Smith Rock State Park

Oh, yeah.

I think it was maybe right in that time period that Alan Watts started developing Smith Rock out in Oregon.

Sure.

And...

And years later, the needles behind Mount Rushmore then became kind of a sport climbing area where they wrap down and they put in big, nice, shiny bolts close together.

And so that was maybe one of my first opportunities.

I took a trip out to the West Coast, and I did climb at Smith Rock, but one of my first opportunities, a sport climb nearby, was there at the Cussar State, not the Cussar State, but the Rushmore Needles area.

And that's a great area to climb, too.

And one of the things you mentioned was that this style of tree climbing shares some DNA with rock climbing.

So what would you say are the major similar- Like, if you're somebody who rock climbs, goes rock climbing at the gym, you know, has, has done maybe climbing at Smith Rock, like, what are the similarities and differences between this kind of tree climbing and rock climbing?

Um, there's a lot of similarities and a lot of differences, um, at the same time.

So, so, um, the equipment will be very similar, like we're using rope.

[laughs]

They don't, they don't care about, like, Smith Rock or, or, like, random rock climbing locations.

So they wouldn't watch it, and they would end up skewing the data.

Um, and it would never find a pure audience, and that's kinda what you want.

That's like a, a motto I, I do in my videos a lot is, "Put your helmets on for mom." We got-

Where did that come from?

Well, I was cli- I think I was climbing with Justin, and he randomly just said it, uh, before, when we were climbing at Smith Rock in Oregon.

And he just randomly said like, "All right, let's put our helmet on for mom." And I was like, "Wait, that's really funny, actually." [laughs] And then I started saying it every time we put our helmets on.

Like the diamond Lake area is amazing.

Come out early experience, you know, Smith rock diamond Lake and,

No, experience other places, but don't go hunting around the course.

It's

You know? Like, they, they almost, like, occupy their own grading scale, and I think that's all...

You know, just in the same way that I remember the first time I ever went to the VRG or The Hood or Smith Rock or Ceuse and, like, got completely destroyed, you know, because I went into it with the mentality of like, "I think I understand grades because I've been to these three places," or whatever.

I think in that same way, you know, eventually you learn that things that are of a really distinct style, like if you don't have that skillset, then you're gonna...

Like, it's gonna be difficult for you [laughs].

And one other little bit of business before we get to this tweener.

I'm going to be up at the newly created Smith Rock Climbing Festival on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th of October.

So the weekend right after the Horseshoe Hell, I will probably still be limping around in a daze.

However, this event has been created to replace the Kragen Classic up there, getting it off the ground.

But even though it's a new festival or a renamed old festival, whatever it is, it's going to include the fifth annual Rock Wrangler competition, which is a day of climbing for points and fun and prizes at Smith Rock.

I am not going to be participating in that.

I will just tell you that right now.

However, I will be doing a live podcast with Alan Watts on Friday night and going to help emcee the event and the party on Saturday night.

And it's worked out really well.

I have climbed the hardest I've ever climbed, 35 pounds heavier than I was when I was living at Smith Rock and starving myself.

So yeah.

So yeah, that's my story.

So they'll become leaner and they'll become a lot stronger, but they're not really going to be like bulky.

And then you got the other group who, like yourself, just puts on muscle easy.

So with these two, if this group were to artificially try to put on a lot of muscle, it would be no different than when you were at Smith Rock and just starving yourself.

It's essentially the other side of the same coin because now you're really artificially forcing something that your joints may not be able to handle, that might even feel awkward to your body to lift, to move on the rock.

He has a prosthetic leg.

And last weekend I was rock climbing at this area in Oregon called Smith Rock.

It's like a world-class rock climbing place.

It's gorgeous.

Yeah, I think that's...

Well, my first time climbing at Smith Rock, I had the pleasure to go out with Alan Watts, and the first route up, he was like, "You just need six draws for this," and it was, like, a nine-draw route.

Yeah.

And, and so, like, I had to run it out at the end.