Episode 122: Board Meetings | Listener Questions - Roadtripping

In this episode, Nate and I sit down to answer a few listener questions that came in via Instagram Story. Many of you had similar ideas of what we should talk about, so we tried to weave together a narrative to answer some of them. More coming!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Kris Hampton  00:31

 What's up everybody? I'm your host, Kris Hampton.

Nate Drolet  00:34

And this is Nate Drolet.

Kris Hampton  00:36

And together we form Ozzie and Harriet. Do you understand the what I'm trying to get out there? 

Nate Drolet  00:44

Yes. 

Kris Hampton  00:45

What am I getting at?

Nate Drolet  00:45

 Ozzy Osborne.

Kris Hampton  00:46

No! Hell no. Ozzy Osborne

Nate Drolet  00:48

Ahh. Wait, what is her is name?

Kris Hampton  00:50

No, I'm going to Oz-stralia soon. 

Nate Drolet  00:54

<<whispers>> Ozzy Osbourne. Ozzie and Harriet. <<whispers>> I don't know. 

Kris Hampton  00:57

Oz...oh zee..... Australia

Nate Drolet  00:59

Wait, what was Harriet then?

Kris Hampton  01:01

I have no idea. 

Nate Drolet  01:01

Oh!

Kris Hampton  01:02

That just popped in my head.

Nate Drolet  01:03

It was a trap.

Kris Hampton  01:03

 Haha. 

Nate Drolet  01:04

Sharon!

Kris Hampton  01:07

I don't think Osborne is the Ozzy in Ozzie and Harriet either. 

Nate Drolet  01:11

No

Kris Hampton  01:12

No. 

Nate Drolet  01:13

Ozzy and Sharon, I think

Kris Hampton  01:14

Yeah, but I don't think they're like, nearly as iconic as Ozzie and Harriet. 

Nate Drolet  01:19

Haha

Kris Hampton  01:20

Just saying. But yeah, going to Australia soon. It almost didn't happen. The Australian government even I'm gonna say this right now Australia. I love you all already. But even though your country was settled as a penal colony... is that true, by the way? 

Nate Drolet  01:40

I'm pretty sure

Kris Hampton  01:40

I think it's true. Maybe not. I don't know. Maybe this is maybe these are false history, you know, fake news. I don't know. But it took me three and a half hours to fill out my application for a visa because they need to know every single time I've ever broken the law in my entire life. And they didn't give me enough characters to fill it out, ao I had to attach it as a PDF, which was terrifying because I thought for sure they weren't gonna let me in.

Nate Drolet  02:12

Haha. Maybe it's like Boy Scout badges there. They just need to know what to pin pin on you whenever you get down.

Kris Hampton  02:16

True. Maybe they're stoked that I've got so many charges in my distant past. 

Nate Drolet  02:21

Yeah, exactly. 

Kris Hampton  02:22

Oh, sick. Australia, we're friends already. But yeah, it is happening. They did, they did decide to let me in, so we are going. And I will be at, for all of you in Australia, I will be at Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym Villawood. I will be at North Walls in Melbourne. I will be at Portside Boulders in Perth. And I'll also be spending some time in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains with some friends of mine and in the Grampians and Arapiles area. Which I just heard, they're shutting down some of the Grampians like cultural, archaeological reasons and that kind of sucks. But, you know, we'll just have to honor that. I think that's the thing to do. 

Nate Drolet  03:10

Yeah

Kris Hampton  03:11

Follow the local traditions and ethics and culture best we can. So trying to keep up on what's going on out there so I don't end up on a shutdown route that you know, was shut down the day before and then I'm that guy. 

Nate Drolet  03:24

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  03:25

Try not to be that guy. We are in Hueco Tanks. Today's episode is gonna be a little bit different because Nate and I recently asked for topics on the Instagram and a bunch of you came through with some really great ideas that we were sort of able to put into a little linear progression for the conversation. And if we don't get to your question, it's either going to be a future standalone Board Meeting, or you're just Dru Mack spamming us because you want to be on another Board Meeting. 

Nate Drolet  04:05

It's not going to work Dru

Kris Hampton  04:06

Not going to work Dru, sorry. You've had too much time this year, Dru, in the last 12 months. We are not giving you any more. So I guess we should just jump into this since we're rather than you know, asking what you've been up to, we're kind of going to talk about what you've been up to here, right? 

Nate Drolet  04:25

Yeah.

Kris Hampton  04:27

 Yeah. So just jumping in. The first question comes from Murdock Taylor and he just said "Prepping for a big trip." He wants to know about prepping for a big trip and when going on a long climbing trip, should you stick to one discipline? And I mean, the prep is a big, gigantic part of going on these kinds of trips. Even if you're a relatively full time climber, if you've got objectives in the place where you're going, you want to put some sort of prep in other than just hope, you know.

Nate Drolet  05:02

 Yeah

Kris Hampton  05:03

 I mean hope is much easier than training, but it doesn't work nearly as well most of the time.

Nate Drolet  05:07

Thoughts and prayers for my current strength, y'all.

Kris Hampton  05:11

 I need thoughts and prayers for my crimp strength. Sloper strength is another story but prayers, please, for my crimps. So tell me a little bit about prepping for for your trip and what the kind of the global basic ideas behind it were. How did you decide on how you were going to prep? That sort of thing.

Nate Drolet  05:32

Yeah. Um, for me, this trip was a bit different than normal because I've been telling everyone that I'm going to start sport climbing again. Who knows if it's actually going to happen. 

Kris Hampton  05:43

And now you're in Hueco

Nate Drolet  05:44

I know. And people are like, "Hey, you should go to Joe's." and I'm like, "That sounds great." So prepping before this trip, I...so this is one of the first times I've ever been fairly open with my goals before. I plan on going to the Red after this and I want to try and do Southern Smoke. That's plan. And in the fall, I tried that as well as the boulder problem that leads into it for the direct and the boulder problem is somewhere around V 12 or so. And so my goal now is to just get a lot of endurance and be able to climb V12. Which is

Kris Hampton  06:22

Which sounds like they're at odds

Nate Drolet  06:24

A little bit. It's super cool, though, because this is the first time this is the first time I've ever been on a route that I was like, "Oh, this is what people mean when they say, 'Really play to your strengths' when you try and climb something hard." I think like I've always been just attracted to different styles of routes and this is the first time I've been like, "Okay, yeah". This is like it's sandstone power boulder into a sandstone, like endurance route.

Kris Hampton  06:55

It'd be really weird if it was a sandstone power boulder into a granite tech fest.

Nate Drolet  07:00

What if it was Sinks Canyon and you traversed from the sandstone through the limestone into the granite? 

Kris Hampton  07:05

Haha. I wonder if you could? 

Nate Drolet  07:06

That would be a lot of traversing. Yeah, so it's one of those things that fits me really well. It's super fun. And so I'm psyched to try it. So right now in Hueco, my goal here is supposed to be climbing a lot of volume so that I get really, I stay really fit, and continue building fitness so that when I get to the Red, I'm doing all that. But in the back of my head, when I was preparing for this, I knew that that wouldn't be the only thing I would do. So I was doing a ton of endurance training before this and then I was also just trying really hard boulders in the gym. Because I want to try and send some hard things.

Kris Hampton  07:45

Yeah, and V12 is hard. I mean

Nate Drolet  07:47

Yeah!

Kris Hampton  07:47

You know, you're gonna have to be climbing V12. 

Nate Drolet  07:49

I find it very challenging.

Kris Hampton  07:50

And if I don't do the V12, your endurance means shit, because it's right off the ground. 

Nate Drolet  07:56

Exactly. 

Kris Hampton  07:56

So you have to get through the V12 in order to apply the endurance you've gained. So might as well prepare for what's coming first.

Nate Drolet  08:05

Yeah. So preparing for this trip I had around six weeks or so. First half of that I spent doing a lot of volume, mostly on boulders. So I had sport climbed for a lot of the last year, so I wanted to rack up mileage on boulders so that my body got used to doing more and more difficult moves. And then for the second half of that, I started sharpening down. So doing less moves, but more difficult, a lot more rest and trying to more or less kind of tapered down a little bit so that I would be a bit more fresh and I was able to have enough energy that I could try what for me felt like really hard moves.

Kris Hampton  08:45

Yeah, did six weeks feel like long enough for you?

Nate Drolet  08:48

 It's hard saying. Um, I honestly, it's funny because I was training on the Tension Board a bunch before I got here. And I was trying Ben Spannuth and Will Anglin's boulders. 

Kris Hampton  08:59

That's a mistake. 

Nate Drolet  09:00

Yeah. Apparently, I don't climb V8

Kris Hampton  09:02

I mean, if you want to feel like you suck, that's a really great thing to do. 

Nate Drolet  09:05

Yeah. And so I was just getting crushed. And then I came here and I was like,"Oh, I feel the strongest I've ever been." So

Kris Hampton  09:13

Yeah, you came in here quick, like

Nate Drolet  09:16

Yeah

Kris Hampton  09:16

Day one, we climbed together. I think that's the only day we've climbed together. Is that right?

Nate Drolet  09:20

 I think so.

Kris Hampton  09:21

 And you repeated a 10 really quickly. First try you repeated it, I think. 

Nate Drolet  09:26

Mmm Hmm

Kris Hampton  09:27

And then did a nine. And then did you do it another 10 that day?

Nate Drolet  09:34

 No, I tried to repeat Rumble.

Kris Hampton  09:35

No we played on Rumble that day, that's right.

Nate Drolet  09:37

Yeah. So that was my get back into it day. 

Kris Hampton  09:39

Yeah

Nate Drolet  09:39

So that was good, you know. Do as I say not as I do, folks. 

Kris Hampton  09:43

Haha

Nate Drolet  09:46

Yeah, so the original plan was I was going to get here, take my time, really go kind of slow. And even from day one after having taken a couple of days off, because I took more or less a deload week, like five days completely off actually, drove here. And like, travel always wrecks me. I got here and that was my first day after travel. I got here and I was like, "Oh, I feel really good." Like, a little clumsy from notclimbing for a week and like traveling, but like, I know how things are supposed to feel and I was like, "This is this is a good sign." So I kind of went out of the gate pretty hard, a little harder than maybe should have. But weather was good and I was psyched. 

Kris Hampton  10:28

Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  10:29

So yeah, overall, I'm super happy with how, like for six weeks, I think things went really well. Like ideally, I would have liked longer. 

Kris Hampton  10:37

Yep

Nate Drolet  10:38

And you know, most people, whenever they go on trips, let's say you're going to go on a two week trip. Your preparation is going to be you know, fairly long, much longer than the trip itself. 

Kris Hampton  10:48

Yep.

Nate Drolet  10:48

 So there's, I think it's really important to put a lot of thought into it.

Kris Hampton  10:52

Were there any big like lessons you learned that you either didn't know or had you just needed reminding of?

Nate Drolet  11:01

 Will and Ben are full of shit. 

Kris Hampton  11:03

Hahaha. I knew that. I could have just told you that if you'd asked.

Nate Drolet  11:06

Um, man... endurance work blows. 

Kris Hampton  11:10

That's a fact.

Nate Drolet  11:10

Like, it's just, it's just exhausting. 

Kris Hampton  11:13

Yeah

Nate Drolet  11:13

Like and, it's one of those things. bouldering is so easy. Boulder training is so easy. 

Nate Drolet  11:20

You know, it's, it's hard in the moment. Like, when you pull on, you need to be giving a very high effort and that, to me is more mentally exhausting than physically. To be able to rev yourself up, try hard, you know, come down, reanalyze the boulder, see "How can I climb better? How can I you know, how can I move better, I can do everything?" and then do that again. Climb with complete confidence as if you're going to just rip the holds from the wall even though you know you're gonna fall in the first move.

Kris Hampton  11:20

Yep. 

Kris Hampton  11:46

 Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  11:47

That for me is more mentally challenging. But, man, fitness work is just exhausting. Like so my first three weeks, it was a lot of work on the Treadwall, a lot of boulder circuits, a lot of like, on the minute boulders to build that base. And, man, it's just tiring. And I...yeah, it gave me a healthy respect for that type of training because I just haven't done that type of endurance training in a gym in so long.

Kris Hampton  12:17

Right

Nate Drolet  12:17

Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's hard. Yeah. So I'd say that, for me was a big thing. 

Kris Hampton  12:23

Cool. My, I feel like our trainings looked sort of opposite. You know, you had a big base already of double digit boulders that you've done and, and the confidence to do them. And that was something I was really trying to build going into this trip and I had a really quick turnaround. I think we had just over four weeks between the Red River season, which basically was not a season at all.

Nate Drolet  12:55

Rain?

Kris Hampton  12:55

 And yeah, it was rain, and leaving to come to Hueco, so super quick turnaround. So those four weeks, I was a little nervous about, you know, coming on a big trip where I have big goals. And this is kind of the start of the goals. I wasn't... my goals did not end here. I didn't think, "I'm going to come to Hueco and climb  V12 immediately." You know, having done a handful of V10s in the past. But I knew it could be a really good start to this big goal and four weeks didn't seem like enough. So I really really buckled down, focused on finger strength and power and just how to try hard. And, and I gained a ton of confidence in the gym. You know, I get to climb with some strong guys in the gym, Tony Stark and BJ Tilden

Nate Drolet  13:53

Wait. Iron Man?

Kris Hampton  13:55

 Ironman. Yeah. Tony Stark, Iron Man, and Kyle Elmquist. And there's all these really strong dudes who have really specific strengths that I can play off of and watch them climb and learn from and it's cool. Frankly, you know, even though comparison can be really dangerous, I enjoy failing on their boulders, but it's also enjoyable for me to see them fail on my boulders. 

Nate Drolet  14:23

Haha

Kris Hampton  14:23

You know, if BJ doesn't flash a boulder that was my project

Nate Drolet  14:27

Success!

Kris Hampton  14:27

Then I'm fucking stoked. 

Nate Drolet  14:29

Doesn't matter if he has the flu. 

Kris Hampton  14:30

No, it doesn't matter at all. 

Kris Hampton  14:32

 I could hit him with a metal pipe as he's walking in the gym and I would get just as much enjoyment if he falls on my boulder. 

Nate Drolet  14:32

Taking it.

Nate Drolet  14:38

Haha

Kris Hampton  14:41

But, but that, you know happened more and more as we went and I got stronger and stronger and felt really confident. One of the big lessons I learned though, is to not get greedy and to really, really pay attention in detail to how your sessions look movement wise

Nate Drolet  15:04

Totally

Kris Hampton  15:05

Because my, literally my last scheduled training day, before the trip, I was firing on all cylinders. I felt like I was the strongest I've ever been. At the end of my warm ups, I did a three strikes circuit of three boulders, all three of which were V10 or harder and I did them all first try. I felt like a superhero.

Nate Drolet  15:29

I remember this day, I wasn't even in the same state.

Kris Hampton  15:33

Haha. And then I just kept trying harder and harder and harder boulders, not realizing until looking back in retrospect, that all of them contained hard right heel hooks. And near the end of my limit bouldering time I felt something pop in my knee. And immediately I knew, you know, immediately I'm cussing myself out. "You're a fucking stupid idiot. What did you just do?"

Nate Drolet  16:05

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  16:07

And at first I thought, "Freak accident. There was nothing indicating this was going to happen." But then when I looked back, I'm like, "Oh, yeah, two of my three strikes circuit had hard right heel hooks, two of my limit boulders had hard right heel hooks, and then this one that I was making up, hard right heel hook", you know? 

Nate Drolet  16:27

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  16:28

So I should have known. And I just got a little greedy. I could have toned it back. I could have paid more attention to the variety of movement. But I didn't. And I think that's a lesson that a lot of people need to learn when they're prepping for a big trip is you can't cram. 

Nate Drolet  16:49

Yeah

Kris Hampton  16:50

You shouldn't get greedy. You know, you can make depending on how long your training plan is, you get to make as much advancement as you have time for. But that's what you get. You can't cram and get more. So just be patient with it and, you know, prepare the best that you can. Do you prepare for specific objectives?

Nate Drolet  17:15

Totally. Yeah, and actually, one quick point before we move on on that. This is I think, a really big, it's a very common thing that a lot of people I think, don't realize they're doing. So this idea of kind of over correcting course. So something goes wrong, and you freak out. Most commonly we see this with you know, something happens in life. Either you have an injury, maybe you have friends who, you who decide that three of them are going to get married in October, so you only have one climbable weekend that October, you know, some sort of catastrophic event in life happens. 

Kris Hampton  17:57

Yeah.

Nate Drolet  17:58

 And you're like, "Okay, fuck it. Beer and pizza."

Kris Hampton  18:00

Did you just say weddings are a catastrophic event?

Nate Drolet  18:02

 Yes. 

Kris Hampton  18:03

Okay. 

Nate Drolet  18:03

And one of my, one of my clients knows, I'm speaking directly to him right now.

Kris Hampton  18:07

Hahaha

Nate Drolet  18:07

That was his last fall. But and who gets married in the fall?

Kris Hampton  18:14

I know. If you're a climber, don't ever do that, just saying. 

Kris Hampton  18:16

Yep. 

Nate Drolet  18:16

You know, you say, you just kind of throw your hands up and say, you know, "What can I do?" And the other direction is, and this is exactly what happened to you and this happens more often than a lot of people like to admit. You go into the gym, you're like, "I feel like a champ today." Man, we all have those days where you just feel light, you feel snappy, you're powerful and you just want to rip holds off the wall. You send everything you wanted to do and you're like, "Okay, what's next?" And before you know it, this is turned into just a marathon session that takes you something like a week and a half to actually recover from. You know, maybe you'll be climbing in a few days, but you won't have another good session for, you know, a week, two weeks. And this is 

Nate Drolet  18:16

Yeah, come on. But it's very easy when something goes wrong, let's say, you know, like, your knee gets hurt. It's very easy to say, you know, "Fuck it, like, I'm, I'm just gonna rest for a while. I'm gonna take the next two months off." Or maybe you say, maybe you have good intentions. You're like, "I'm gonna take a week off". One week turns into two, two turns to six, whatever. And so that is over correcting course in the wrong way. 

Kris Hampton  19:23

And that's assuming you don't keep pushing it. 

Nate Drolet  19:26

Totally

Kris Hampton  19:26

You know, and dig yourself into a big hole. 

Nate Drolet  19:28

Yeah. But it's a fairly common thing. And I think it's something that's not thought of as an issue because you're like, "Well, I feel great. I'm going to I'm going to use this all up right now."

Kris Hampton  19:39

 Right.

Nate Drolet  19:40

 But yeah, it can turn into a real issue. But as for training for specific objectives, I definitely consider it while I'm training. I always have specific goals on different trips and I try not to put too much emphasis on them. So if, let's say, if I was training for six weeks, like I was for this very first three weeks, that's much more general and maybe as I started getting closer and closer, I might start adding in simulator moves for certain projects, or, you know, coming on to Hueco, I was doing a lot of like banded monster walks, which is just you wrap a band around your ankles, and 

Kris Hampton  20:23

Because you wanted to be really strong and hiking up the chains.

Nate Drolet  20:25

 You scuttle side to side like crab basically. But you do a lot of like, heel hooks that for a lot of people mess up their knees, mess up their hips. So I do a little bit of prep in that since like Copenhagen planks, which is like a each....Google that one.

Kris Hampton  20:41

Hahaha

Nate Drolet  20:42

But different, like I'll do things like that, to like as part of my warm up prep, just to make my knees a little more robust feeling. And they take all you know, I'll do them in between boulders. It takes all of an extra three minutes

Kris Hampton  20:55

Are you just trying to throw this in my face?  Is that what you're doing right now?

Nate Drolet  20:57

 Yeah, no, I, 

Kris Hampton  20:58

Haha. Maybe.

Nate Drolet  21:00

Maybe. But no. So I'll do things like that for a trip like this. And then I'll start adding in simulator moves. Like years ago, when I wanted to go try and flash Fingerhut like, the few weeks before the trip, I had made up a boulder in the gym, that just had the opening move on it. Because I knew, in my mind, if I could do the opening move, I could flash the boulder. And so you know, I would do my warm up, so I was pretty fresh in then I would go and I would do that move a few times, then I'd go on to the rest of my session.

Kris Hampton  21:29

 How do you know the opening move was accurate?

Nate Drolet  21:32

Um, from watching videos. There's videos.

Kris Hampton  21:36

Okay, so you just set it based on the videos. 

Nate Drolet  21:38

Yeah. And I've seen enough videos and then later climbed on those that I can guess people's heights, or there's enough people who their height is already published, so I can kind of take a look. And, you know, a lot of you know, trial and error. 

Kris Hampton  21:59

Yeah

Nate Drolet  22:00

I got pretty good at figuring out how to set good simulators, which for me, like the biggest thing for anyone who wants to do this, be as general as possible. If you're just looking for whatever makes the move weird, or whatever makes it hard for you. So for me it is... on that move, it was weird that I had to pull with my left arm and left leg at the same time and crossover.

Nate Drolet  22:23

It was a very off balance move. I wasn't worried at all whether the holds were the right size, whether the feet were the feet were more or less in the right place. But I wasn't worried if they were shaped identical to the project. It was, "Can I nail this move?" and it worked. Like and that's how I've always done simulators. So I'll do the same thing. Like I did the same thing before this trip. Like on the 2016.... the original Moon Board set, there's a perfect simulator for Full Monty already there. All the holds are a little larger than what you want, but the movement is perfect for me, like for my body and for what I need. So I would go, I'd warm up and I go do that a few times. But, yeah

Kris Hampton  22:23

Right

Kris Hampton  23:09

Yeah, I kind of did the same. Not simulator-wise, but, you know, I know that my strengths and my best chances at reaching these goals that I've set are in the realm of compression slopers particularly steep compression.

Nate Drolet  23:28

 Yeah

Kris Hampton  23:28

You know, so, so that's the route that I went. I just, I've spent a lot of time on that in the gym. And to the point where Annalissa had to like, check me one day and was like, "You haven't grabbed a single fucking crimp in the last two weeks."

Nate Drolet  23:46

You're secretly sneaking in at night, taking the crimps off and replacing them with slopers haha.

Nate Drolet  23:49

And there's a difference

Kris Hampton  23:49

And I was like, "You're right. I haven't." I had been hangboarding you know, but but I hadn't climbed on any crimp. So I 

Kris Hampton  23:56

And there is definitely a difference. So I did change that up a little bit knowing that I would encounter crimps even on the compression boulders, you know. You're still gonna encounter crimps. Compression doesn't mean all slopers

Nate Drolet  24:08

 Yeah

Kris Hampton  24:08

Oftentimes you're compressing between tiny little crimps. So

Nate Drolet  24:12

Crimp-ression.

Kris Hampton  24:13

Crimp-ression. Do you feel like, back to Murdock Taylor's other question here, do you feel like on a long climbing trip, you should stick to one discipline? 

Nate Drolet  24:23

This is a....

Kris Hampton  24:24

It's kind of a big question.

Nate Drolet  24:26

Yeah. So if we're looking globally as far as disciplines go, like sport climbing versus bouldering versus whatever else exists out there, then I'd say it kind of depends, like, you know what you're doing. You know, I know plenty of people who they may take a three week long trip and they want to stop and do some easy trad and then some sport climbing then they're going to go bouldering just because this is this big road trip that they want to do.

Kris Hampton  24:55

 Right

Nate Drolet  24:55

 If you're trying to redpoint your hardest ever, man, that's a hard way to do it.  Though, there are some places where I think it's great to be able to split things up. Squamish and Yosemite. I mean, when I went bouldering in Yosemite, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So I was just, I was there for two weeks only had bouldering gear. And I thought it was so cool. I met all these people who they would be trying these walls, and they'd go hard for like, you know, a week up on the wall, come down, you know, rest few days, and then they would go bouldering for, you know, five, six days or something until they were psyched to like, get back up after it.

Kris Hampton  25:34

 Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  25:35

And man, they were so strong and so fit. 

Kris Hampton  25:37

Yep. Totally.

Nate Drolet  25:38

 And I thought that was so rad to be able to just alternate between the two. You know and the work that they're doing, you know, these people who are trying things that for them were quite difficult up on like big walls. And so to then come down, power up on boulders, I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

Kris Hampton  25:51

Totally. 

Nate Drolet  25:52

You know, I think that's just such a great way to experience climbing. And Squamish is another example though I haven't spent time there yet. You can go and climb a bunch of easy gear climbs, as well as go bouldering on amazing granite. I, you know, I'd say if that's something you can do, shoot, I would.

Kris Hampton  26:10

Yeah. And I feel like if you're going to experience an area, you should do that. You know, like, when I go to the Grampians, I'm not going to just sport climb or just boulder. I'm gonna do a little of both.

Nate Drolet  26:25

Totally.

Kris Hampton  26:25

 My goal in the Grampians is to experience the Grampians. And I would like to take some big giant falls off the Taipan Wall.

Nate Drolet  26:33

 I hear, that's what happens. 

Kris Hampton  26:34

That's really the goal. I don't, I don't really care if I send much of anything. I just want to climb there. And I'd also like to sneak over to Mount Arapiles and do some easy trad because I've heard it's the best easy trad on the planet.

Nate Drolet  26:49

 I've never heard this

Kris Hampton  26:50

And that's one of Annalissa's favorite things is to follow easy trad.

Nate Drolet  26:53

Haha

Kris Hampton  26:54

 So, so we're gonna do all three, maybe in the matter of, you know, every week, we'll do all three. So I don't see any reason why you have to stick to one discipline, unless that's your goal. If you have a big goal that's going to take some time, some focus and dedication, then maybe you should consider slimming it down to one discipline. Otherwise, you know if the goal is experienced the area or go have fun and do whatever, I think you should pack the pads, the rack and the quickdraws.

Nate Drolet  27:27

Yeah, no, absolutely. I completely agree. I mean, this is a great example. There's a...what is it? Sea Of Holes?.... here. 

Kris Hampton  27:35

Yep

Nate Drolet  27:35

It's a 10a that something like, close to 300 feet with only a handful of bolts on it, you know, 20,30 foot runouts. But I know plenty of people who will go out and  do that as a rest day. They'll go up that, it takes you to the summit of North Mountain, supposed to be amazing climbing. And man, what a great way to spend a day without you know, if you're doing that that's not going to tax you that much to then go try a steep power boulder the next day

Kris Hampton  28:03

Right. Totally.

Nate Drolet  28:05

So I think it's fine to switch up disciplines. If I.... you know, if I was trying to boulder my absolute hardest while also trying to send Madness Cave routes in the Red or something like that, that might be hard. Though it could be your goal. I mean, shoot a good example, one thing that I thought was so cool was two Septembers ago, I was bouldering up in Rocky Mountain National Park and climbed with Siegrist a few days. And he was trying the Dunn-Westbay at the time, which is a 13d, I think

Kris Hampton  28:43

On the Diamond.

Nate Drolet  28:43

Up on the Diamond. So massive hike in, massive hike out. He was hiking in and mini tractioning the whole thing to work it out and then hiking out. And then he would want you know a little time off, so he would come up and boulder and send like new V11 through V14s up in the park until he was like to go back. And he kept alternating back and forth. And he sent you know the Wheel of Wolvo.... or not Wolvo....Wheel of Chaos that year, which is V14 as well as a couple V13s and he sent the Dunn-Westbay so.... I mean that said, Jonathan's an absolute freak of nature when it comes to overall work capacity.

Nate Drolet  28:45

Yeah, but did he do Vedauwoo 5.10? Let's be serious.

Nate Drolet  29:25

Oooh. Does it go? 

Nate Drolet  29:28

Yeah, so I think, you know, it can definitely work out to your favor. If that's something you get a lot of enjoyment out of, man, I say get after it.

Kris Hampton  29:28

Hahaha

Kris Hampton  29:36

Yep, do it. Totally. That sort of brings us right to a question that I'd like to get to before we take a little break from a crummy life and the question was just "Best and worst uses of a road trip." And I feel like this could go a lot of different directions. Anywhere from like, the best road trip is obviously you send all the things.

Nate Drolet  30:03

Yep

Kris Hampton  30:04

 And worst road trip.... for some people could this also could be the best road trip for some people is that you just go on a cocaine and hookers spree across Nevada. You know, so I don't know exactly what a crummy life is looking for here, but you said you're excited for this question, so.

Nate Drolet  30:24

Wait, I thought..... I was excited for one of the other ones.

Kris Hampton  30:26

No way dude. You said "Best and worst uses of road trip". You were excited about it. 

Nate Drolet  30:30

I just think  like it's it's a really fun question. No, it's you know, it kind of depends on what you're looking for. As far as I'll start with crummy, because that appeals to me. Man, if it...don't go somewhere where it's bad weather if you can help it.

Kris Hampton  30:51

Yeah, for sure. Like, your worst, the worst use of a road trip in October is the Red River Gorge. 

Nate Drolet  30:58

No kidding.

Kris Hampton  30:59

 Don't do it. 

Nate Drolet  31:00

Yeah, it's not Rocktober, y'all. They lied.

Kris Hampton  31:03

No, global warming is real.

Nate Drolet  31:07

Man as far as bad uses go, I don't know. Like, I feel like well, I guess let's start with good. Roadtrips should be fun. It should be, you know, if you sent shit, sick. That's awesome. But depending on what you do, you know, if you work a nine to five, and you only have a few weeks off a year, like that should be something to where it's a ton of fun. It should revitalize you.

Kris Hampton  31:33

Right. Yeah. You know, you just said something that that reminded me of something from like my early road trips

Nate Drolet  31:39

To Vedauwoo?

Kris Hampton  31:40

Ha. Yeah, all to Vedauwoo. You're right. I would go to one zone, like I would go to one place and I would climb in Vedauwoo. And everybody be like, "Why are you only going to this one place? We should go here and here and here. And here and here." And I'm like, "I don't want to visit every single area that I can get to. I want to try really hard in this one area." And at the time, I was like, "These other people are stupid." But now I realize it's a it's just a different goal. You know, if you want to go out and you want to climb in one zone per day and switch zones every day, and that's your goal, go for it. If you want to climb really hard in an area, you should stick to that area. But if if you want to climb really hard in an area, and then you plan a road trip where you're only there for three days, it's not going to happen. You know, unless you're Alex Megos or Ondra obviously. So your your road trip should definitely look like your goals, I think.

Nate Drolet  32:49

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Like it, you know, it's what motivates you? What gets you psyched? I think, you know, one thing I've heard, I've heard mixed tales of this, but ah man, if you're going on a road trip with someone else, who you go with is very important. 

Kris Hampton  33:06

Oh, hugely. 

Nate Drolet  33:08

And if you're, if you're a mercenary of rock, like Eva Lopez, you know, sometimes you just you got to do what you got to do. 

Kris Hampton  33:15

I love that. 

Nate Drolet  33:15

Like, it doesn't matter if, like it's just a terrible person, or that you don't get along with or whatever it is, you know, if you just have to get ou,t you have to get out. And that's your own personality. But, you know, for a lot of people, a lot of trips that I've talked with people about who when they've had a bad time, the biggest thing for them is that they just didn't jive with the other person. Maybe this person, they're like, "Man, I wanted to go, when we went to France, I wanted to go to museums. I wanted to see art. I wanted to travel. And they just wanted to go rock climbing every day."

Kris Hampton  33:50

Yeah

Nate Drolet  33:51

Or vice versa. 

Kris Hampton  33:52

You should know that shit before you go on the road trip. 

Nate Drolet  33:54

Totally. And not that there's anything wrong with either of those things, but it's really good to have partners that you jive with in that way.

Kris Hampton  34:03

Yep. Partners and a plan. And, I mean, I think that's really the only bad use of a road trip is not planning it, not knowing what you're getting into but having a hope of doing something specific. 

Nate Drolet  34:20

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  34:21

You know, if you if you want something specific, plan for that. And if you if you just want to go with the flow, that's great, go do it, but don't have any big goals. Yeah. Maybe we should do one more before we 

Nate Drolet  34:35

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  34:36

Before we take a break here from Climber Carter,  "I would love to hear about turning training into performance, how to transition, etc." And for some people, this is a really tough one. I feel like I've never had a lot of trouble with this. Maybe because I've always been more comfortable on rock than I am in the gym. So my, my training shows up pretty quickly outside. But there's definitely a learning curve to it and I think you have to plan for that learning curve. You know, even though I feel more comfortable on rock than I do in the gym, that that's changing a little bit because I'm spending more and more time indoors. In fact, there were definitely days here in Hueco where I was like, "I just want to be climbing in the Machine Shop". Haha. But you have to plan in that transition time. Almost nobody, unless you're, you know, unless you've spent three times the amount of time on rock that you have on plastic, you're not going to go outside day one, and be immediately performing at your best. It's gonna take some transition time. Is there a magic number, do you think? Like number of days you should be outside?

Nate Drolet  36:09

No, I don't think so. It... I feel like most places that I've been and most people I talk with, two weeks. It seems like there's just magical magic bullet number.

Kris Hampton  36:24

Magic Bullet number. 

Nate Drolet  36:26

Yeah. But for a lot of these people

Kris Hampton  36:28

It this from the Kennedy assassination? Is that 

Nate Drolet  36:30

Yes. 

Kris Hampton  36:31

Okay. I've been listening to a lot of Kennedy podcasts lately, so

Nate Drolet  36:37

So I don't know, what would that end up being? Probably like seven outdoor days, eight outdoor days, something like that. For a lot of people, it's funny, the more I travel, the more people will be like, "Oh, yeah, you just got to Rifle? Don't worry. It just takes two weeks and then after that, you'll, you'll trust all the feet. It'll all be smooth." Same thing, you get here and people are like, "Okay, two weeks. Your skin will get good. You'll start, you know, really pressing hard into the feet." And I feel like almost everywhere I go, people just keep saying, "Give it about two weeks." 

Kris Hampton  37:08

Yeah. And then here, when you're two weeks and four days, and then your skin starts falling apart

Nate Drolet  37:12

 Yes. The magic starts.

Kris Hampton  37:13

 That's what happened to me.

Nate Drolet  37:15

But you know, this, I think there are some things you can really do to mitigate this. I work with...err I do some consulting with a guy in DC, who's been really fun to work with. But he wears a lot of hats, has two kids. Both I think two and three. Multiple jobs kind of thing. And he was like, "Man, I don't get a lot of time outdoors. I feel like I am fit enough for my goals, but I'm just having trouble carrying over." And we actually ended up only changing more or less two things in his training, but one was to get more sleep. But the other thing that and this was so simple, but it was adding worse footholds to his training wall.

Kris Hampton  38:06

That's a big one, man.

Nate Drolet  38:07

It sounds too simple. So I was really fortunate when I lived in Chattanooga, that I trained at TBA, and at the time, it was very much just...and it still is.... a training gym.

Kris Hampton  38:21

There's a lot of benefit to old, slippery, polished holds in your gym. 

Nate Drolet  38:26

Oh, yeah

Kris Hampton  38:27

Just saying.

Nate Drolet  38:28

And the owner at the time was Luis Rodriguez. It was one of the things I could pretty much be like, I could throw anything by Lou. I'd be like, "Hey, Lou, can I throw, can I screw a campus, campus rung into the middle of the 45?" And he would be like, "Is it for training?" and I'm like, "Yes." He's like, "Cool. Show me how to use it later, but you're good to go."

Kris Hampton  38:45

Do it

Nate Drolet  38:46

 So at one point, I wanted to get better at using small footholds, so I was like, "Lou, can I take the worst jibs in the gym and can I just screw them right next to all the handholds on a couple of different like V4 and 5s?" That way I can circuit them and instead of tracking hands on the big feet or tracking feet on the big hands, I could just step on these tiny little jibs. 

Nate Drolet  39:09

And he was like, "Yeah, go for it." So I did that and I did, like, practice that. That was part of my warmup and cooldown circuit everyday for, you know, pretty much until things got stripped. So let's say a month and a half or three months, I forget what it was at the time. It was amazing. Because I got a lot of practice using bad feet.

Kris Hampton  39:09

Yep. 

Kris Hampton  39:27

 Yep.

Nate Drolet  39:27

 So for this guy that I was working with, he did the same thing. Because he trains on a home wall, it's kind of short. And the thing is he like we both realized that when he would do his boulders tracking feet to his handholds, he would get to the start holds, which are pretty large and just ride as much of the boulder as he could

Kris Hampton  39:47

Yep. Absolutely. The Moon Board effect

Nate Drolet  39:50

Exactly

Kris Hampton  39:50

You just high step onto the start holds and ride it till you jump

Nate Drolet  39:54

100% So that's exactly what's happening. So I was like, "Okay, what you're going to do is you're going to get some small feet. You're going to put him next to every low hand." You only need to go halfway up the board because you're not going to use the upper half... feet next, the upper hand holds anyways. 

Kris Hampton  40:06

Yep.

Nate Drolet  40:06

 And if it was a super wide hold, he would put a tiny screw in on either side of it. I was like, you know, do a boulder first tracking feet and then start doing everything once you've done it once and you're doing your circuits, always repeat it tracking on just the chips. 

Kris Hampton  40:22

Yep.

Nate Drolet  40:23

 And so we did that. We implemented that in the spring. He went out in the fall and he texted me like the first day out. He was like, "Nate, I..." He's like, "All the footholds in the New feel big. Like, everything feels great." He's like, "This is the first time I've ever not had trouble trusting my feet."

Kris Hampton  40:40

 Awesome. 

Nate Drolet  40:41

Yeah. And so I think there are some things you can do that work really well for transitioning outdoors. Some can be really simple. You know, ideally, time outside, I think is one of the best things.

Kris Hampton  40:54

 Yep.

Nate Drolet  40:55

 So if you can even sneak out even if it's just like a garbage, little bouldering cove.

Kris Hampton  40:59

Yeah. And I'll say time on rock outside. 

Nate Drolet  41:01

What did I say? 

Kris Hampton  41:02

You said time outside. And some people will go climbing outside and like try their project on day one and then they're only on the rock for 20 minutes out of the entire day, if that.

Nate Drolet  41:15

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  41:16

And that does not equate to lots of time on rock.

Nate Drolet  41:19

Totally. Volume. 

Kris Hampton  41:22

So I mean, I think those are the basic tenets of it. Like you, you just gave a really great way to prepare while you're in the gym to switch over. And then once you're out there, spend time on rock. Don't....you can immediately jump on your project, but make sure you're also getting in some harder warm ups, you're finishing the day repeating some things, you know something to that effect, so that you're not always just spending 30 minutes on your project trying one move. 

Nate Drolet  41:57

Yeah

Kris Hampton  41:58

You know, that's not that effective for building up the comfort level on real rock and transitioning all that hard work you've just put in for the last 12 weeks into your four week season, or whatever it is.

Nate Drolet  42:13

No, absolutely. You know, and it sometimes feels like you're taking a hit because you're losing project days or project time to climbing volume, but

Kris Hampton  42:25

It's scary, man. 

Nate Drolet  42:26

Yeah, no, totally. I mean, you know, days are numbered, like when it comes down to it, and especially good weather days. But it's, it's really important, especially for long term development.

Kris Hampton  42:37

Yeah. And ultimately, I think you most of the time, you'll get to the send faster. If you put those early days in to get comfortable, you're gonna blow right by the place you would have been at had you just started on the project and gotten stuck there on one move.

Nate Drolet  42:55

Mmm hmm. Absolutely. 

Kris Hampton  42:59

All right. Take a break?

Nate Drolet  43:00

Sounds good.

Kris Hampton  43:01

 All right, break.

Kris Hampton  43:05

Hey, everybody, Kris here. I'll try to keep this short and sweet. Since this thing became officially official, I've basically been obsessed. I've got dozens of episodes waiting to go out and I'm constantly recording new conversations. I want to continue putting this level of energy into it and you all can help. We've created a page at patreon.com/powercompanypodcast where you can help support what we're building. In return, even for as little as $1 per month, you'll get access to the brand new We Scream Like Eagles podcast, which includes tips from our guests, extra conversations about hot topics and q&a with your questions posed to our guests. If you think it's worth more than $1 a month, we've got other rewards available on top of bonus episodes like stickers, ebooks, T shirts and training plans. So if you've been considering pitching in, now's the time. That's patreon.com/powercompanypodcast. Thanks a ton. And back to the show. 

Kris Hampton  44:05

And we have returned. We've switched venues here. We've come into StarCraft, the Power Company spaceship, because the desert gets cold at night, y'all. It just gets cold out there. It was really nice when we started. Not so much anymore. Where are we at here? I think we're at a question from Farmer of the Seas. And Farmer of the Seas says, "Walk us through one of your days in Hueco include morning, warm up and all the details." We're not going to give you all the details, but I think we provide the the general here's what it looks like on a bouldering trip when you're there for quite a long period of time. And for me, I'm I'm a creature of habit. Like I could do the same thing every single day and be totally happy.

Nate Drolet  45:04

Totally. We've spent a lot of time together haha. 

Nate Drolet  45:06

Totally.

Kris Hampton  45:06

Haha. Yeah. My wife is different. But she has sort of, just let me take control of the coffee breakfast situation, which then becomes the lunch situation most of the time. And actually, more recently, it's been I get up, make coffee, and start working. And I'll do some work in the morning for about an hour before she wakes up. And then she just makes the breakfast I would have made. She's just given into it, because I've complained enough when she just wants that peanut butter and jelly for breakfast. So we'll make a breakfast that's like sweet potatoes, onions, eggs, spinach, sausage, or bacon, something like that. Eat that and then also wrap up the leftovers in a burrito. Take the burrito for lunch. For me, that's a big key and I got that from you actually, that's a big key to my days, makes the morning go a little more smoothly, not having to really think about lunch. And midday when I get to eat one of those burritos, that propels me for the next several hours. 

Kris Hampton  45:08

Because if it had, if I was left to like making a lunch before I left, it would be just grabbing, you know, some cookies or something. And I would just flame out from sugar in the middle of the day. So. So that's how my morning looks. And then Hueco, if you haven't been here, is an interesting system. A lot of people complain that the regulations are just too much or too complicated. And really, they're pretty damn simple and they're here for a good reason. You know, this place would be absolutely overrun if they weren't here. So you either have reservations for North Mountain and it's a self guided area, or you can go to one of the other, East, West or East Spur....and why is there no South Mountain? What's up with that?

Nate Drolet  47:16

I've heard people refer to the tip of East Spur as South Mountain. 

Kris Hampton  47:19

Oh, really?

Nate Drolet  47:20

 But yeah, seems like it could have the Spur could just could have been South. 

Kris Hampton  47:24

Yeah, I don't I don't know. Directions confuse me anyway.

Nate Drolet  47:27

 And there's Gilligan's Island. 

Kris Hampton  47:28

Oh, I didn't know about this. 

Nate Drolet  47:30

It's a little floating thing between West, East and the Spur.

Kris Hampton  47:34

And see that seems weird. It's between West, East and the Spur?

Nate Drolet  47:40

Yes

Kris Hampton  47:41

That shouldn't make sense directionally. 

Nate Drolet  47:43

Haha

Kris Hampton  47:44

Anyway, those areas, West, East and East Spur, you have to have a guide for. So either you have North Mountain reservations, or you've scheduled something with a guide to go on a tour, whether through commercial tours, volunteer tours, which I don't think we have to get into here. But or you can wait at the gate, because they let a certain number of people onto North every day that don't have reservations. So some days, we've waited on the gate waited at the gate because we didn't have reservations. Some days, we have reservations, and we just roll right in. And oftentimes we're taking tours. You know, we have a couple of tour guides here who are friends that we really like going out with. So we've been sticking mostly to, to those couple of guides and, and they worked with us and it's been great. And then you just go out and try to make a plan that fits everybody's objectives for the day. You know, if it's, if it's a guided trip, the guide sort of has to play the politics and radio in that we're going to this zone and if there's already someone there, you have to have a backup. And, you know, there's lots of politics that goes on between the guides and the groups of people. Only a certain number of people are allowed to be at one climb at one time and so it can get frustrating and confusing. But regardless whether you're on North or one of those tours, you still have to be aware of everyone in your crews objectives and try to get people to those places at certain times. The one thing I will say that we've done, that I really like and mind you we have not been successful on all days getting everyone to their objectives and it being a pleasant experience for everyone.

Nate Drolet  49:41

 It's hard to do. 

Kris Hampton  49:42

There are a lot of days where I get really frustrated or Annalissa gets really frustrated. But one of the things I think is important is to get everyone to their projects early, like early in the trip. Let's go try these things and then as someone is closing in on something, then you can say, "Okay, you've got priority today. And what time of the day is best for you to get to your project? How do you want to lead up to it? You know, would you rather just hang out and spot for the first part of the day and then we'll get to your project second half of the day? Or do we need to warm up at a specific zone and go straight to your project?." And make that person the priority and then you'll just trade it right back when the next person is getting close. 

Nate Drolet  50:29

Yeah.

Kris Hampton  50:30

 So I mean, really, in a that's what my day looks like, pretty much every day that I'm not working. And then I come home and I work a little more, you know, and on rest days, I just stare at my computer all damn day. 

Nate Drolet  50:45

Yeah.

Kris Hampton  50:46

 So that's me. How do your days look?

Nate Drolet  50:50

Pretty similar. 

Kris Hampton  50:51

You're a guide. 

Nate Drolet  50:52

Yes. So I do guide. 

Kris Hampton  50:54

So that's a little bit different. 

Nate Drolet  50:55

So I know that all that whole process, very intimately, especially from the politicking standpoint, and trying to make 10 people happy all at the same time.

Kris Hampton  51:05

I've paid more attention to that this year. It's really interesting to watch. 

Nate Drolet  51:07

It's a lot to do. But I feel fortunate in that I'm a morning person, so when I'm out here, I joke that I'm on the nine to five sleeping schedule. 

Kris Hampton  51:15

Mm hmm.

Nate Drolet  51:19

 So I typically wake up in the fives, I'll go into the barn, where there's Wi Fi, and no one typically feels like talking for at least two and a half to three hours, which is really nice. So I can go in and get some work done. I can read if I want. So I typically like to split it up between reading and working. I'll typically like you know, make coffee, read for about 30 minutes. I'm trying to get better about just consistently reading all the time.

Kris Hampton  51:48

 Yeah

Nate Drolet  51:49

 Because you know, especially as a coach, I feel like it's important to always be learning. So,

Kris Hampton  51:55

As the owner of this business, I feel like it's important for you to always be learning. And for me to just stare at my computer haha.

Nate Drolet  52:01

Haha. I can just keep passing information along. So yeah, I'll do that. Typically read about 30 minutes, work about, you know, hour and a half, two hours, something like that, depending on whatever time I got out of bed and what time I'm going out that day. Make breakfast, same thing, veggies and eggs. It's classic. Eggs, coffee, go out climbing. And, man when I can...my preference for warmups, it depends where I'm at. But I've done most of the easy warm ups here and a lot of I've done a lot of climbs here under V11. And so what I've been trying to do while here is I'll do some warm ups and then I'll go try and find out or find one of the kind of weird new sevens, eights, or nines or something like that, and, and go, you know, do that as the end of the project or as the end of the warm up. 

Kris Hampton  52:54

Yeah.

Nate Drolet  52:54

 And that's been a ton of fun because I either have just really weird things, or really scary things left. I did something

Kris Hampton  53:02

 That sounds like a lot of fun. 

Nate Drolet  53:04

Dude, I did one the other day, I just didn't even pad it. I was like, "There's no point."

Nate Drolet  53:09

Oh, man, yeah, I had a friend walk over, they were like, "Do you want do you want an extra pad and a spot?" and I was like, in my mind, I was like, "It wouldn't do anything and it would just cause you stress to watch". So I was like, I was like, "I'm fine. Don't worry about it." It's just like a V7 on North, but yeah, I was like, "I'm just gonna not. I'm just not even gonna bring anyone else into this."

Kris Hampton  53:09

Haha 

Kris Hampton  53:28

Yeah

Nate Drolet  53:29

But so for me, that's a ton of fun, because I have these, you know, I've done a lot of climbing here as a guide and just having spent a lot of time here, so it's really cool to get to do something new. And for me, that builds that little bit of momentum. And even though I may be projecting things that, you know, are somewhere between like V12 and V13, to do a new V7 that, like, maybe bouted me in the past or just that I never even looked at, it's awesome. 

Kris Hampton  53:54

Right. Yep.

Nate Drolet  53:55

I do a new V7 or new V9, something like that, it kind of gets that process going of being creative with my thinking and having to fight for something, you know, even even if it's at a slightly lower level. Because to me, like, you know, to do V9, it's still hard. Because typically I'm not doing it with perfect beta versus, you know, let's say V11. Like a V11, I might spend two, three days on, but I'll have that beta completely wired.

Kris Hampton  54:24

Right

Nate Drolet  54:25

 I know what I'm doing. I could close my eyes and see every bit of the boulder but you know, if I'm trying a V9, may have only been on it a handful of times. I may have only tried it for like 30 minutes. So you know, kind of just trying to stay, you know, paint inside the lines kind of thing.

Kris Hampton  54:41

 You're gonna have to fight a little more. 

Nate Drolet  54:42

Yeah. And so it's really good, like kind of gets that fighting mentality going. You're working with imperfection, which I really dig. 

Kris Hampton  54:52

Well, that's something really interesting that I didn't even think about when I was talking about my day or just the warm ups. You know, I've been, I warm up with Annalissa every day and she's warming up for V5s, V6s. And, and it doesn't work every day for us to go up to her project, so that I can finish warming up on it before I go to my project. Sometimes it's straight from the warm ups to the project. So something I've been doing a lot of lately is just making up eliminates on the warm up boulders.

Nate Drolet  55:29

Totally

Kris Hampton  55:30

And like making up crazy moves. And we have fun with it. I give them all names, you know, I've got all my warm up eliminates named.

Nate Drolet  55:38

I've been seeing them getting logged on 8a.

Kris Hampton  55:40

Haha. And, and I'll just do like if I find a V3 I haven't done, I'll do it 18 different ways, you know, finding every which way you could do it. Some of the ways are V7 or V8. But I'm, I don't need to go to a new V7 or a new V8

Nate Drolet  55:59

Totally

Kris Hampton  56:01

To get warmed up if I know that it doesn't fit the flow of the day.

Nate Drolet  56:05

Yep. So yeah, no, and I think that's that's a really important point. And I think that's a very valuable skill to have is being able to warm up with what you have. That's something that I you know, I have a ton of fun with as well. I love warm up eliminates is like one of my favorite things ever.

Kris Hampton  56:23

The best warm up eliminate in Waco is called Kitty Bills Are Piling Up, just so you know,

Nate Drolet  56:28

Ooh. I'll have to look into this one. 

Kris Hampton  56:30

It's like a V5. It's really good. 

Nate Drolet  56:33

Hahaha. So yeah,  warm ups, warm up limit eliminates, try and do a new boulder if I have access to one. You know if it's a huge hike, I may just not do it. But I do if I can. And then depending on who I'm climbing with, I'll go to my project for the day. So if I'm climbing with someone else, like when I was trying Full Throttle. I'm resting right now and probably won't be able to try it again this trip. Got kind of a finger tweaking my knuckle and it's really strange. It's like stiff and achy. But I can crimp 100%, like I can crimp as hard as I want. No pain.

Kris Hampton  57:12

Right

Nate Drolet  57:12

But if I grabbed this really goofy sideways pinch on Full Throttle, it immediately makes it ache.

Kris Hampton  57:18

Yeah

Nate Drolet  57:19

So I haven't found anything else that makes it hurt except for that hold. 

Kris Hampton  57:22

Yeah, and smart to avoid it for now.

Nate Drolet  57:25

Yeah, it's a bit frustrating. 

Nate Drolet  57:27

Oh, totally.

Nate Drolet  57:27

 Obviously really excited about that. But um, to use that as an example, we would go out, so it's on East Mountain. Go to the Warm Up Roof, climb a couple easy boulders, do variations on just like there's a V4 and a V6 there that are both nice. And I would do them skipping holds or maybe campusing or something like that, because Throttle is a fairly powerful boulder. And then the way we would do it then was a person I was climbing with, she was projecting a V9 down the way. We'd get there, I would just sit and rest for a full three hours. I would sometimes go do some one arm hangs on the backside of the boulder, just to get my fingers ready and I kind of like them. And but for the most part, I would just hang out for three hours. I had really good service, so I was writing training plans. 

Kris Hampton  57:39

Haha nice.

Nate Drolet  57:41

I was actually thinking about if I was still going out there, I was like, "Man, it'd be amazing. I may hike my computer out here because I have good enough service. I could just set up a hotspot."

Kris Hampton  58:22

Yeah, I've been doing lots of video analysis while sitting and waiting. 

Nate Drolet  58:26

Oh, yeah

Kris Hampton  58:26

Just recording voiceovers on videos.

Nate Drolet  58:29

Yeah, it is it was actually incredibly productive. I was getting, you know, three hours of work done every time I would go out there

Nate Drolet  58:34

And I made the whole Dru Mack video. 

Nate Drolet  58:34

That's right

Kris Hampton  58:34

While waiting for people,

Nate Drolet  58:35

Which was super fun. If y'all haven't seen it, go ahead and go watch that. But yeah so then after three hours, we would go and there'd be three hours left in the day, so we'd go to Full Throttle. 

Kris Hampton  58:49

Yep. And how did you warm back up for it?

Nate Drolet  58:54

Pull right onto the crux hold, the one that hurts me. 

Kris Hampton  58:56

Hahaha.

Nate Drolet  58:57

Haha. No. That one breaks down really nicely because it you know, it takes maybe close to two minutes to climb, something like 90 seconds. It's a lot of moves. So I would pull onto different positions, just pull on, hold them, maybe like shift my body weight around or like start to do the next move. The end is a V7, so once I had, I would pull on the opening moves just like pull on and hold. Do that two, three times and then I would do final V7. Rest a few minutes. Do one move down, rest a few minutes, one more move down. And pretty much I would keep doing that until I got to like okay, this is the crux of the V13. Like, you know, so I pull on try, just do the crux, drop. And then I would start trying it from the ground. So like give it a try, set a timer, rest for 15 minutes and did that for about three hours.

Kris Hampton  59:48

 Yeah

Nate Drolet  59:49

So that was like, you know, my day. And typically I would give it a handful of good redpoint efforts. And then wherever I found little hiccups I would stop and work on those. And where I ended up going wrong was I, I was like, "Man, I'm just being a little bit sloppy in this crux section." So I'd spend a lot of time on this one hold, that doesn't seem, it doesn't seem very tweaky because it's a pinch. But you hold a hard swing off of it

Kris Hampton  1:00:15

Right

Nate Drolet  1:00:15

 It was just kind of twisting my pointer finger a little bit. Like if you imagine if you're going to give someone a high five, if you pulled your pointer finger towards your thumb, like that's what this pinch did.

Kris Hampton  1:00:25

Oh right

Nate Drolet  1:00:26

 So it just kind of pulled it away from the other fingers. 

Kris Hampton  1:00:28

Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  1:00:30

And I didn't even realize it was happening until, you know, I went out after my fourth session on it. The next day, I was like, "Oh, my hands a little stiff in this one finger." Spent a few days away from it, came back and second try back on it, immediately the whole finger went stiff. So called it. I decided I would take at least a full week away from that boulder. I think it's been maybe four or five days now. And like I said, it's, it's fine on everything else, but I don't think I'll be able to try it again this season.

Kris Hampton  1:00:59

Yep. Yeah. And you know, that's what I did with my knee injury, when I got here was like, feel out things and see what's gonna hurt my knee and what's not. And, you know, if something is just uncomfortable, I'll try it and see how it goes. But, but there are things I know I could climb right now that that just hurt it too much. So I just avoid those and I'll go climb to things that don't hurt it, you know.

Nate Drolet  1:01:28

Yeah. You know, and that's kind of a part of pushing yourself in any sport. Like you're going to have, I don't think you should constantly be in pain, like definitely not, especially if it's just a one thing in particular, like, you know, if you're like, "Oh, my shoulder, just always hurts. Kind of has done that for 20 years.", well, maybe you need to look into that. 

Kris Hampton  1:01:47

Yeah, deal with that thing.

Nate Drolet  1:01:48

 But little tweaks kind of happen. You know, you do, you try

Kris Hampton  1:01:52

Everybody here right now has some little tweak that they're working around. Yeah, we our friend, Jeremy, just the other day was talking to me, he has a knee injury as well. And I really liked the way he put it, that he he has to really decide where he's going to spend his knee capital. 

Nate Drolet  1:01:52

Yes

Kris Hampton  1:01:53

You know, like, I know, I've got four really good attempts before it starts to hurt a little too much and this is the problem I really want to do, so I'm gonna get really warmed up, and then I'm gonna give it those attempts, you know. But I'm not going to go try other problems, no matter how enticing they are, that might cause me to spend my knee capital.

Nate Drolet  1:02:34

 Totally. 

Kris Hampton  1:02:35

And I really like that way to look at it. Because frankly, I don't, I've never known a pro climber who didn't have some sort of tweak. And I don't know many people who are going really hard, who don't have some sort of tweak that they're trying to climb around or trying to manage.

Nate Drolet  1:02:52

Yeah, no, it's, it's just a common, it's a very normal thing when you're pushing yourself. You know, I think if you're doing baseline training, you should ideally be healthy. But during performance periods, like little things happen, especially with climbing. Man like it's a fucked up sport.

Kris Hampton  1:03:13

It kind of is. We're not meant to do this.

Nate Drolet  1:03:16

If I can heel toe cam in a hueco and like dislocate my hip to do a move easier, that's pretty much what I'm going to do. 

Kris Hampton  1:03:23

Right

Nate Drolet  1:03:24

 Oh, yeah, this move kind of subluxed subluxes my shoulder, but, man, I can do it every time. 

Kris Hampton  1:03:28

Haha. Right. 

Nate Drolet  1:03:29

Like, people would do that. 

Kris Hampton  1:03:31

People will do it. For sure. 

Nate Drolet  1:03:32

Yeah, I mean, and that's, you know, you definitely have to draw a line somewhere. But the best beta isn't always the most ergonomical. And that's just, you know, a fine line you have to walk. And it's every sport. I mean, I was talking with a buddy who's also a distance runner and, man, that's just like, when you're in racing season, like something's something hurts, always.

Kris Hampton  1:03:56

For sure

Nate Drolet  1:03:57

Like, and that's just, you know, it's kind of common. Like, with climbing, we're very fortunate in that things are incredibly different. Boulders and routes are so different that you know, for instance, I can't grab very odd specific pinches with this hand. I haven't found another boulder that bothers it yet.

Kris Hampton  1:04:14

Right

Nate Drolet  1:04:14

 Totally fine. Not a big deal. I have another 1000 boulders in Hueco to do. Like, that's super fortunate. 

Kris Hampton  1:04:20

Yeah, I mean, mine, I could barely walk the next day after my, after I hurt my knee. 

Nate Drolet  1:04:26

I was so sad when I heard that. 

Kris Hampton  1:04:28

But I've found heel hooks here, I can do that don't bother it in the slightest. You know, and I found some really basic moves that do bother it and I just walk away from those. 

Nate Drolet  1:04:38

And that's what you got to do.

Kris Hampton  1:04:39

 You know? So that's the way it is. I am glad however, I'd like to just return to that for a second before we wrap this thing up, that you talked about warming up on the boulder, but not just immediately giving it redpoint efforts. I think that's that's a super smart way to approach it that a lot of people just don't do. They just don't understand it. I see so many people sit down under the boulder and start from the beginning every single damn time. And you know, a lot of boulders break down in a really nice way that you can dial the top out before you do the crux move on your session. You know, if you, if you do the top out four times, as part of your warm up, it's far more likely that you're going to send when you get there. And you're warming yourself up better for that specific problem. You know, I did it on The Rhino. I would do the top out. I would do a couple of the intro moves. There were two, three moves and a trans....two moves and like transition between moves that I knew were going to be really hard for me. So I would warm up to the point where I could do those moves once each. And then I would start from the bottom, you know, and the first move was one of the hardest moves for me, so I wasn't just going to sit down and immediately go to the hard move.

Nate Drolet  1:06:05

 Yeah

Kris Hampton  1:06:06

You know. And you know, Annalissa has been working on Daily Dick Dose, and it breaks down really nice for that.

Nate Drolet  1:06:13

Totally

Kris Hampton  1:06:13

You can do the finish and then you can come down a move and do that. And then you can come down a move and do that, you know, and then you've only got the two first moves to do. 

Nate Drolet  1:06:23

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  1:06:24

And I think too many people just don't do that. They just sit right down and start from the bottom.

Nate Drolet  1:06:29

Totally. Or they even if they do it, they don't they don't do the things that intimidate them. Yeah, for sure. Like, I mean, I'll be fully honest, when I was trying Full Throttle, there was a link that intimidated me for a couple like, you know, for the first two days, I was like, "I'm just I want to just try it from the ground. I don't want to have to like, try that,"

Kris Hampton  1:06:51

Right.

Nate Drolet  1:06:51

 Because if I failed on that, then that's what I need to be doing. I don't need to be trying to send this thing. And, it's easy to justify yourself and say, "Oh, well, you know, I'll do that on the fly. Because if I did it, I might as well have done the boulder." But you need to be able to do that. 

Kris Hampton  1:07:08

Right. 

Nate Drolet  1:07:08

Like, and that's that is a hard thing. And it's kind of cool, because I think on my 

Kris Hampton  1:07:14

Sometimes it feels like you're wasting it.

Nate Drolet  1:07:16

Totally.

Kris Hampton  1:07:17

Like, "Oh, well, if I did it from there, I could have done it from the start." 

Nate Drolet  1:07:20

Yep

Kris Hampton  1:07:20

You know, that's a really common feeling to have. But it doesn't change the fact that you should be able to own it from that link before you're starting from the bottom.

Nate Drolet  1:07:32

Totally couldn't agree more. And I mean, a good example, so on this boulder, there was one link that I was kind of worried about, because I had tried it. I've tried this boulder pretty much like one session each year for the last like three or four years. Every year, I would try it and be like, "It still feels a little too hard. I'm leaving it". You know, it was like kind of on the cusp. And this year, I came back and I did the link on my first day, but that was like my project for the day was this link. And I didn't want to do it again. 

Kris Hampton  1:08:03

Right.

Nate Drolet  1:08:03

Because I was just like, "Well, what happens if I don't do the link?" Like, and I think was my third day, at the end of the warm up. I was like, "I'm just gonna go for it." Pulled on, did it without even like, you know, changing my breathing. Like, got to the top and wasn't out of breath.

Kris Hampton  1:08:17

And then your confidence level goes through the roof.

Nate Drolet  1:08:20

 Oh my gosh, I was like, I was like, "Fuck, I'm just gonna, like, own this thing. Like, I just need to get here now." It went from being, "Man, I really don't want to try this. Because that's like, what if I don't do it?" to "Oh, man, I can do this every time."

Kris Hampton  1:08:32

 Yeah.

Nate Drolet  1:08:32

From then on, that was my end of my warmup and the end of my cooldown was doing that link. And the mental change that happened, I was like, "Oh, it's not even a question now."

Kris Hampton  1:08:42

 Right. It's just going to happen.

Nate Drolet  1:08:43

When I get there,  I will do it. 

Kris Hampton  1:08:45

Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  1:08:46

And I mean, this was, you know, two days difference. 

Kris Hampton  1:08:49

Right. 

Nate Drolet  1:08:50

So I think that's something that's really important. I mean, this applies to routes as well, but definitely with boulders like, you know, do the hard links.

Kris Hampton  1:08:57

Yeah, I think it's a known thing with routes, like a lot of us understand it. But I don't think it's as as well known, with people learning to project boulders, that those, how important those little links are. You know, I the same just to give another anecdote, when I was just working on The Rhino, which ended up being my first V11, so I'm like working through this, just just like you are with this, you know, which will be your first V13, potentially. I'm working through this, like breaking into a new grade and, you know, all these swirling questions. And I did think, I mean, I thought in my I mean, I remember thinking, "Why should I do that link because I can get there from the ground? So I should just climb it from the ground every time because if I stick that move, I'm going to the top", you know.

Nate Drolet  1:09:59

Yep.

Kris Hampton  1:10:01

But I spent a session falling off that move. And then I came back the next session and I came back with Dru Mack and he just came to support.He was he was done climbing for the day, just wanted to hang out and and I did the link. And, and he hadn't seen me try the start yet, so he wasn't even sure how it went. But he he spotted me for the link and he was stoked. And then I started from the bottom, and I fell off somewhere. And he was like, "Fuck, dude, I didn't realize you just did it from three moves in". And I was like, "Yeah", and that's that's the part in the the most recent Dru Mack video where he jumps up and he says, "He's gonna do it!"

Nate Drolet  1:10:43

 Oh, man.

Kris Hampton  1:10:43

 Yeah, that's when he realized, "Oh, shit, you just did this thing from three moves in and you just crushed it to that move. So when you when you actually stick that little transition, you're going to the top, you know, first time." And that's, that's what I needed. I needed that link and I needed that confidence of knowing if I stick this transition, you know, switching my heel to toe, then I'm going to the top. Because there was still a question mark there. And it's a question mark, you don't want to face. You don't want to be like, "I could start there and still fall off four more times." No, you don't want to deal with that. But you have to, or you're just hoping you get lucky. And getting lucky is not a way to approach this shit.

Nate Drolet  1:11:33

No. I was just having a talk with us about about this with a friend of mine the other day, the idea of belief and how you can have all the fitness in the world, you can be in perfect shape, all these things you can have, you know, you could have dotted all the i's cross all the t's, but if you don't believe that you can do something, your chances of doing it are slim to none. 

Kris Hampton  1:11:59

Totally. 

Nate Drolet  1:12:00

And so I'll pose this question for you. Would you rather be physically fit enough to climb V12 today, or believe that you could climb V13?

Kris Hampton  1:12:11

Oh, I had my answer until you switch the numbers up on me. I would rather believe I could climb V13. I think there are a lot of things that come along with that. And I mean believe in a real way, not like in a delusions of grandeur type of way.

Nate Drolet  1:12:34

Totally. 100% with you.

Kris Hampton  1:12:36

 You know, because having, you know my recent bouldering has gone from I've done V10 a handful of times. Pretty much most of the V10s that I had tried I had done. But I hadn't tried very many. Now that I've been here for the last five weeks, every single day out climbing, I've climbed on V10, V11, or V 12, sometimes multiple in a day. And that's far more than I've ever climbed on as far as double digits go. So now I have this belief that like V9, V10, I can just do those things.

Nate Drolet  1:13:19

 Totally.

Kris Hampton  1:13:19

You know, if I have a few sessions, I'm going to do them, period. And I think that's part of why I was able to put The Rhino together in four sessions. Because I built that belief of "Oh, I can do all the moves on V11. I can do V10 and in a couple sessions." I wasn't any stronger than I was when I got here, but that belief just made all the difference for me. You know, and I've seen that happen with people over and over again. Once they believe they can climb something and then if they can even move that belief of "I can climb this" into, "I can climb this consistently" or "I can consistently do this at the end of my warm ups.", you know, or "I can do this in a session.", that sort of belief carries over massively to the upper end. So if I had the real belief that I could climb V13, then V11, V12 wouldn't even feel like a deal.

Nate Drolet  1:14:26

 Totally.

Kris Hampton  1:14:26

You know, not even a big deal. They just wouldn't feel like a deal.

Nate Drolet  1:14:29

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. i It's something I think about a lot.

Kris Hampton  1:14:35

And I've seen lots of people who are physically fit enough to climb V12 but weren't doing it.

Nate Drolet  1:14:40

I mean, the difference between fitness and and, and performance I think is enormous. 

Kris Hampton  1:14:44

It's massive. 

Nate Drolet  1:14:46

You know, it's funny. So my first 12b onsight was Supafly in the Red, which now is considered like normal, maybe soft 12a.

Kris Hampton  1:14:55

Right.

Nate Drolet  1:14:55

But the funny thing about it is after I did that, I onsighted another like I don't know six or seven 12bs. And the next year and in my mind, I was like, "I onsight 12b now. Like, this is what I do." And that's what I did. And it's so funny because it, you know, had it been 12a, maybe I never would have had that switch, or it would have been later. 

Nate Drolet  1:15:17

For me to be convinced. But when I did it that day, I was like, "Okay, this is what I do. Like, I can do this." And just having that belief, to me is so important. So yeah, and that's, you know, kind of tying back to what I was talking about doing warm ups and doing new boulders, I think that's one of the biggest reasons why it's important to keep adding new boulders to your circuit or not to your circuit to just what you do every day. Let's say if you are projecting V8, doing a new hard for you V5, it tells you in your mind, like, "Okay, I can get to the top of boulders. I can execute. I know how to pull on with the intention of sending." And that, you know, that does bleed upwards.

Kris Hampton  1:15:17

Yep. 

Kris Hampton  1:16:04

Yep. And repeating things. You know, I think not..I think allowing yourself to acknowledge that quick send wasn't a fluke is really important.

Nate Drolet  1:16:18

Oh, man, that's one of the most painful things for me to watch, when people were like, "Oh, it was just luck" or, you know, "It would it would never happen again." I'm like, "No! Just take it and run with it. " 

Kris Hampton  1:16:27

Yeah.

Nate Drolet  1:16:28

Yeah.

Kris Hampton  1:16:29

 You know, like, for instance, this year, when I was here two years ago, I flashed Jigsaw Puzzle. And, and I had jokingly, a lot of times said, "Oh, that's Red River 12a. You know, it's V4 at best", because it's a notoriously difficult five. 

Nate Drolet  1:16:46

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  1:16:48

And then when I got here, Johnny Lightning was like, "Oh, you can't fall off of this now, Coach. You know, you've talked a lot of shit about this boulder. You fall off of this now you're never gonna hear the end of it." And I almost just didn't climb on it because of that."

Nate Drolet  1:17:01

Mmm Hmm. 

Kris Hampton  1:17:02

And then I was like, "Oh, fuck that, you know, I'm climbing on this boulder. And then once I pulled onto it, and realized, I can own this boulder even more than I did two years ago." You know, there's just that much more confidence, even though it's only V5 and I'm working on V11, V12s, that confidence still adds to my top level of confidence.

Nate Drolet  1:17:24

 Totally. 

Kris Hampton  1:17:25

I think that's huge. 

Nate Drolet  1:17:26

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  1:17:27

And repeating sixes or sevens. You know, if I, if I go back to a seven I'd already done, I want to do it with different beta. And I want to do a six, three or four times with different beta, you know, just to build the confidence. So yeah, I'd rather have that V13 confidence for sure.

Nate Drolet  1:17:48

 Oh, yeah. 

Kris Hampton  1:17:50

I think we've gone on a bunch of tangents here and I think that you have a meeting to get to.

Nate Drolet  1:17:55

Yes I do. 

Kris Hampton  1:17:56

And we've been doing this a long time. So we've got some other questions from people that we will just do another episode on.

Nate Drolet  1:18:03

Sounds good. 

Kris Hampton  1:18:04

Because frankly, I think they could be their own considerably lengthly rant and episode.

Nate Drolet  1:18:11

Agreed.

Kris Hampton  1:18:12

Rant-isode. So you guys know where to find us. If you're in Australia, be on the lookout those those dates and times and all that information will be online soon. And you can find us on the Instagrams @PowerCompanyClimbing. You can find us on the Facebook's. You should check out that new Dru Mack video if you haven't seen it yet. And Dru's not on Twitter. 

Nate Drolet  1:18:39

Is he really not?

Kris Hampton  1:18:40

 I don't think he is. He's a social media.....maven...of sorts.

Kris Hampton  1:18:45

Ooh. Good use of the word "maven".

Kris Hampton  1:18:46

And Dru is not on Twitter on the Twitter's. Neither are we. I don't know how to say Twitter apparently. Because we don't tweet. We scream like eagles.