PODCAST

The Thundercling Podcast

Dave McAllister

A Super Awesome Rock Climbing Explosion Thunderpod

sports wilderness

All Episodes

1:43:24

Episode 42: Jamie Emerson – On the state of Mt. Evans...

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2022/11/25

Betcha didn't expect this! Jamie joins the boys once again for an in-depth chat on the state of Mt. Evans bouldering just after his beautiful new guidebook hit the shelves. If you're psyched on the alpine and want to know all the issues bubbling around access and best practices, you won't want to skip this one.Thanks for the listens, gang. Life is busy, trips are many, and this bonkers little podcast project just couldn't make the cut. Fidi switched careers, bought a house, and got engaged! I

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1:56:07

Episode 41: Cameron Maier — The Rise of Bearcam

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/12/30

It's funny where we end up, this random world kind of chucking us around like socks in the laundry. Existential mysteries aside, watching the folks around us land where they were meant to be is one of the great joys of being a human. After leaving Delaware for the mountains of Colorado, Cameron Maier joined a trail crew in Rocky Mountain National Park, already infatuated with climbing and hoping to put to use a college degree. When he was furloughed in 2010 as the season drew to a close, Cam

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1:55:04

Episode 40: Molly Mitchell — Good Enough

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/11/16

Photo: Tory Powers Listening to her speak while reclined in bed, locked into a stabilizing back brace after a trad fall that saw her fracture two vertebrae, I couldn't help but think, Molly Mitchell makes sound and brave decisions. Weird, huh? While making a name for herself after crushing 5.14 sport and authoring bold and dangerous traditional first ascents, Molly kicked down the door when she became the 7th woman to climb 5.14 trad with her ascent of China Doll in Upper Dream Canyon,

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2:00:33

Episode 39: Albert Ok — The Human Ghost Pepper

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/10/06

Albert Ok showed up to my house with a package of raw ghost peppers. They remain on my porch table because I'm terrified of them. He began that day in Clear Creek Canyon, taking down "Moulin Rouge," a V10 rapidly gaining classic status on the Front Range. Then he joined Fidi for a session at Movement Baker. And after our chat he literally jogged off the porch because he was late for this third climbing session of the day, at the Denver Bouldering Club. The question is...is Albert Ok powered by ghost

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1:24:42

Episode 38: Drew Ruana — Just Getting Started

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/09/02

When Drew Ruana (21) was nine years old, already deep into infatuation, he dreamed of becoming the greatest climber on the planet. Heady stuff for a kid who still slept with a night light. And yet, 12 years later, he's well on his way to making that starry-eyed little tyke proud. Drew is in the midst of one of the most head-spinning runs in bouldering history. After missing the cut for the US Olympic team by the slimmest of margins, which we discuss at length, Drew stepped away from the

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1:53:35

Episode 37: Mac Gaugh — “I’m just trying to save this...

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/08/11

About an hour into our chat with Mac Gaugh, climber and owner of fledgling climbing apparel brand Creag, a dry microburst exploded and for a few minutes the wind did all the talking. At this point in 2020, you just kinda nod and acquiesce... Mac is certainly no stranger to microbursts unsheathing chaos and struggle. For the majority of his life he's fluctuated wildly between a cyclical loop of achievement and sabotage. Addiction crept into his life early, along with rock climbing. When sober he

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2:18:59

Episode 36: Aman Anderson — The Rise of an Industry...

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/07/01

It stands to reason many of you have never heard of Aman Anderson. He doesn't putz around on social media. His name, as far as I can tell, appears only once on his company's website. When his name is attached to work, it's generally citing his cutting edge data and analytics research, with titles such as, "Optimizing Muscular Strength-to-Weight Ratios in Rock Climbing." As a rule, spray does not equal import. Behind the scenes, for complicated reasons he elucidates in our conversation, Aman has

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3:23:40

Episode 35: Jamie Emerson — Rocky Mountain Iconoclast

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/06/11

Our hearts and minds, like the rest of the sane nation, are focused on the Black Lives Matter movement. Frankly, along with the implications of Covid-19 and a looming election, it dominates our thoughts and conversations. With confederate iconography tumbling, once-silent voices rising, and police reform seemingly inevitable, it's no time to lose focus. It's really all we're thinking about, reflecting on, and sending our meager efforts towards. 2020 has beaten us down, collectively. If you're not

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2:05:17

Episode 34: Chris Kalman — The Author

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/05/19

Chris Kalman wants you to know that he doesn't want to be famous anymore, not for writing and not for climbing. There was a time when he sought out heavy-hitting publishers and an agent to whisk him to climbing writing fame. This paradigm does not exist. There was a time when he was willing to give his life to the mountains, if that meant glory on the sharp end. This barter, also, doesn't really exist. Chris, after a life of honing his voice and etching his craft, has cemented his status as one

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1:37:06

Episode 33: Thomas Betterton and Don Bushey — A...

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/04/23

Nobody is struggling more in the climbing industry than independent business owners, from gear shops to guiding services to climbing gyms. They've been forced to close their doors, furlough dedicated employees, navigate hazy government support programs, and figure out what the future looks like when the cloud of Coronavirus lifts and, hopefully, dissipates. Thomas Betterton is the majority owner of the Denver Bouldering Club (DBC), two gyms and a third in the making. It is the core gym in Denver,

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1:23:30

Episode 32: Juliet Hammer, CSCS — Training Through...

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/03/29

Juliet Hammer wants to work. After compiling certificates and gaining her Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) accreditation, she spent almost two years building a clientele, filling her schedule with 35 sessions a week. And then, the coronavirus pandemic struck...and here we are, stuck in our houses, banished from the crags, and wondering how to stay fit in a time of high anxiety and restless quarantine. After initially losing the lion's share of her weekly sessions, Juliet

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34:31

Tiny Episode: We’ll Be Back In A Week…

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/03/13

You guys, listeners and friends, have been with us for almost two years. We dearly love creating this podcast, but sometimes life and death and love and sorrow happen. The next podcast is going to be a couple weeks late, and we think you deserve to know why. Last Friday, on March 6th, my friends Nolan Smythe and Aaron Livingston were blasting up Logical Progression (5.13), a free route on the 2,800-foot El Gigante wall in Basaseachic Falls National Park, Chihuahua, Mexico. Nolan, leading up pitch

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2:42:36

Episode 31: Ian Powell — Feeding the Right Wolf

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/02/28

Three decades ago, a skinny climber, a kid, walked into the Straight Up climbing hold warehouse in Boulder, CO, pestering the owner for a job as a shaper. He kept haunting the joint until the owner gave him a job and stuck him in a dusty corner of the warehouse. All these years later, that kid has built the legacy of the greatest hold shaper to ever take sandpaper to foam. Ian Powell began climbing in Waco, TX, eventually moving to Boulder to be closer to the mecca. Once in the door with Straight

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2:10:36

Episode 30: Hunter Damiani — What A Long Strange Trip...

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/02/06

It's not every day that you meet a climber who can effortlessly breathe authenticity into rock climbing. A climber of eye-popping ability who doesn't care about Instagram followers, doesn't care about grades, who really doesn't give a simple shit what anyone thinks. Hunter Damiani is one of those guys. Here in Colorado, Hunter is a known quantity. He's the artist behind the Spot gym's crazy Psychedelia Competition, random logo and commissioned work, and even Access Fund clothing. He is also one

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1:59:34

Episode 29: Chelsea Rude — The Reinvention

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2020/01/20

So, get this. Chelsea Rude, at the urging of her father, walked into a climbing gym for the first time at age 11. Two weeks later she entered a competition, having never really competed in any sporting event before. She took first place. That, obviously, is an auspicious start to a career in climbing. Chelsea began racking up victories so quickly and steadily that she dove into the JCCA (Junior Competition Climbing Association, formerly the American Sport Climber's Federation, and which shortly

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1:42:38

Episode 28: Sauce Night — A Slightly Inebriated...

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2019/12/30

Happy holidays, ya grungy cabal of crushers! We're ringing in the New Year with a Sauce Night, which was far overdue. The hot pink Christmas tree is glowing. The conversation is chippy. The Hungarian liqueur is flowing from a mysterious goblet. Slurring, like the flowing sands of time, eventually overtakes another Sauce Night... The regular crew of Travis and Lynn join Fidi and I, tackling another lap around the sun in the climbing-verse. We each present the stories, movies, events, and

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2:24:07

Episode 27: Kynan Waggoner — The Branches of the Tree

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2019/12/11

Certain people exist in our little world, people who push the buttons and massage the infrastructure and leave fingerprints in every nook. These revolutionaries will never receive recognition from the wider climbing galaxy, let alone the average climber clipping bolts at the local crag. They are the people behind the scenes; providing jobs, building the gyms in which we train, constructing the ballast upon which the sport relies. So, let's talk about Kynan Waggoner. In one of my favorite climbing

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1:31:46

Episode 26: Peter Mortimer — Director of Psych

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2019/11/18

You may not know who Peter Mortimer is, and that's fine by him. You're almost certainly intimate with is filmography, however, an ever-evolving array of groundbreaking films three decades in the making. Peter and his partners Josh Lowell and Nick Rosen (among many others) have collaborated to define the climbing film medium. They have literally delivered more climbing psych than any other humans on the planet. Peter, and his newly minted company Sender Films, launched his career with quirky

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2:11:36

Episode 25: Minko Nikolov — Survival After the...

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2019/10/30

Minko Nikolov, 31, had lived a pretty charmed life up to a couple months ago. Originally from Bulgaria, Minko discovered rock climbing through his local crags and a powerhouse gym located just minutes from his house. In the early 2000s, as the competition scene lay fairly dormant in the States, Minko launched himself into the Bulgarian circuit. He walked out of his first competition in second-to-last place. Less than a year later, he won the second comp he ever entered. That was just the beginning

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1:59:29

Episode 24: Boone Speed — Climbing’s DIY Maestro

The Thundercling Podcast ·

2019/10/11

Boone Speed. I was tempted to stop the intro right there... Boone Speed stands as one of the towering pillars in the climbing pantheon, a small town Utah kid who grew into an athletic and creative powerhouse, contributing more to the sport in half a life than most could in a couple. Let's spend just a moment dissecting his continuing legacy and then get down to business. Obviously, there's the climbing. Boone rocketed out of obscurity in the mid-80's, smack in the middle of the sport climbing

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