind of fall, complete with
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  Speaker 2: a lot of blood, it is astronomical and also gives
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  Speaker 2: me some of her backstory, telling me about how she
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  Speaker 2: got involved in climbing in the sport in the first place,
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  Speaker 2: growing up in Boulder, Colorado, and how she at one
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  Speaker 2: point fun fact, was actually deciding between becoming a lawyer
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  Speaker 2: or taking on the sport professional Aid talk about two
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  Speaker 2: very different career paths. Before we get into Emily's story today,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: I do want to give a special shout out to
• 3:03
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  Speaker 3: Again. That is promo code.
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  Speaker 2: Hurdle two five at Dailyharvest dot com. Dailyharvest dot Com.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Some other housekeeping before we get to today's episode, I
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: do want to call out that there are a slew
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: of exciting hurdle sessions on the horizon. I've got intro
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: to freelance writing this week, along with take your Running
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: to the Next Level, and also upcoming an end of
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: your goal Setting workshop as well as the Handling Hurdle
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Moments workshop. I am offering you guys a special discount
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  Speaker 2: check out. The link is in the show notes to
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  Speaker 2: get five dollars off any live hurdle session right now. Again,
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• 4:54
  Speaker 2: dollars off any of the upcoming hurdle sessions via.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: The link in the show notes.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: As always, if you have a hurdle moment of your
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: own to share or just want to say hi, I
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: am always available over DM shoot me a note at
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Hurdle Podcast or at Emily a Body. Emily you're at
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: it giving Hurdle some love, Head on into the iTunes store.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Throw me a rating and review. It means the world.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: I do want to say a quick thank you so much.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Gratitude to my friends at the north Face for connecting
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  Speaker 2: me with Emily. Emily's a north Face sponsored athlete. Again,
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  Speaker 2: I was just so hyped on this opportunity and her story.
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  Speaker 3: It's going to give you the chills with that, Let's
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  Speaker 3: get to hurdling today. I am sitting down with Emily Harrington.
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  Speaker 2: She's a professional rock climber adventurer and recently made headlines
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  Speaker 2: after climbing El Capitan's Golden Gate route.
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  Speaker 1: How you doing, m I'm doing well. I'm just getting
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  Speaker 1: to the end of kind of a busy week of
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  Speaker 1: media and I went back to Yosemite actually to shoot
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  Speaker 1: some photos. Now I'm at home just watching the snowstorm rollin.
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  Speaker 2: I want to start us off here because there's just
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  Speaker 2: like so much ground to cover for those of the
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  Speaker 2: listeners as I call them the hurdlers that might not
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  Speaker 2: be completely familiar with just how stellar your accomplishment is
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  Speaker 2: from earlier this week.
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  Speaker 3: Why don't you just explain what you recently overcame.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, yes, I can do that. So what I recently
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  Speaker 1: did was I pre climbed a route on El Capitan
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  Speaker 1: in Yosemite. The route was called Golden Gate and I
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  Speaker 1: did it in under twenty four hours. El Capitan is
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  Speaker 1: a three two hundred foot granite wall. It is one
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  Speaker 1: of the most iconic and historic and difficult walls in
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  Speaker 1: the climbing world. It's sort of a bucket list for
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  Speaker 1: rock climbers around the world, and everyone knows what it is,
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  Speaker 1: and everyone sort of strives to experience rock climbing on
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  Speaker 1: El cap Most people who climb El cap do so
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  Speaker 1: over the course of multiple days. They spend the night
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  Speaker 1: on the wall, they sleep up there. It's sort of
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  Speaker 1: like a vertical camping experience. And what I was doing
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  Speaker 1: was something called free climbing. That is not to be
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  Speaker 1: confused but free so free climbing is when you simply
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  Speaker 1: use your hand and your feet to ascend a rock wall,
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  Speaker 1: and you do have a rope and you have protection
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  Speaker 1: in case you fall, but it is actually quite space
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  Speaker 1: compared to free soloing, which is essentially just climbing with
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  Speaker 1: that rope and if you fall, you die. And very
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  Speaker 1: few climbers practice that style of climbing. Most climbers are
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  Speaker 1: free climbers. That said, El cap is extremely difficult to
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  Speaker 1: free climb, and to do it in under twenty four
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  Speaker 1: hours is reserved for just a very elite level of
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  Speaker 1: rock climbing. It took me about five years to achieve
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  Speaker 1: this goal, and I'm super happy. It's sort of like
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  Speaker 1: a life dream accomplishment type of thing.
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  Speaker 2: When you say five years to achieve this goal. Do
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  Speaker 2: you mean five years since you set out to achieve
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  Speaker 2: this goal that it took you to achieve this goal,
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  Speaker 2: or five years of climbing experience.
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, so I have twenty three years of climbing experience.
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  Speaker 3: That's what I was going to say here.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, I actually climbed that route Golden Gate over the
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  Speaker 1: course of six days in twenty fifteen, and at the
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  Speaker 1: time it was a huge achievement for me. It was
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  Speaker 1: the hardest thing I'd ever done. And after that point,
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  Speaker 1: I sort of got it in my head that, oh,
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  Speaker 1: it would be really cool to kind of just still
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  Speaker 1: the experience down into just rock climbing, because that's what
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  Speaker 1: I love most, that's what I'm most passionate about, and
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  Speaker 1: the idea of just starting at the bottom and starting
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  Speaker 1: climbing and not stopping until you reach the top and
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  Speaker 1: doing it in another twenty four hours. It's just it
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  Speaker 1: was such an inspiring and cool objective to me, and
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  Speaker 1: so from twenty fifteen on, I guess I had had
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  Speaker 1: it in my head, but that's something I wanted to do,
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  Speaker 1: and so I just sort of started working towards it.
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  Speaker 3: I love that.
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  Speaker 2: So I know that you live in the Tahoe area now,
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  Speaker 2: but where did you grow up.
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  Speaker 1: I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, which at the time
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  Speaker 1: was like a very very centralized climbing town in the US.
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  Speaker 1: It was like where most climbers lived, and I was
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  Speaker 1: lucky enough to be born and raised there.
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  Speaker 3: So you grew up around climbing, then, Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I actually started climbing when I was ten years old
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  Speaker 1: on one of those like little artificial walls you see
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  Speaker 1: a like festivals and stuff like that. And I remember
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  Speaker 1: I started. I climbed the wall, and I just remember
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  Speaker 1: this feeling of like, oh my gosh, this is what
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  Speaker 1: I want to do, Like this is it, this is
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  Speaker 1: my this is my thing. And I remember just telling
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  Speaker 1: my dad I want to climb, and he took me
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  Speaker 1: to the climbing gym the next week, and then I
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  Speaker 1: had a little junior climbing team and I got on
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  Speaker 1: the junior team and we started traveling around doing competitions.
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  Speaker 1: They took us outside. That's where I got my start,
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  Speaker 1: so I did. I grew up very much within the
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  Speaker 1: climbing community.
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  Speaker 2: I dig it so growing up in the climbing community.
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  Speaker 2: When you get started, I mean, at first, forget what
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  Speaker 2: we're what we're tackling.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 3: At first, did you have some of the common.
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  Speaker 2: Fears that are associated with, you know, ascending high up
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  Speaker 2: into the air before you even took it outdoors?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I would say that I still have
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  Speaker 1: those fears. It's still something that I deal with on
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  Speaker 1: a regular basis. Like when I was a kid, I
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  Speaker 1: was afraid of climbing to the top of the wall
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  Speaker 1: and in the gym, And now I still get scared
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  Speaker 1: when I'm on the top of El Kapachan, just because
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot of air underneath my feet and it
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  Speaker 1: feels really exposed, and it feels really intimidating, and I
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  Speaker 1: don't don't. I've sort of come to terms with the
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  Speaker 1: fact that that sort of fear is never going to
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  Speaker 1: go away. It's just I've learned to embrace it and
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  Speaker 1: I've learned to control it. A little bit better.
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  Speaker 3: How do you control a fear like that?
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  Speaker 1: I think practice for me has involved really sort of
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  Speaker 1: taking the emotion and trying to not get rid of
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  Speaker 1: it and trying to not beat it. I don't really
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  Speaker 1: believe in conquering one's fear. I believe in sort of
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  Speaker 1: just sitting with it and accepting it and analyzing it
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  Speaker 1: and realizing why it's there, and then realizing thinking about
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  Speaker 1: what I need to do next. So it's a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more about acceptance than anything. I've come to realize
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  Speaker 1: that once you actually accept your emotions, you accept your fears,
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  Speaker 1: they're a lot easier to deal with. They're a lot easier.
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  Speaker 1: They kind of like can go hand in hand with
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  Speaker 1: the experience.
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  Speaker 2: It's like, I'm afraid of this, and I can handle this.
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  Speaker 2: It's just recognizing that you're afraid of it before you
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  Speaker 2: move on to.
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  Speaker 3: The next step.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen, like recently, I've seen this like meme
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  Speaker 1: on Instagram or something, and it says, feel the fear
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  Speaker 1: and do it anyway. And I really like that. Just
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  Speaker 1: let it, just let it be there, let it, let
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  Speaker 1: it hang out with you.
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  Speaker 3: Let it hang out with you.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So climbing from a young age getting into the
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  Speaker 2: swing of things. When did you know, I mean, you
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  Speaker 2: knew that it was something that you were passionate about,
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  Speaker 2: but when did you know that you wanted to make
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  Speaker 2: climbing into your full time thing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I it sort of happened gradually. I was
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  Speaker 1: always very focused on climbing ever since I started, and
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  Speaker 1: I was very focused on competition climbing, and I was
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  Speaker 1: pretty successful at that. So from a young age, I
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  Speaker 1: was like one of the top level climbers in the US,
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  Speaker 1: UH for young girls that age, and I always knew
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  Speaker 1: that I would be a climber forever, that that was
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  Speaker 1: my passion. At the same time, I was still very
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  Speaker 1: focused on school. I went to university, I graduated, and
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  Speaker 1: I was on my way towards law school when I
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: was approached by the North Face and they asked me
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  Speaker 1: to join their global athlete team And so that was
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  Speaker 1: a major door into this world of being a professional athlete.
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  Speaker 1: And that's when I decided to not go to law school.
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  Speaker 1: I put it off and sort of under the with
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: the attitude of like, I can always go back, I
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: should sho this For a little while I was in
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: my early early twenties, and that enabled me to travel
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  Speaker 1: a lot and enabled me to experience other styles of
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: climbing outside of what I was used to, which was
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  Speaker 1: mainly just like being a competition climber. And here I
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  Speaker 1: am thirteen years later, and I'm still on the North
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  Speaker 1: Safe team. That's still like my primary sponsor, and things
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  Speaker 1: have just kind of taken off from there. So it
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  Speaker 1: was never in my head like when I was a kid, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I want to be a professional athlete. I want to
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: be a professional rock climber. Those really didn't exist that
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  Speaker 1: frequently back then. But now with the advent of social media, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and content creation, I feel like it has become a
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  Speaker 1: legitimate career and I feel pretty fortunate to have thirds
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: like sure been brought into it at this time.
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  Speaker 2: As someone, you know, coming of age. We all get
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: to a place where we're making our own decisions. It's
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: not always something that you know your family or your
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: parents can weigh in on. But I feel as though
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  Speaker 2: when your passion and the thing that excites you is
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: rock climbing to this extreme, your family must have had
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: something to say about it.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: It's interesting because my dad is he's always been someone
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: who's really passionate about the outdoors. He's really passionate about
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: just challenging himself and exploration, and so he's always bringing
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: me camping and eeeing. And when I started climbing, he
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: actually started climbing as well. So my dad is also
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  Speaker 1: a climber, and my mom isn't a climber, but she
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  Speaker 1: understands it very intimately now. And so my parents have
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  Speaker 1: a very a very good understanding of what I do.
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  Speaker 1: And they've always been super super supportive of what I
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: want to do and of the path that I have
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: chosen in life. And I feel pretty fortunate for that.
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  Speaker 2: So, Okay, so then you get this contract with the
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: North Face and you start traveling more and more, and
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: you're climbing many, many new routes in the scheme of things.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: With this, with this traveling and being all over the
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: place a little bit, how is it that you find,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: you know, time to kind of kick back and relax
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: when you're constantly on the move.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's actually it was sort of a struggle. It's
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: always been a struggle in my life up until this year. Obviously,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: was the traveling and the just constantly feeling pulled in
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: all these different directions and you know, having to move
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: all over the place, and I think earlier, in my
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: earlier years, it was I was just saying as to everything,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I was always traveling, just pretty psyched on it actually
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: just constant movement. And then as I got older, I
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: started to realize that there was a need for balance,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: and there was a need for saying no to certain things,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: for staying in one place, for developing a routine, not
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: only just for my own personal sanity, but also for
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: my climbing. Like it's hard to train and stay at
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: a top level when you're constantly moving and constantly traveling.
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  Speaker 1: So over the years I've had to really think carefully
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: about that and try to balance it a little bit more.
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  Speaker 1: And then obviously this year I got to spend a
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: lot of time at home, and it was actually one
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: of the silver linings of all of this is that
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I got to really really focus on my climbing and
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: train really hard. And I think that's part of why
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  Speaker 1: I succeeded this past week.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: When you say have some sort of a routine, like,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: what does that even look like for you when you
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: are on the road.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: When I'm on the road, I try to well, first
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: of all, I try to get enough sleep. That's like
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: the number one thing is getting enough sleep. So whether
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: that's like making an earlier bedtime or allowing myself to
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: sleep in a little bit, like that's sort of my priority.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: And then making sure that I have like food that
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I like to eat. So sometimes I you know, we
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: travel with we bring a lot of food with us
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: and try to try to make it feel like routine
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  Speaker 1: and like it is at home. And then I always
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: if I'm on the road for something that's not as
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: much climbing related, I'm always on the lookout for ways
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to train in my free time. So whether that's finding
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: a climbing gym in wherever I am, or bringing like
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: certain training devices to do in the hotel room or
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: whatever that may be.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: Or whatever that may be.
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  Speaker 2: So obviously, I mean we're getting you know, as the
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: years progress, we're getting closer and closer to you setting
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: this big goal. But previous to you wanting to do
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: this single day effort, what would you say has been
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: one of the biggest goals that you have set for
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: yourself in your climbing career.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: That I'm set a lot of goals for myself in
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  Speaker 1: my climbing and most of them I haven't achieved yet.
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  Speaker 1: They're still like in the work, just out in space,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: waiting to be addressed. So I have a lot of
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  Speaker 1: I have a lot of goals. I think that one
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: of the things that I really like about setting hard
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: goals is they have to be willing to fail. So
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: the reason I say like I have a lot of
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  Speaker 1: goals that I haven't succeeded at is because I've come
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: to learn that, like most of climbing is failing many
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: nine percent of the time, we're just like falling and
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: sailing and trying to figure it out. And one of
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: my goals is still that I've had for a few
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: years now, is to climb my heart is great, which
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: is sort of like a nuanced thing in climbing. But
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I've been working towards it towards for many many years now,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: and I have this climb in mind that I want
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: to do, and it's in Spain, so it's kind of
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: an impossible task right now, but I'm hoping in the future,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: especially now that this project is finished, that I can
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: go back there and finish that in the next few years.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Right, And so in climbing, basically climbers give grades or
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: levels of difficulty to different routes.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is a thing very much. So it's definitely like. Yeah,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the way that it works is someone sees a piece
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: of a piece of rock and they see a potential
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: path up that rock, and so they'll they'll work on
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: climbing it, and they'll use various forms of protection depending
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: on the the ethic in the area, depending on the
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: type of rock. But essentially the person who first does
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: it gets to name it, and then they get to
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: grade it. And the grading system is it's very subjective,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: but we, you know, we do our best to take
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: into consideration all the different things, and we have a
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: grading system that everyone understands and and so then people
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: people can try to repeat the climb and they can
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: either confirm the grade or or change the grade, and
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: eventually there's a consensus on the grade. It's pretty cool.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Climbing is a I think climbing is a very creative process.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: I think it's it's pretty interesting to walk up to
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: a piece of rock and try to try to solve
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: the puzzle, so to speak, try to figure out a
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: way up. And of course, like someone like me, I'm
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: I'm five pot two, I'm a five put two woman,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I'm going to climb, climb it entirely different than say,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: like a six foot tall man, but it's the same
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: it's the same piece of stone, but we're we're experiencing
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: it slightly different and we're finding our own way. And
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I really enjoy that.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Right, And you mentioned that a huge part of climbing
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: for you, in the scheme of things, when it comes
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: to all the goals that you have set, is getting
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: to be okay with failing. Talk to me about that, like,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: how did you get to be okay with a sport
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: that's so much of it is coming up short time
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: and time Again.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I think I really love the process of climbing. I
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: love the movement. I love the process of figuring out
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: my way. I really do find it to be so
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: cerebral and creative. And one of my favorite favorite things
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: about climbing is the process of finding a new project
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: and like discovering the holds and out the movements. So
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of times, like those days when I'm discovering
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: something new is actually more exciting than when I actually
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: send it, and when send it meaning complete it. And
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: so I think as climbers, a lot of us really
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: are we are of the mindset that like exploring that
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: and figuring out our potential and kind of unlocking unlocking
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the secrets of a particular climb is is just as
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: enjoyable as the success A lot of us A lot
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: of times, like I'll try a route and I'll never
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: succeed at it, and I have just sort of come
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: to accept that and realize that's huge part of climbing.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: And I've learned so much through those processes, maybe even
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: more than when I succeed. And so in a way,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I've developed this attitude of like I've I set these
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: goals for myself and I'm not sure if they're possible,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: but I'm going to learn a lot along the way,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: and therefore I'm just going to keep trying.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: I love that attitude, and this kind of goes hand
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: in hand. I know, not all that long ago you
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: gave a Ted talk, and the Ted Talk you said
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: you are afraid because you are human. Fear can be
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: your strength provided you give it purpose. I use fear
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: to feed my determination and motivation with purpose, Fear is
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: no longer paralyzing. Fear is an asset that is like
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: such a wise beyond anyone's years evaluation fear.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah, I mean I think I think I
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: came up with that sort of philosophy because I've spent
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: so many years like beating myself up about for being afraid,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: beating myself up for being afraid of failure, for being
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: afraid of exposure, for all of these things, and it
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: was just so it was so hard on my like
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: psyche to just constantly be feeling bad about the way
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: that I felt. And over the years, the more and
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: more E thought about it, the more I realized that
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: my best moments are when I really do like hit
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: that rock bottom, like I let that, I let the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: fear in, I let it kind of paralyze me, I
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: let it, I let the like temper tantrum come and
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: then and then I'm able to essentially refocus and kind
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: of like use all of that energy in order to
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: find that flow state and really perform. And sometimes I
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: succeed and sometimes I don't. But when I do reach
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: that place, it it feels pretty powerful and I really
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: enjoy that. I enjoy, like now, I enjoy like finding
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: out what my fears are finding out and really digging
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: into it. And I think that as humans, we spend
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: a lot of time avoiding those emotions and trying to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: not be afraid and trying to always be comfortable. And
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I think when you when you find those places of
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: discomfort and fear, it's when you learn the most about yourself,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and it's when you can really like do things that
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: maybe you didn't think you could before.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: I remember I sat down last year for the last
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: season of the podcast with Nina Williams, and we were
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: chatting about how when she got to be okay with falling,
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: that's when she got to be a better climber, Like
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: when she embraced the fall instead of being worried about
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: the fact that a fall might come in bouldering, that
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: that was when she was able to reach a higher potential.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, I love yeah. And that's a perfect example
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: of what I'm talking about, Like, once you stop being
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: afraid of what might happen and of the outcomes, you
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: just sort of let it all happen as part of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: this beautiful experience and a part of why we're doing it,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: then it's just so much easier to focus on the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: chatting it.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to give some love
• 24:49
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• 27:32
  Speaker 3: Five years ago.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: We set this crazy goal to send what we did
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: last week. So in setting this goal, what are some
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: of the things that you need to do to prepare
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: in the weeks and months leading up to this particular
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: feat so to speak.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so this goal has been pretty It's been pretty
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: tough for me mentally and physically because it's so complicated.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: It's a type of goal that requires all the different
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: skill sets climbing in order to be successful, because you
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: have to be strong, you have to have bouldering power,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: you have to have endurance, you have to have the
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: technical skill to climb on granite, which is super awkward
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: and weird. You also have to have the ability to
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: climb a lot of easier, more moderate terrain efficiently and
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: as a high level climber. A lot of us disregard
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: the importance of that. And then in addition, you have
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: to have the stamina to be climbing for close to
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours and not bonk and have to have
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: your nutrition right, and have to have your logistics right.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: You also have to have a partner who's able to
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: do all those things with you. So it's taken me
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: years to kind of get to the point where I
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: feel like the pieces have all fallen into place and
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: where I've balanced all of the training out so that
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: I don't have too much of one thing and not
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: enough of the other. So I've spent a lot of
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: time training in the climbing gam I've spent a lot
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: of time doing climbing so pacific training like fingers and
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: upper body strength and bouldering and stuff like that. But
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: I also spent a lot of days in the mountain
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: trail running doing some easier, bigger routes, but trying to
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: move quickly. Also like analyzing my risk profile. Free climbing
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: el Cap in the day is not exactly a safe
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: way to climb because you do have to cut corners
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: in order to go faster. So I've learned a lot
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: through that experience. It's sort of like what risks I'm
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: willing to take, and what feels safe to me and
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: what doesn't feel safe to me. So it's really been
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of trial and error, and the past six
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: months I've been able to because of COVID and because
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I was home so much, I just had so much
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: time to think a little bit more carefully about how
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I wanted to do things and how I wanted it
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: to go.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: Wow, So a lot of planning, which makes sense because
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: this is just such like potentially risky and just such
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: an obscene challenge. You mentioned having to have like good
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: people with you, Like how do you even figure out
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: who this journey with you? I remember I listened to
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: a podcast that you were on. I think the podcast
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: came out on Monday, and at the time you were
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: saying like, oh, maybe Alex Honold will come do this
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: with me, but you didn't know yet, Like how did
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: you even manage that?
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I was a little bit nervous about that, actually,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: because Alex has supported me the last three times, and
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: the last time I wound up in the hospital, and
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: I was just worried that he would be like, oh
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: my gosh, I can't deal with it. I just can't
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: do it again, like I can't support you again. But
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: actually it was the other way around, and he thought
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: that I didn't want him to blame me because he
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: thought that I didn't think he was good at handling
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: my emotions. So we actually had like a chat about it,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and he was like, I'm happy to support you. I
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: just thought you retired me as your partner. So it
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: really is about like finding those people who are really
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: competent up there and those people who are really willing
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: to give you that support. And for me, I'm very lucky.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Alex is such a close friend of mine and I've
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: been fine with him so many years, and he is
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: just incredibly comfortable out there, and he's incredibly supportive and
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: happy to be up there, like for him it's like
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: his second home almost, and he's one of those people
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: that provides a calming presence because instead of al Cap
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: being this really intimidating, scary place, for him, it's it's
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: just a day out climbing and it's super casual. And
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: so for having him really helped me. It helped me
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: like lower the temperature in terms of like my nerves.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: And then I did, in fact switch supporters two thirds
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: of the way up. When the climbing got slower and
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: harder and it was going to go into another night,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I swapped Alex out from my fiance Adrian, and he
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: belayed me to the top and he did get into
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: the like he was more supportive like during those emotional
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: like when it got hard, whereas Alex was more just
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: for the competency and the efficiency.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: So the next thing that I want to talk about is,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: obviously you're moving for a long time. I know that
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: you're also an endurance athlete. You're a fan of running,
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: and you do like their modalities and whatnot, So talk
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: to me about how you think like varying your training
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: also helped.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: You for this.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I've run ultra marathons before. I'm
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: really into like endurance style sports, and I've climbed a
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: lot of mountains. I've spent a lot of I've done
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of like twenty four hour plus days in
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the mountains, and I think that that's helped me a
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: lot in terms of just sort of knowing that, like
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: when you get to hour eighteen, like I've done this before,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I've gone another eight hours, Like I can totally do
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: that if I want to, and I can be prepared
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: for that. And so I think that actually was a
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: huge advantage for me, like that aspect of my climbing
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: I've spent a lot of years climbing at altitude, a
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: lot of years like trail running, you know, for long,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: long period of time. And I think a lot of
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: rock climbers don't. They don't practice that that style of
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: stamina nearly as much as I do. And so Alex,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: even Alex was like, if you go past fourteen hours
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: trying to fre flimbal cap in a day, You're probably
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: not going to succeed. I was just more like, no way, dude,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: I could go twenty four hours. I definitely could, and
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be ready to. And so when I
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: set off last week, I was fully ready to go
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: deep into the night and just stick with it.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: What an amazing I'm just like sitting here nodding my
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: head thinking about what a badass you are. So the
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: next thing that I want to ask you about is
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: the fall, because holy shit. So the photos that are
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: just like circulating around of you post effort showcase a
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: beautiful dash that you have on your head. So talk
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: to me and tell the hurdlers about that moment where
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: you fell a little bit and what was going through
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: your head.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I took a bad fall on one of
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: the harder pitches up higher. I didn't really anticipate it
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: to I didn't really anticipate that to happen. I thought
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: it would be just a normal safe fall like I've
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: taken thousands of times, and I kind of fell sideways.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I don't really remember what happened, but I ended up
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: kind of smacking my head pretty hard against the wall
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: and I had this huge gash in my forehead and
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: head wounds bleed a lot, so that's why it was
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: like really dramatic, like all of a sudden, there was
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: just blood everywhere. I couldn't get to stop. It was
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: like dripping all over the places, dripping onto the ledge
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: below me. And I lowered down to the buoy and
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I was assessed for concussion and we stopped the bleeding,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: and it was definitely a rock bottom moment where I
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: was like, oh my gosh, like I don't know if
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: I'm going to keep climbing. This totally sucks. I had
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: a bad fall last year that where I wound up
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: in the hospital and I started just one of those
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: things where I was like, not again, I can't believe this.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: But in the end we decided that I did not
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: have concussion. Symptoms, and we had stopped the bleeding, and
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: it was sort of one of those things where I
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: told myself like, Okay, you just have to try one
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: more time and then if you still can't do it,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: then you can, then you can quit, then you can stop.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Like part of me really did want to stop. I
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: was pretty emotionally drained and I was pretty scared, but
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: I gave it that one more try and I just
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: had one of those out of body like flow state
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: experiences where I'm just sort of blowing up the wall.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not really aware of what was going on, and
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: I had succeeded in climb that climb that pitch clean
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: lane could continue.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: I'm in awe of you.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: So upon falling at this point, how much longer did
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: you have on the wall?
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Not very far distance wise, like a couple hundred feet,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: But I still had one really hard pitch, the pitch
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: that I had failed on last year, and then a
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: few more like not hard, but like pretty scary, dangerous pitches.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: It's probably took me another four to six hours from there.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Wow, in that moment when you're you know, technically okay,
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: but not sure where you're at emotionally, like what is
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: the tipping point, Like what is it that you say
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: to yourself to get you to a place mentally where
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: you can keep going after something like that?
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think for me, I just really had
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: to simplify it down into like just try once more,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Like just go one move at a time, try once more,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: see what happens. Like I abandoned all expectations. I abandoned
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: all like hope for success. It was just like only
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: about being in that moment and going one move at
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: a time, because it's all I could really emotionally handle.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: I love that you just said the word expectations because
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: I think that expectations really kind of shape our reality
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: but also hold us back a lot or like kind of.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: Augment what's going on.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: So for you to say, like I let go of expectations,
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: sometimes that can be the biggest win, like the biggest
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: component to actually being able to find success or to
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: find some sort of homeostasis.
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: Or happiness without you know, letting yourself down.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it goes back to the whole like
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: accepting fear idea. But that said, I think letting go
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: of expectations when you want something so badly is really hard.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I think it's a hard thing to just do on
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: the spot or on demand, and so a lot of
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: times you have to go through something hard, like an
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: injury or some sort of setback in order to let
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: go of the expectations. At least that's what it takes
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: for me. It's almost like I have to hit rock
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: bottom before I can let go of all of that
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: junk and then really focus on what I'm meant to
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: be doing. I haven't really unlocked the key to let
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: going of all expectations all the time.
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: I don't know if anyone can completely, especially like you said,
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: like when you care about something, it's hard not to
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: have hopes or expectations of like what could happen.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost like you have to trick yourself.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: For sure, for sure, and that's what sports psychologists are are.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: So have you worked with a sports psychologists in the past.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I do work with one, actually, and she's been
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: enormously helpful for me in the last year.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: For someone who's never spoken with one, What would you
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: say has been one of the biggest unlocks through your
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: time working with a sports psychologist.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think a lot of what I'm saying
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: about accepting fears and embracing the things that you're feeling
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: and letting them exist alongside of you is really one
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: of the most valuable things I've learned, like that everything
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: you're feeling is okay, that everything you're feeling is valid,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: and sort of trying to get rid of like the
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: judgment of myself and the feeling of like, oh, I
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: should be doing this, I shouldn't be feeling this, I
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: should be feeling that. Like a lot of that is
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: just like really messy and gets in the way, and
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: so just sort of I think it's what's helped me
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: a lot is like just acceptance of who I am
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: and acceptance of how I'm feeling, and acceptance of the
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: fact that my way is the right way because mine,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: and moving through that and being able to move through
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: that with all the like sticky, messy emotions attached to it,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: instead of trying to get rid of them, instead of
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: trying to beat them, which I think is a pretty
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: counterproductive process at this point.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: I love that what you said about because it's mine,
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Like you're entitled to do things your own way. You're
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: entitled to feel how you feel because it's part of
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: who it is that you.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Are exactly Yeah, exactly.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: How so then get me to the top with you here,
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: You're like, I don't I can't even imagine how that felt.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So I got to the top at like ten
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: thirty at night, and it was this experience that I
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: had always dreamed about and fantasized about and thought like, oh,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: what's it going to be? Like, how's it going to feel?
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Who am I going to see? All that? And you know,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: it was really simple and it was really surreal. It
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: was I was really tired, and it was just for
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: quiet night and the stars were out and there's no
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: wind and there's just me and a couple of friends,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: and you know, I think that it was really special
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: and meaningful, because in climbing a lot of times was
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: great achievements aren't they're not celebrated by an audience. They're
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: not in stadium, there's no live streaming or anything like that.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: And it just felt really intimate and it felt really
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: special and magical and like nobody knew yet and so
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: it was just one of those I don't know, it's
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: just one of those special moments that I'll always remember.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: And I think I was still like it hadn't quite
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: sunk in yet. It was just really in the moment.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of individuals, especially in twenty twenty.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: On your note of I didn't have an audience, it
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: was something for me. Sometimes not having an audience can
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: prove to eventually be some sort of a challenge because
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: you're like, well, if no one's here to watch me
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: do this, or if no one saw me show up
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: to the starting line, then like I could just duck
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: out at any time. But it seems like for you,
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, although it was technically an option, like ducking
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: out wasn't an option.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: No, Yeah, this is something I was pretty dedicated to,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: and I think when I first started with the goal,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: I didn't really know if it was possible, and that's
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: sort of why I chose it. I didn't really have
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: the pressure of like, oh, I have to succeed, and
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: it was just sort of kind of fun to try,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: and it was inspiring for me to try. And the
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: more I committed to it, the more I realized that
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: I was capable of doing it, and the more I
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: wanted it, And so I think in a way that
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: I wasn't really going to stop until i'd either done
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: it or proved to myself that I'd given it as
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: much as I possibly could.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: I like the idea of the more I committed to it,
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: the more that I understood that it was possible, Because
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: how many times, I mean in rock climbing, for you,
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: for me, like it within running, I do a lot
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: of that, Like there have been so many times where
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: I've thought to myself like there's no way I can
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: do that, Like that's not something that I can do.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: I'm not capable of this.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: But then I either blased up or put myself out
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: there and tried, and those goals, those things that felt
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: at one time completely unobtainable, like you start to geek
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: out that you think like, holy shit, maybe I can
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: actually do this.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And I think that that's a really beautiful
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: process that really and I think it applies. It applies
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: to everything, not just rock climbing, not just sports, like everything,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: everything that anyone strives towards. I think I think it's
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: really cool to aim high and then slowly chip away
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: at it and realize this is possible the aftermath.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: I'm sure, as you mentioned, you've been doing a lot
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: of interviews, been talking to a lot of people it's
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: probably been one hell of a whirlwind. Have you had
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: time to like reflect for yourself and how do you
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: reflect on an experience like that?
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really looking forward to having that time to
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: reflect on it. I did a little bit, but then
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: you know, you sort of just get bogged down and
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: in the retelling of the story, which is really cool,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: and people are really really positive and they've been so
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: inspired by it, and that's been that's felt so nice.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: But I'm looking for Actually, today is the last day
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: of like interviews and media and stuff, and I'm sort
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: of I actually just told my fiance I was like,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: tonight and tomorrow night, we're gonna like not have phones
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: and we're just gonna like be in a moment, be
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: home and like have a real celebration because it's been
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: a total whirlwind and I haven't really had much time
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: to sit and reflect, which is okay with me. But
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: I'm definitely ready for that time right now. I'm ready
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: for that like me time for sure for sure.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: And you mentioned the word inspire, So I've got to ask, then,
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: who is it that inspires you? As you are inspiring
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: so many people to conquer their fears and do.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: It anyway, Yeah, So I think what's really cool about
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: this achievement actually is that the very first person to
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: freequimb el Cap in a day. I did it via
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: a route called Golden Gate, and I was the first
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: woman to do so. But the first person to do
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: it via any route was a woman and her name
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: is Lynn Hill, and she climbed something called the Nose
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: and she did it in nineteen ninety four. So I
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: was seven or eight years old at the time. And
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: so this achievement and that achievement at the time, it
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: was like unheard of, Like people were like, no way,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: that's impossible, Like there's just no way. And so she
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: essentially pioneered this achievement. And there's not that many achievements
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: in sports that were first done and first like sort
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: of like groundbreaking achievements, Like it's a historic achievement in climbing,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: and it's owned by a woman. And I started climbing
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: in Colorado and Lynn was living in Boulder at the time,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: and so I knew who she was and I knew
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: what she had done, and I always associated this achievement
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: with women, and I just think that that is so
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: cool and I find it to be so inspiring and
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: I'm just so honored to have sort of like joined
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: this very small club group of women who have been
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: able to achieve this and just like contribute a little
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: bit to that inspiration.
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: What a dope club to be a part of.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: If you have to think right now about let's say
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: the last five years of your career as a professional climber,
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: and you have to think back to some of the
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: best advice that you have received, what would you say
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: that would.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Be Well, I came up with this mantra. Well, actually
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: me and my like sports psych collegist came up with
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: it last week, like before I climbed, And essentially it's
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: it's not original. It's this idea that comes from the military,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: I think, and the saying is flow is smooth and
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: smooth as staff and so it's the idea of I
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: think it kind of encapsulates a lot of ideas, like
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: the idea to like flow down and be present and
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: really think and be deliberate about your actions and about
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: what you're doing. It kind of like drogs my focus
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: in a little bit, and when I was on the wall,
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: it really helped me just focus on like individual movements,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: whether they were hard, whether they were easy. It was
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: just a very grounding phrase. I think for me. I
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: think a lot of times we have a tendency to
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: think really far ahead and kind of like do the
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: domino thing when we're like worried. If one thing happens,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: then another thing is going to happen, and anohing happens.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: And I would just like, if I was getting that way,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: I'd just say that to myself. Flow it's moving, smooth's fast,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: and it just really it really helped center me and
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: it really helps helps me knock get overwhelmed. And I
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: think that I'm going to apply that to pretty much
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: everything I do, even if it's like in the kitchens,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: the flow.
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: Is smooth in the kitchen. Yeah.
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: It reminds me of something that somebody said to me
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: before I ran. I want to say, the Chicago Marathon
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: last year, and it was come back to calm. Yes,
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: like every thing around you could be going to shit,
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: But if you have the power to come back to
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: calm and like take a deep breath, then you have
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: the power to take back control.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I like that.
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: I like that.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: I'm sharing it with you, I'm sharing it with the hurdlers.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: We can all come back to calm. So people come
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: to your Instagram, they see a climber, they've heard all
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: of the news, they see two hundred and seventy five
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: thousand followers. When you look in the mirror, what is
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: it that you see looking back at you?
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: I see a woman who has achieved her life dream
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: and is a little bit strazzled, a little bit confused
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: about what's next, but is completely accepting of that at
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: the moment.
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: At the moment.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: So then at the moment, what else excites you Besides
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: the kicking back with Adrian this.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Weekend, another thing that excites me is we are going
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: to go clar I mean we're going to go on
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: the road starting on Monday. We're going to go climb
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: some smaller cliffs. We're going to go support climbing outside
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: of Las Vegas. And Adrian has a goal that he's
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: been working towards for a few months actually maybe a
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: year now, and so we're going to focus on his goal.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: So it'll be kind of fun to sit back. I'm
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: still going to climb, but like take a back seat
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: and like focus on what like put the energy towards
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: him and his achievement and hopefully be a good supporter.
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: What a special relationship that the time you have.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: You mentioned choosing at one point between being a lawyer
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: and being a climber. Do you ever see yourself going
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: back and maybe becoming a lawyer.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It's always in the back of my head,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: but I'm not right now. I'm pretty psyched on climbing.
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: Right now. It's a pretty good thing for me.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: I'm still not bored. So what I keep doing that
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: you have.
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: An opportunity right now to offer yourself a piece of advice.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: And I feel like the biggest hurdle that we've talked
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: about recently is that is that scary fall that you
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: had on l CAP. You have an opportunity to offer
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: yourself one piece of advice. Going through that hurdle right now,
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: what do you tell yourself?
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: I think I think it goes back to like slowing down.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: Just really, I would I would actually just say breathe.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: That's what I would say. Just breathe. Stop, take a breath,
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: and then assess.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: Stop, take a breath and assess. Thank you so much
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: for your time today. I am I can't even tell
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: you how much I appreciate it.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, thank you so much. That was awesome.
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: Beyond how do the hurdlers keep up with you? How
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: do they follow you? Give me all of the details.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so my Instagram. I use my Instagram mainly for
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: social that's my main social media at Emily A. Harrington
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: and then Adrian and I have a YouTube channel that
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: we put out episodes every two weeks. It's called Dangerstick TV.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: It's yeah, danger is my nick and Stick his nickname
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: it's f G I K. So Dangerous Stick TV is
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: on YouTube and you can watch longer form episodes about
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: what we're up to. And we should have a Yosemite
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: one coming out very soon.
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: Is there going to be an episode based on the climb?
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there is actually maybe two.
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: I'm so amped, so amped.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: I am at Emily Abadi at Hurdle Podcast another Hurdle Conquered.
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.