Climbing Gold

Climbing Gold

When climbing was a fringe sport, the epic tales of achievement were told around the campfire. As the sport continues to grow, Alex Honnold and co-host Fitz Cahall grab the mic to share stories from the people who define climbing by pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo of the previous generation.

Episodes

August 8, 2025 63 mins
Katie Lamb has been cutting her teeth on a steady diet of some of the country’s hardest boulders. When she became the first woman to climb V16, she was surprised by the spotlight that came with that breakthrough and the ensuing online drama after the problem was downgraded. Today, Katie has climbed V16 again and her motivation has never been more in focus.   Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors The North Face ...
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Together, Jesse and Molly Dufton create one of the most unique partnerships in rock climbing. Jesse knew two things from a young age. The feeling that traditional climbing gave him was something that he wanted to pursue through life and that a genetic disorder would eventually rob him of his sight. Through the years Jesse and Molly figured a path forward through a shared life of adventure climbing and first ascents.    Watch Climb...
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July 11, 2025 61 mins
Sonnie Trotter would never admit to being Canada’s best rock climber, but his multi-decade career of cutting-edge trad climbs and nails-hard sport routes certainly puts him in that conversation. In his new book, Sonnie looks back to the people, experiences and community that defined his path into professional climbing. Just don’t take financial advice from him. Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors The North Fa...
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June 27, 2025 51 mins
Writer Cassidy Randall’s new book Thirty Below unearths the story of the first all-female ascent of Denali in 1970 and reveals a deeper story of ambition and teamwork. It’s an incredible story with complex characters. In a sport obsessed with legends and heroics, why did the Denali Damsels nearly fade into history?   Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors The North Face Check out Summit Series at thenorthface...
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June 13, 2025 55 mins
Elite competition is a young person's game, but when 44-year-old legend Chris Sharma witnessed climbing on the Olympic stage last summer, it lit a fire in him, or at least a small flame. Chris undeniably changed climbing bringing the sport into its modern era, establishing the 5.15 grade, winning World Cups and World Championships as a teen, but an Olympics appearance is the one thing missing. LA 2028 is definitely on his mind. Fir...
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May 30, 2025 48 mins
Amity Warme first showed up in Yosemite Valley in 2019 young, scrappy and in love with the adventurous side of our sport. What’s followed since is a meteoric rise through the discipline of traditional and big wall free climbing. What’s taken some of the world’s best to do over decades, Amity has squeezed into five years. What makes Amity so special? We dig in.  Book of Hate Video Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our ...
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May 16, 2025 56 mins
In 2021, Vitaliy Musiyenko closed the chapter on a years-long obsession with a 32-mile-ridge line featuring 60 summits in the heart of the Sierra. The Goliath Traverse is likely the longest ridge traverse ever completed on the planet. For Vitaliy, it was part of a much larger journey that began with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.  Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors The North Face Check out Summit Series at ...
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In 2024, Michaela Kiersch became the first woman to climb both V15 and 5.15 putting her on climbing’s global radar. To midwest climbers and those in the know, she was already a legend for her incredible training sessions and ability to balance a career outside climbing. Alex and Michaela chat about what it’s like to become a part of history, the lessons learned from losing a parent at a young age and her incredible 2024. Watch ...
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April 18, 2025 63 mins
After rising to the highest echelon of professional skiing, Cody Townsend took a step back and embraced climbing to take him to the next chapter of his career. Today, Cody sits on the cusp of completing an all-time goal – climbing and skiing the 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America.  Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors The North Face Check out Summit Series at thenorthface.com  David Buy 4 cartons and get ...
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April 4, 2025 50 mins
We are back with the Greatest of All Time – Janja Garnbret. For the last decade, Janja has dominated competitive climbing, capping it off with her second gold medal at the Olympics last summer. Where does she find the motivation to keep improving when she’s won everything there is to win? Watch Climbing Gold on YouTube Thanks to our sponsors The North Face Check out Summit Series at thenorthface.com Kodiak Cakes Find Kodiak prod...
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November 1, 2024 52 mins
Ben Mayforth’s strength is a sight to behold. The professional paraclimber’s social clips of campusing double digit boulder problems may have made it into your social feed, but his story runs much deeper than any grade or route. It’s a story of hard work, belonging and finding a path in the world.  Forerunner features Alex Johnson Adapted Part 1 and Part 2 features Mo Beck Thanks to our sponsors The North Face  Henson Shaving Use...
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October 25, 2024 51 mins
Last summer, Alex and Tommy Caldwell rode bikes from Estes Park, Colorado to SE Alaska where they boarded a sailboat which dropped them beneath the fabled Devil’s Thumb. Their adventure is now a film on Disney+, but a lot of the experience got left on the cutting room floor. We sat down with Tommy and their photographer/wingman, Taylor Shaffer, to dive deeper into the journey. The Devil's Climb trailer Thanks to our sponsors The N...
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October 18, 2024 55 mins
Tucked away in a corner of Chilean Patagonia, Valle Cochamó wasn’t going to stay hidden forever. The soaring unclimbed granite walls instilled dreams of first ascents in climbers. Industrialists eyed its free flowing rivers with their potential for hydroelectric power. Conservationists hoped it could provide a final puzzle piece of an incredible protected wildlife corridor. To the families who live there, it was simply home where t...
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October 11, 2024 65 mins
5.13 at 78. That’s staggering, but the numbers don’t capture the breadth of Jamie Logan’s climbing career, which now spans seven decades. Through every chapter of our sport, Jamie has been a contributor from pioneering free climbing in the 1960’s to leading design trends of the modern gym. The risk she took in her 70’s may ultimately prove to be the most lasting pillar of her legacy. Never be afraid of who you are.  Watch Jamie fi...
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October 4, 2024 61 mins
Alpinist and photographer Cory Richards was living at full speed. A steady stream of Himalayan expeditions and assignments from National Geographic kept him relentlessly moving around the world. Meanwhile, his long struggle with bi-polar disorder, PTSD, alcoholism, and sex addiction hit new lows until Cory’s world came undone. Today, Cory’s stepped away from both climbing and photography, has written two books and in a lot of ways,...
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September 27, 2024 43 mins
El Cap. Free. In a day. Putting those words on your resume puts you in the league of legends. How did that become the bar? Lynn Hill. A singular athlete who stepped up to the biggest stage in climbing, Lynn redefined what was athletically possible not just for her generation, but generations to come. Emily Harrington and Beth Rodden add their perspective on the momentous achievement.  “It Goes Boys” poster Thanks to our sponsors ...
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September 20, 2024 67 mins
Ms. 5.15 – that was the moniker the climbing world bestowed on Margo Hayes after she became the first woman to climb the grade. Two more 5.15’s followed and Margo seemed poised to be a defining climber of her generation. Yet, in the background, Margo was quietly struggling with Lyme disease and exploring other interests when she wasn’t healthy enough to give climbing her all. What does a professional climber owe their sport, their ...
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September 13, 2024 47 mins
While most of the elite climbing world has turned its attention to raw difficulty in sport and bouldering, Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher have been carrying the torch for hard, sometimes dangerous, traditional climbing. We talk about Eternal Flame, managing risk and getting sandbagged in Yosemite.  Thanks to our sponsors The North Face  COROS Use code CLIMBINGGOLD to get a free watch carabiner with the purchase of a VERTIX 2s wa...
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September 6, 2024 38 mins
Beth Rodden started climbing in 1995, and it wasn’t long before she radically changed the sport. Within three years, she’d become the first woman to climb 5.14; within five, she established a still unrepeated free route on Yosemite’s El Capitan. Today, Beth is making waves in a different way: by leading the climbing community in difficult, vulnerable conversations. Fitz chats with Beth about her new book, A Light Through The Cracks...
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August 30, 2024 43 mins
After a protracted battle over bolts and sport climbing, American climbers nearly lost the ability to climb on public lands in the early 1990s. It would have completely altered the course of our sport. Fortunately, lawyer and climber Armando Menocal rose to the challenge of protecting climbing for generations to come, despite the fact that many climbers hoped he would fail. We take a peek into the early days of the Access Fund and ...
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