Fame and authenticity don’t always go hand in hand. We’d love to believe that in climbing they always do, but that just isn’t the case. As someone who makes their living in a very public way within the climbing industry, I’m hyper aware of my own authenticity, and I watch other public figures in our tiny sphere to see how they navigate. Because Sasha is at the top, I watch her closely.

In this episode Sasha and I sit down in her house in Boulder, CO to discuss her recent trip to Alberta, Canada. She drove north alone, after a break up and social media firestorm, to climb the Rockies Trilogy, first established by Sonnie Trotter. Three 5.14 big walls. No small undertaking. She struggled, doubted, pulled it back together and sent, and she found out in a big way how to be a climber again.