Ethan Pringle: Common Climber Mistakes, Releasing Mental Baggage, and Finding Better Beta

Dec 3, 2025

Ethan Pringle, a professional rock climber with impressive ascents like Jumbo Love, shares insights on climbing mentalities and emotional breakthroughs. He discusses the discomfort of struggle and how it fosters growth, emphasizing the need to release negative narratives. Ethan also dives into the importance of prioritizing outdoor climbing and adapting to varied conditions. He introduces the concept of 'tired beta' for optimizing climbs and examines the balance between managing fear and assessing risks on challenging projects.

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INSIGHT

Struggle As Growth Opportunity

Ethan Pringle reframes struggle as opportunity rather than failure or suffering.
He views discomfort in climbing as a primary space for growth and learning.

ANECDOTE

Shedding A Self-Critical Narrative

Ethan candidly shares carrying a life-long story that he's a "bad person" and how it affected climbing performance.
After compassionate self-reframing he felt immediately lighter and climbed better.

ADVICE

Prioritize Training Commitments

Avoid sacrificing outdoor climbing time unless you commit to a full structured training cycle.
Ethan admits he prefers climbing outside and rarely completes long gym training blocks.

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In this episode, pro climber Ethan Pringle explores:

Dealing with discomfort
Releasing mental baggage
Struggling with self-image
Prioritizing outdoor climbing over indoor training
What he and Sharma have in common
Going back for unfinished business
Goals for Meltdown and La Rambla
The benefit of discovering “tired beta”
What the best boulderers do
There’s always better beta. Always.
A sport climber's mentality for bouldering
Managing risk and fear on scary boulders

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Shoutout to Matt Waltereese for being a Victory Whip supporter on Patreon! So mega.

Here are some AI generated show notes (hopefully the robots got it right)

00:00 Introduction

01:26 Ethan Pringle's Climbing Achievements

02:49 Deep Dive into Climbing Philosophy

04:25 Interview Begins: Ethan's Background and Struggles

12:03 Mindset and Emotional Challenges in Climbing

56:09 Unlocking Beta: The Key to Climbing Success

57:42 The Philosophy of Constant Refinement

01:00:23 Creative Solutions and Beta Breakthroughs

01:03:37 The Importance of Strategy and Tactics

01:19:11 Managing Fear and Mental Barriers in Climbing

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The Struggle is carbon-neutral in partnership with The Honnold Foundation, whose mission is to promote solar energy for a more equitable world.

This show is produced and hosted by Ryan Devlin, and edited by Glen Walker. The Struggle is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a diverse group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.

The struggle makes us stronger! I hope your training and climbing are going great.

And now here are some buzzwords to help the almighty algorithm get this show in front of people who love to climb: rock climbing, rock climber, climbing, climber, bouldering, sport climbing, gym climbing, how to rock climb, donuts are amazing. Okay, whew, that’s done. But hey, if you’re a human that’s actually reading this, and if you love this show (and love to climb) would you think about sharing this episode with a climber friend of yours? And shout it out on your socials? I’ll send you a sticker for doing it. Just shoot me a message on IG – thanks so much!