The Climbing Majority

Steven Dimmitt is the host of The Nugget Climbing Podcast, labeled as "one of the best long-form interview podcasts in the outdoor space" by Outside Magazine, with over 300 episodes and conversations spanning some of the sport's most accomplished athletes, coaches, and thinkers. He's also a serious climber in his own right — double digit boulderer, onsighting 5.13a, training out of the Tension HQ in Colorado, and building a body of climbing experience that informs how he approaches every conversation on the show. Beyond the podcast, Steven now runs a coaching accelerator, translating years of pattern recognition from his interviews into practical guidance for climbers trying to get better.

When I first started podcasting I looked around me in the space for inspiration. Who was at the top doing exactly what I wanted to be doing? Steven Dimmitt and his podcast The Nugget was one of them. Now having had five years and over 100 episodes of my own podcasting experience I wanted to speak creator to creator about the journey of self growth, development, and lessons learned from producing over 300 podcast episodes with some of the world's most elite climbers. I feel like Steven continues to be one of the more thoughtful voices in climbing media and this conversation is a look inside how he thinks — about the sport, about the work, and about what it actually means to build something meaningful in a noisy digital world.
#bouldering #climbingtraining #climbingcreator

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Resources:

The Nugget Climbing Podcast
https://thenuggetclimbing.com/

Explore The Nugget Training App & The Climb Accelerator
https://thenuggetclimbing.com/coaching/#climb-accelerator

Cover Image by William Woodward

Noah Kane is a creator first and a climber second. He first picked up a camera when he was only 10 years old. From those early days he already found a proclivity for creating content while crafting horror scenes, comedy skits, and digital effect experiments. While in film school, his adventurous spirit rejected dense urban life and caused a profound shift in life trajectory. Soon after he found climbing, and simultaneously, a new place for all his creative efforts. In our conversation we talk about his development as a creator and a climber. How he's progressed to hard 5.12 trad climbing and grown one of the most well known climbing Youtube Channels in the world. We talk about the craft of adventure storytelling and what it actually looks like to live a life of creating content in the vertical world. 

I've been an admirer of Noah Kane both as a creator and a climber for years now. As a creator and climber myself his talent behind a camera, ability to craft a story, and development as a adventure-first climber has been an inspiration. I've had Noah Kane on my list for years but it has only been until recently where I felt the show was ready for him. I was beyond stoked to have a chance to sit down with him in person during my recent "Washington Triple" trip.
#climbingcreator
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Noah's IG

December 19th, 2022; the last time Ryan Jenks and I sat down for TCM episode 29. Now nearly four years and almost 100 episodes later, we sit down again; evolved humans with new projects, new lives, and the same sense of obsession over what we're building. I flew out to Ryan's hometown in Washington with all my studio equipment to record this conversation in person at the HowNOT2 headquarters.
Since we last spoke, Ryan has built HowNOT2 into a real business — an online retail store with a physical storefront and roughly a dozen employees to make it all run. HowNOT2 has now become a full media, testing, and retail operation. Ryan sees his store as a direct response to the frustrations climbers experience when ordering gear from the big online retailers: shipping delays, poor customer service, wrong items, less than ideal communication. Every internal system he's building exists to solve one of those problems from the inside so the customer never has to deal with it. And he's done it without compromising the mission that started it: putting hard data behind climbing gear that has always relied on assumption and tradition. His long term vision? The retail store is here to fund the continued expansion of his Youtube channel and the science behind testing gear.
In this conversation we go deep on the business behind HowNOT2 — how he thinks about scaling, hiring, and building the systems that make his retail store thrive. We talk about product development, from the drill-powered ascender he’s partnered with in China to his ambitions for making his own line of gear. We get into the philosophy that drives everything he does and talk honestly about the cost — the burnout, the personal money still going in, and the 1,000 decisions that got him here.
#rockclimbing #climbing #climbinggear

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HowNOT2 Store (The Best Climbing Store Online)

Picking right up where we left off in the previous episode with Myles and Harry. If you haven't listened to episode 125 be sure to go back before continuing here.
The Central Tower of Torres del Paine in Patagonia has been on the radar of many elite climbers ever since Tyler Karow's viral YouTube vlog documenting his ascent of the South African Route during an unprecedented long weather window. This past winter, several teams from around the world came down to test themselves on the slightly overhanging 4,000ft thumb of granite. You've probably heard of Tommy Caldwell and Siebe Vanhee's remarkable 24-hour free ascent of the South African Route, or the first all-female ascent by Belen Prados, Caro North, Amelie Kühne, and Julia Cassou. While climbing icons were making headlines, Myles Moser and his team were just around the corner making history of their own.
In this part of the conversation we dive deeper into what happened on the first expedition including a flash freeze the forced the entire team into a e-bivy. We explore how they managed resources on the wall, how a death block that Myles had found on the first expedition almost took out the entire team on trip two, and we go into the summit bid and descent. 
This team is not sponsored. Every person on this expedition contributed their own money, gear, and time to make it happen. Which is exactly why this route — and their remarkable collective effort — has gone largely unnoticed in the wider climbing community, overshadowed by the catchy headlines of sponsored athletes. In alignment with the purpose of this podcast, I'm here to tell their story.
This is part 2 of 2 of my conversation with Myles Moser and Harry Kinnard.
#patagonia #firstascent #bigwall
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Both Myles and Harry have written remarkable journals from their time on the wall — filled with personal anecdotes and intimate moments not fully shared in this podcast. If you'd like to read them, they're available to Patreon subscribers.
Help Support The Show & Unlock The Ad-Free Podcast

Resources

Myles' IG

Harry's IG

Trevor's IG

Kellen McGrath's IG

Cover Photo Credit: Trevor Anthes

The Central Tower of Torres del Paine in Patagonia has been on the radar of many elite climbers ever since Tyler Karow's viral YouTube vlog documenting his ascent of the South African Route during an unprecedented long weather window. This past winter, several teams from around the world came down to test themselves on the slightly overhanging 4,000ft thumb of granite. You've probably heard of Tommy Caldwell and Siebe Vanhee's remarkable 24-hour free ascent of the South African Route, or the first all-female ascent by Belen Prados, Caro North, Amelie Kühne, and Julia Cassou. While climbing icons were making headlines, Myles Moser and his team were just around the corner making history of their own.
Nearly 15 years ago, Myles and Amy Ness established Plate Tectonics, a grueling 3,300ft Grade VI 5.12 C1 on the East Face of the North Tower — a route they were both lucky to survive. The North Tower offers a remarkable view of the Central Tower, and it was from that vantage point that Myles first began imagining a new line up its unclimbed east face. That vision finally came true this past winter.
Myles approaches new routes with a very specific style: ground up, capsule style. Once they leave the ground, they does everything possible to never come back until the route is finished — bringing everything they needs to live on the wall for up to a month, dedicating every waking second to pioneering a masterful, safe, repeatable, and free-climbable route up an unclimbed tower of granite. It's an approach that reflects Myles' blue-collar work ethic and a depth of passion for route development that's only found in the most elite climbers in the world. It took two expeditions over two years, $60K of personal funds, and a cumulative 71 days on the wall to establish his new route up the Central Tower. Together with Hugo Perez, Kellen McGrath, Trevor Anthes, and Harry Kinnard, Myles successfully completed the first ascent of Paradigm Shift — Grade VII 5.12+ A2, 4,000ft.
This team is not sponsored. Every person on this expedition contributed their own money, gear, and time to make it happen. Which is exactly why this route — and their remarkable collective effort — has gone largely unnoticed in the wider climbing community, overshadowed by the catchy headlines of sponsored athletes. In alignment with the purpose of this podcast, I'm here to tell their story.
If you've been following the show for a while, you'll remember episodes 67 and 68 where I last spoke with Myles. If you haven't heard those, I highly encourage you to go back and check them out — they add real context to who Myles is and the depth of experience he brings to Patagonia's big walls.
This is part 1 of 2 of my conversation with Myles Moser and Harry Kinnard.
#patagonia #firstascent #bigwall
Thanks to our sponsors!

LIVSN Designs

Checkout Their Ecotrek Trail Pants HERE

Use Code "TCM15" At Checkout for an extra 15% OFF Your Order
Both Myles and Harry have written remarkable journals from their time on the wall — filled with personal anecdotes and intimate moments not fully shared in this podcast. If you'd like to read them, they're available to Patreon subscribers.
Help Support The Show & Unlock The Ad-Free Podcast

Resources

Myles' IG

Harry's IG

Trevor's IG

Kellen McGrath's IG

Cover Photo Credit: Trevor Anthes