The Climbing Initiative is a nonprofit supporting the sustainable and equitable growth of climbing worldwide. It began in 2019 as a research project at Yale University documenting the international expansion of climbing and its economic, social, and environmental effects. Now the group advises climbing organizations, spreads best practices, and works directly with climbing communities around the world to help them flourish. Today I sit down with Executive Director Veronica Baker to discuss the mission of The Climbing Initiative (TCI) and the challenges they - and we as the global climbing community - face.  We also discuss their Best Practices project - a collection of living documents that is gathering the voices of climbing leaders around the world to shape the future development of our sport. As climbing grows, it is having incredible economic, social, and environmental impacts. Climbers are creating new hotspots for ecotourism, building tight-knit communities, advocating for the conservation of natural areas, and using climbing to uplift and inspire. In their work partnering with local climbing communities, they’ve connected with many climbing leaders paving the way with innovative approaches. As a result, the Best Practices are focused on six main areas: crag development & maintenance environmental conservation equity & inclusivity community engagement economic impact building climbing organizations Support The Climbing Initiative. Check out the Best Practices. Watch the Access Fund videos we mention in the episode. Find TCI on Instagram. We don't tweet. We scream like eagles.   The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

In this episode I sit down with my friend Lauren Abernathy, who you might recognize from Good Spray Coaching. We first discuss the change from being a weekend warrior to being in the midst of her first trip specifically for a big, ambitious project as a full time coach who can climb when she wants to. We also get into the challenges of being a female coach - having your expertise questioned and dealing with the abundance of mostly male internet idiots.  You can find Lauren online at Good Spray Climbing. Follow her on Instagram. From now until the end of December, use the code GOODSPRAY to get 20% off of any of her self-guided programs you'll find HERE. NEW PLUGTONE PODCAST ALERT!  Breaking Beta drops on Wednesday Dec. 8th! We are happy to welcome Switchback: An Outdoor Community Podcast hosted by Kelsee Keitel, a licensed educator and outdoor based mental health counselor. You can listen to a short episode that I really enjoyed, Curiosity Killed the Criticism, on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts. And in this very episode we announce a brand new podcast we have in development! Go listen! We don't tweet. We scream like eagles.   The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

Introducing a new podcast brought to you by Power Company Climbing, Crux Conditioning, and Plug Tone Audio: Breaking Beta! Is it possible to make research and science both more fun - and frankly - more useful for coaches and climbers? That’s what we needed to answer. Now that we’re a few episodes into recording this podcast, I can honestly answer YES. It takes a lot of work, but yes. Our goal is to do that work for you. In this podcast, coaches Paul Corsaro and Kris Hampton are getting together in the lab weekly to look at the body of research - both climbing specific and more general sports science - that is often cited by climbers on their quest to improve. We’ll take each study, break it into its components, explain it in a way that doesn’t make your eyes glaze over, and then discuss what we find useful and as well as the ways in which these studies are so wildly misinterpreted by damn near every one of us. Season 1 of Breaking Beta drops on Wednesday, December 8th. Every week for 10 weeks we’ll be getting deep into finger strength, tendon health, creatine, flexibility, climbing specific injury, and more. What the research says, what it doesn’t, and how you’ve been getting it all wrong. Make sure you’re subscribed, hit the follow button on Spotify, and tell your friends to tell a friend. Particularly that one friend who is always citing his wild misinterpretation of the research. Tell him you’ve got the perfect podcast for him. Brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning. Find Kris and our main Breaking Beta content on Instagram. Find Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram. Get transcripts, citations, and more at our site. Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord. Breaking Beta is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective.   The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

Dear Alex, Congrats on 100 V10's!    Follow Alex on Instagram. We don't tweet. We scream like eagles.   The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

Andy Leung is the head setter of Climb Time Cincinnati - a community that is near and dear to my heart. In this episode we discuss not only the career of routesetting, but also what it means to both the setter and the community, how it can help us all grow, and what to keep in mind in order to keep moving forward.  Follow Andy on Instagram. Learn more about Climb Time. You can find the Breaking Beta Podcast on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts. We don't tweet. We scream like eagles.   The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

In this Board Meeting, rather than make a list, Kris and Nate discuss their individual top picks for the most common, most egregious, absolute worst tactic we see sport climbers using. If you're making this mistake, consider actively exploring something different in your next session. We don't tweet. We scream like eagles.   The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

In this Board Meeting, rather than make a list, Kris and Nate discuss their individual top picks for the most common, most egregious, absolute worst tactic we see boulderers using. If you're making this mistake, consider actively exploring something different in your next session. Watch The Worst Punt of all Time video. We don't tweet. We scream like eagles.   The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

How do we get better at climbing? That's a question we ask, and are asked, ALL THE TIME. One of the best answers is certainly something along the lines of, "Be very intentional about challenging yourself while climbing as many things as you can." A bit simplistic, but it works.  Kerry Scott embodies this. From her goal to climb 100 new boulders in a year from V3 to V11, to doing her hardest boulders, to her recent send of Mango Tango (14a) in the New River Gorge on a week long trip, Kerry gets after it. Consistently.  Check out Kerry's 100 Boulders Diamond. Follow Kerry on Instagram. We don't tweet. We scream like eagles.   The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

Juliet Hammer is a straight up crusher, with over 30 double digit boulders under her belt. Still, she isn't immune to the dark side of the internet. The side which so regularly has to push their "expertise" on grades and climbing. Many of these people are too incompetent to understand how incompetent they are - the Dunning-Kruger Effect. And their comments can be harmful to not only the original poster, but anyone who reads them. In this episode, Juliet and I unpack a recent reel she posted to Instagram, of a V10 gym boulder, that brought the trolls out.  Watch the reel we discuss in the episode. Follow Juliet on Instagram. Check out Juliet's website. Check out these other episodes we mention: Caroline Wickes | Eating Disorders in Climbing Kerry Scott | Pride or Spray? We don't tweet. We scream like eagles.   The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

Doing the work in a social media world can take its toll. Today, good friends Briana Mazzolini-Blanchard and Devin Dabney discuss the hammers they wield, the way they interact with the work they do in public, and what that might mean for their well-being. Learn more about Climb L8. Follow Briana on Instagram. Learn more about The American Climbing Project. Follow Devin on Instagram. We don't tweet. We scream like eagles.   The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.