being out climbed by a lot of my peers, that can be really hard. And I definitely can like start to
dig myself into a hole a little bit. I got that email while I was in Whole Foods. And I just
was like running around the grocery store and just like kind of jumping up and down to myself like
World Cup, World Cup, World Cup, the types of moves that that really get me psyched aren't things
that you find outside so much. Welcome to another episode of the That's Not Real Coming podcast.
I'm your host Jinni and I'm excited to introduce my guest Cloe Coscoy. Cloe is a French American
boulder who has competed for Team USA in the international youth and elite circuit.
In this episode, we'll learn about how she accidentally ended up competing in lead World
Cups, the difficulties of trying to make it onto a highly competitive US team, and we give some love
to good old gym climbing and plastic pulling. Hope you enjoy this episode with Cloe.
Cool. Yeah, how are things going? Yeah, yeah, pretty good. I'm
doing any like training today? Yeah, I trained at the training center this morning.
I'm kind of starting my taper for team trials right now. So two days of rest over the weekend
and like a light session today. I'll rest tomorrow. Yeah, what does tapering look like for you? It
starts like a few weeks beforehand. Yeah, so it's kind of been different like throughout my climbing
career. And I think I've got it a lot more figured out now than I used to. But I'll usually like
like train pretty hard for at least three or four months leading into an event. And then
that's kind of usually phased out a little bit. But the last week and a half or so I'll decrease
my volume a ton. So like recently, I had been climbing like five ish days a week. And a lot
of those are double sessions. And right now I'm doing just one day on one day off and really short
like two hour sessions for the next week and a half. So big decrease in volume. Is it like
your tapering strength training? Just even time spent on the wall. I think in general, like the
climbing itself is almost like strength training and that like the more I do it, I get pretty tired
for sure. Especially when it's like a lot of steep climbing a lot of powerful climbing. So
it's just so that like when I go to compete, I feel really rested and, and strong, I can't be like,
Oh, I'm tired from this workout or whatever it was. Yeah. What do you have to, I guess,
do at national team trials to make the team? It's hard to know. It's the way it works is we have
40% of our points are based off our result at nationals and 60% of our points are based off
our result at team trials. And so I did not great at nationals. I was 10th. Ideally, I would have
liked to be in the top five, but the way it works, like if certain people who did well at nationals
don't do as well as at team trials, and I do well at team trials, then I might move up the ranking
quite a bit or, you know, it can also go kind of the other way around if people who did worse than
me do really well at team trials, then they'll get more points. So it's really, really hard to
know. I think ideally to make the World Cup circuit, I would like to be first or second,
which will be pretty hard, but do my best for that. At the very least, I would really like to
qualify for the World Cup in Salt Lake. So in that case, I think if I make finals at team trials,
I have a good chance to be set for that. But it's really hard to know beforehand,
we won't really know until the points get calculated and the list comes out.
Oh, kind of stressful. Yeah. Yeah, I guess I don't actually know,
like the inner workings of the point system and like how you get selected for, I guess it's the
World Cup circuit versus just the Salt Lake World Cup. Why is there a difference between the two?
Is it just like based on affordability? No, it's since the Salt Lake World Cup,
we're the host country, we have a larger quota. So we're allowed more athletes there. So I think it,
I can't, I'm not sure exactly how many I believe last year we were allowed 10 athletes, whereas
in normal World Cup last year we were allowed five. And this year those numbers will change
a little bit. It's just kind of based on how the team performed the year before and that kind of
determines your quota, but it'll be in that range. So we get a lot more people for Salt Lake than we
do for any other international World Cups. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, good luck at team trials.
Thank you. Thank you. Coming up in a couple of weeks. Yeah. So I'm leaving next Tuesday. So a
week from today and competing on Thursday. Okay. Exciting. Well, I think by the time this podcast
comes out, it will be done and over with. So hopefully it'll be good news. But yeah, good luck.
I'll watch and be rooting for you. Thank you. So for people who don't know, how did you get into
climbing and competing in general? Yeah. So when I was probably maybe 10 or 11, this gym called
Bridges Rock Gym opened up near my house in El Cerrito. And I went, I had been to a climbing
gym before a couple times when I was much younger for birthday parties and things. And I went to
one at Bridges and then my family kind of was excited about it and decided that we should all
sign up for membership. So it was like kind of this thing that we could all do together.
So they picked up, they got us a family membership and we all started going there. And I really
quickly took a liking to it and joined the competitive team. So I was on the youth competitive
team there for quite a while until I aged out of youth comp climbing. How long after starting
climbing did you start competing? I started competing. It's actually kind of a funny story.
I should have been in youth B, so like 14 years old for my first USA climbing competition. But
a week before regionals, I broke my big toe and I wasn't able to wear a climbing shoe for like six
months and had to get a screw in my foot. So I didn't start comp climbing really until I was in
youth A, so about 15. Okay, that's pretty late actually. I had done a few local competitions
prior to that. But I'd say like the USA climbing competitions are when I started to get a little
more serious about comp climbing that was like 15, 16. And yeah, how did you break your big toe?
Because that was also like an injury Yanya recently had, right? And I'm just like,
yeah, how does that happen? It's so unique. I was actually campus boarding. And there was a foam
roller underneath me. And for whatever reason, I didn't think to move it and I fell on it and like
rolled back and just kicked the wall. And my toe had to be in a boot for a while.
Geez. Okay. Another concern to keep in mind while campus boarding, I guess.
Yeah. I did a lot of hangboarding, a lot of campersing, some one foot climbing.
Yeah, I mean, people always say that injuries sometimes allow you to get stronger in other
ways. So I guess that worked out for you. For sure. I mean, I was I was pretty young.
I don't think it made a huge difference. But well, you never know. But also you started climbing
kind of late compared to other people on the circuit. I feel like a lot of people say they
started when they were like six or something, which is a little bit crazy. But yeah, I think
for like a professional climber, you started a little bit later than everyone else. Do you feel
like you missed out starting a bit later? Or do you think younger kids are kind of just messing
around anyway, because they don't really take anything serious? I think one thing that has
benefited me a lot is just having done a lot of sports growing up before I started climbing.
Like, I used to run kind of cross country and track in middle school, I was on the swim team
for like three years, I took tennis lessons growing up. And I was always like playing
basketball and soccer. And I went to skate camp when I was younger. So I kind of got to do a lot
of different sports. And although I didn't really stick to any for more than a few years, I think it
really helped develop my climbing style. It made me a lot more like dynamic and athletic and in my
climbing movements and like a little bit more powerful in general. And I think it probably
helped me with my coordination as well. And so when I first started climbing, or when I first
started getting into comp climbing, I definitely had some regrets. And I was like, always thinking,
Oh, I wish I'd started younger, because everyone around me started younger. And I feel like I'm
just trying to catch up to them all the time. And they have so many years on me. But I think at this
point, looking back, I think that the way I grew up and my relationship to sport, like definitely
formed and affected how I approach climbing. And so I wouldn't really change that, I don't think.
Yeah, that makes sense. I think we'll get into the other sports you've done later on because I was,
yeah, had some other questions about that. But I also during my research saw that you're a French
citizen. So do you go there much to train?
Yeah, I go there quite a bit to train. My parents are both French, they came to the States in
98, I think. So they've been in the US since a little before I was born. But we always spoke
French at home. And I spent a lot of summers going there to visit family. So I kind of,
I just like being in France, I like hearing people speak French and everything. So when I started
climbing, I definitely like kind of sought out gyms there when we would go for the summers. And
I guess as I got way more into comp climbing, I started to realize how good of a place it was for
training. And the French team is obviously super strong, and they have a very specific, like,
very specific strengths in climbing. So it's been pretty awesome to be able to train there and
get to know everyone and have that little extra tie to them. I feel like it's a lot easier to get
to know them when I can speak French as well. So that's been really nice.
So when I think of French climbing, I think a lot of slab and people who are really great on slab
competition boulders as well. When you go there and climb and train for a little bit, do you feel
the difference there in terms of like their slab setting? Definitely, I'd say just in general,
their level of slab climbing is really good. And in a lot of gyms, a lot of the slabs that you'll have
there are harder and more technical or they'll at least have more of them than you would find in a
lot of US gyms. And honestly, in a lot of like countries that I've trained in, I think the French
have definitely the most slabs and the most hard slabs, which is really, really good for training.
So that's always really, really good to practice there. And I always come back from trips there
feeling like I've kind of improved at that a little bit. So that's always nice. Yeah, do you
have a preference towards slab at all? I know we like, I met you because you were doing a slab clinic
and I'm terrible at slab. So is that one of your strong suits you think? Yeah, I'd say now slab is
definitely one of the styles that I'm more comfortable on. I think I'm quite good at trusting
my feet and willing to be pretty uncomfortable and kind of just trust the positions and see,
like, see how they work. And I think that makes that makes for like, good slab climbing. But
when I grew up, like growing up, I was really, really bad at slab, like, quite bad. I mean,
the gym that I grew up in really didn't have any slab walls at the time. And none of the gyms in
the Bay Area, at least when I was younger, really had any actual slabs. And so the only time I would
practice them was when we would do youth training camps at Mesa Rim in San Diego. And I think going
there and having really, really dedicated time on slabs and like breaking down everything from,
like, I couldn't even stand on a volume when I first went there to, like, then doing coordination
and really breaking down, like, everything that that we could figure out about slab climbing made
me a lot better. But I think definitely in the past, like three, four years, spending a lot of
time in the training center and a lot of time just falling and slipping and banging my shins,
I got I got a lot better at slab climbing. But it took quite a bit of just like dedicated time to
that style. And now I'd say I like it a lot. And I'm quite confident in my slab climbing. But it
took quite a long time to get there for sure. Yeah, I'm glad to hear the Mesa Rim in San Diego
helped out because that's where I am right now. So hopefully I'll be able to help you out.
That's where I am right now. So hopefully I'll make some some strides there as well. Did you ever
go to like the I was thinking what it's called. It's not called the training center, but like the
Academy, the Academy. Yeah, did you do this? Yeah, that's where all of our youth training camps were
at the Academy. And it was maybe one week a year or two weeks a year. And for about like three,
four years there, I did that with a lot of friends from the youth circuit. And we did so much slab
climbing. Okay, I'm excited to make some progress there then. But yeah, and a lot of commercial
gyms, there's not much slab. Maybe like, I mean, there's always like a vertical wall. But in terms
of slab, there's not much there. Do you have a favorite US gym other than I guess, like the
training center? Yeah, I think at least for slab climbing, I really like the bouldering projects
gyms. I climb primarily at the bouldering project in Salt Lake City, when I'm just like doing gym
slab climbs, and they're usually pretty, pretty good. And like the level is is decent. What I
find a lot of the time is that a lot of gyms, even if they do have a slab wall, their their boulders
are just not super hard. And I think it's like a lot of people don't practice the kind of comp slab
style. So it's pretty hard to to find the limit of what's doable. And I imagine it's pretty hard
to set as well. Yeah, the climbs at bouldering project just like really scare me. It's like not
my style at all. But we'd love to check it out again sometime. But yeah, going into your
competition history, I was taking a look at your IFSC history. And it looks like you did a lot more
lead competitions initially. Do you prefer to boulder now? So that was in 2021, the year after
we kind of all got shut down for COVID, we had our first team trials. And I had spent probably
about three quarters of my time and energy training boulders and the rest training lead.
And I did really well in the qualification there. And then in the semi finals, I like fully got in
my head and had a really bad round. So I think I think I ended that that comp between 10th and
20th for boulders. And then in lead, I like it was after boulders and I kind of had no expectations.
I knew I was better at bouldering and just kind of had an okay qualifier made semis and then the
semis route was really slabby kind of vert route, like very technical. And I climbed really well in
that on that route made finals, which to me had been was like pretty surprising. I was not expecting
to do well in lead at team trials. And that qualified me for some of the lead World Cups
of for that year. So those were my first World Cups ever. My first one being the Lars. So I kind of
like was scrambling after the team trials. I was like scrambling to lead climb more and train more
lead because I really wasn't expecting that it was kind of everyone was doing boulders and lead and
figured okay, I'll like train lead too. And then all of a sudden I was going to do international
lead comps. So I was training lead a lot and the first lead World Cup went really well.
I think I had no expectations kind of similarly I was like, oh, you know, I'm like lead is pretty
new to me. I have no idea what my level is and ended up making the semi for that. And then every
lead World Cup after that I've really struggled to kind of find my stride. I think a lot of it I was
getting in my head from the first World Cup that I did where, you know, I didn't really have any
expectations and just made the semi and then I could hardly get like more than a few draws up the
wall at the next ones. So it was kind of a weird thing for me and I definitely kept training lead
because I was qualified for lead comps but I've always been more interested in bouldering and I
prefer boulder comps. So when the next team trials came around and the team trials after that came
around I did like kind of perform well in boulders which I was really excited about. I think getting
to do boulder World Cups was always like my dream and what I wanted to do and lead I think is really
cool and I really really admire strong lead climbers. But for me it's been like so so
challenging to see any type of translation between my training and how I compete in lead and it's
just not something that has like been super exciting to me. It's more stressful than anything
like lead comps I get really nervous, really stressed and I usually kind of make mistakes
and bouldering I feel like I'm able to express myself a lot more. So being able to to do boulder
World Cups has been like really really great and super exciting and going forward I maybe in the
future I'll look to be selected for some lead World Cups again but I'm definitely focused on
on boulders now. Okay so like for the upcoming team trials are you only doing boulder? I don't
know if that's like an option. Yeah so last year because of the Olympics we had to do bouldering
and lead and so I did boulder lead and so this past season I was qualified for the combines team
so I could do essentially any of the bouldering and any of the lead World Cups that I wanted.
So I did all the boulder World Cups and some of the lead World Cups and then at World Champs
I only did bouldering. This year we have it's separate again so we're able to do just bouldering
or lead so I only did bouldering at Nationals and I'll only do bouldering at team trials.
Wow it's so interesting that you only qualified for lead the first year and then just ended up
going to international competitions for it. I feel like that's like signing up for a job that you're
not qualified for and then you're like suddenly scrambling to figure things out. That's a little
bit terrifying. Yeah it was I wasn't actually even officially on the lead team. I must have been maybe
seventh or eighth on our list and they were taking maybe five to the World Cups but because it was
the year of the Tokyo Olympics a lot of people who were selected for the Olympics didn't do all of
the lead comps leading up to the Olympics so it passed down to me so it wasn't even after team
trials it was like a month or maybe even three weeks before the first lead World Cup in Villars
that I got kind of an email that was like hey you're like it's passed the invites have been
passed down so you're qualified for Villars if you want to do it and I was oh goodness like I
haven't trained lead at all because I had I mean kind of been doing boulder lead but didn't really
know what I was training for and then all of a sudden I had three weeks to train lead and then
hop on a flight to Switzerland and that comp went really well it was awesome but after that I was
just I think way a little bit in over my head and definitely struggled to to perform. Wow um yeah
that's stressful I mean even booking a flight three weeks out for an international trip is stressful
by itself. Yeah yeah definitely but at that point I was more just I mean I had been wanting to do a
World Cup for so long and we had just watched the Salt Lake Bouldering World Cup which I hadn't
qualified for because this was after the 21 team trials and I just like the only thing I wanted
was to compete in World Cups so just like even I remember I got that email while I was in Whole
Foods and I just was like running around the grocery store and just like kind of jumping up
and down to myself like oh yeah World Cup World Cup World Cup this is crazy and yeah now it's it's
crazy to think how many I've been able to do but yeah that's awesome so it's kind of like the
excitement and just like the newness of it all gave you that energy to get into semis for that
first time. Yeah in the the first in Villars we had a um one of our first routes was just
like not super hard and then there was a big jump in the middle of the wall and a lot of people fell
at the jump and I actually went first on that route so I really I had no idea how hard it was
how people would do um just went out there did the jump and then like fell a little bit afterwards
didn't do so well on the next route but just like uh doing the jump was enough to to make the semi so
yeah it was definitely super surprising but I also had no expectations I was like oh maybe I'm like
pretty good at lead or or like but yeah I had no idea about the international level and then
I think I really kind of took a beating at the next competitions that were a little bit more maybe
traditional like endurance space so weren't as many like weird tricky like jumps because I'm
I've usually been pretty good at jumping but like they were just more normal hard world cup routes
and I had just never climbed on routes that were that hard off the ground before and got got pretty
slammed but it was fun it was really fun though oh I bet I mean that sounds like a dream um but yeah
speaking of that transition just going from like youth competitions and moving straight to the
international circuit um this was also one of the discord questions um so what was that transition
like and did you consider doing like collegiate competitions yeah I think it was really weird for
me because it kind of was timed perfectly with covid um so my first time ever qualifying for the
youth world championships was arco in 2019 when I was that was my second to last year of youth
so I was 17 years old um so I did that that was my first youth world I did that and that whole
experience was super eye-opening for me to see that climbing was like a legit sport on the
international level I had gone to Innsbruck right beforehand to train and I had never been
like surrounded by so many youth competitors who were so strong and just seeing like people from
so many different countries who are all training all day long and everybody was working really hard
and taking it seriously it was like whoa like climbing is a real thing and it's it's like it's
like all these other sports that I kind of grew up doing and was like wow there's like uh this like
sport exists at a super high level and I kind of I realized that for the first time at that youth
worlds and was like I want to do more international comps I want to train as much as I can that was
really really motivating and then going into 2020 um like just before that at the end of 2019 I kind
of started to podium at the national cups um so things started to look pretty good for open
nationals so I was pretty excited going into open nationals surprised myself by making finals like
that was always the goal but I knew it would be quite hard and climbed really well throughout
that whole comp finished the comp in second so I was qualified to do the whole bouldering season
the whole bouldering world cup season in 2020 um and then uh like a month later after that everything
was shut down and that was a weird thing for me because I was like I had definitely been looking
forward to doing boulder world cups and also just I think didn't realize like how hard it was to
accomplish what I accomplished that year like I kind of took it for granted definitely a little bit
to think like okay like I podiumed at most of the national cups and then I went to nationals and
podiumed and like it was pretty solid the whole way and then we had covid and I trained a lot
through covid and then coming out of covid it was 2021 which we were just talking about where I
didn't do well at all in the team selection and so that was a weird transition of like I kind of made
the team straight away and then I had a year and a half where I really didn't do super well
at the important bouldering comps because I was always doing quite well at um like different gym
comps like uh things like woman up or portland boulder boulder rally and even the national cups
but when I was coming down to the selection events I just like things kind of went just a bit south
and it hadn't worked out so I had kind of two years of like training a lot and knowing that I
was kind of capable of making the team because I was doing pretty well in all these other events
and having to be like pretty patient in terms of selection but you know overall it did kind of come
pretty quickly and I think because even in youth a lot of my success came later it was a pretty
natural transition between youth and open because I only really started to compete quite well in
youth and like in the kind of open gym comps when I was like 17 18 so it kind of went pretty naturally
went pretty naturally from there but um yeah so I guess like I don't really know how the collegiate
circuit works like like how do you decide to do that instead I guess oh yeah um so collegiate I
think just if you're enrolled in college classes you can compete on the collegiate circuit and it
works pretty similarly to youth in that you have like kind of divisional or regional level events
that qualify you for nationals and I actually did do collegiate one year in 2022 I competed in
collegiate and made the the world champs team so they have a collegiate world championship which I
did in in Innsbruck um that summer but I think it's a really good like a really really good
in-between from youth to open for a lot of people I think that like the transition into open can be
quite harsh like you'll see the level of of just like the boulders changes quite a bit and I think
as to be expected but the collegiate is like kind of in between and I think a little bit more casual
in that yes like people train for it and they show up and they're ready to compete but not everybody
there is like super intense and has been training really hard and is trying to make you know the
world cup team or whatever as opposed to sometimes the like like team trials or the nationals can
feel like pretty intense when you're kind of at that level where you know you could make the team
but you're not sure you'll be able to and I think in those ways those comps feel really intense
whereas in collegiate I think there's a lot less of that pressure um people are having a little
more fun with it I think. And so going into uh your IFSC competition experience um so it sounds like
expectations plays a big role into how well you perform um how does is there anything else you
feel like impacts your performance at those competitions like crowd noise or what you're
thinking on the wall? Yeah I think my biggest one even like in training or in competitions is just
I mean it sounds pretty obvious but just my energy and I think you can kind of see it in my climbing
when I'm a lot more like bouncy and jumpy and kind of taking more risks which I think is tied to
expectations as well but um having a much more like kind of powerful and dynamic style when I'm
at all tired or my energy feels a little lower it's really hard for me to kind of tap into that
style but I think that when I do feel really energized and excited to be competing I can't
you can kind of tell in the way that I'm even warming up or like kind of jumping around just
in the gym that translates for me really well into like a kind of a more flowy and almost
kind of careless in a way like attitude on the mats but more in a in a way that it's like helping
me be relaxed and and loose and like intense and kind of aggressive at the same time um I don't
know it's like it's definitely a mindset that I like when I'm in it I know I'm in it and I'm excited
and the rest of the time I kind of like kind of ride the line of of struggling to like feel super
energized and um like flowy on the wall versus like sometimes just being tired. Yeah do you feel like
climbing in front of people affects that at all better for better for worse? Yeah I think it's
it's pretty funny like in training and in the gym I definitely like to not have so many people around
but when it comes to competing I really really like the crowd I have always been like someone
who kind of likes that type of pressure and uh like having a crowd and having a lot of noise
really helps me try harder like it can be hard to tap into that um by myself for sure it's like when
I'm climbing by myself I listen to music and I think that helps a lot but when I'm competing the
crowd definitely definitely helps me um and I think it like almost takes my nerves away like
it's a lot more nerve-racking when you're quiet when it's just quiet and everybody's watching you
versus when people are kind of cheering and screaming so I definitely like it. I guess it
could be kind of unnerving if the crowd is quiet because then it's like oh I must be doing something
wrong or bad or embarrassing. Yeah it's a weird one it's like sometimes when the crowd's not
reacting you kind of start to think oh well maybe everybody has done the same on this boulder or
maybe I'm not doing anything particularly good like performance wise but when the crowd's going
crazy you're like at the very least they're like excited to be seeing me climb like regardless of
you know how I'm doing compared to everyone else and I think that definitely fuels the excitement.
I think a lot of competitors would agree like a loud crowd is is really fun to climb in front of
for sure. Yeah I can I can imagine um do you remember the last time you would have felt
insecure climbing in front of people either in front of a crowd or in front of other competitors
maybe? Yeah I think in training that happens like a decent amount actually being in Salt Lake we have
just so many strong climbers and even in the training center like every day there will be so
so many people who are strong and like a lot of the time they're stronger than me and sometimes
when I'm feeling good it's awesome and it's really nice because you feel like you're a part of it and
you're strong and you're getting better but on days where I maybe don't have so much energy or
I'm like being out climbed by a lot of my peers that can be really hard and I definitely
can like start to dig myself into a hole a little bit of just like oh I'm not good enough or like
I think I am good enough and yet I just can't like seem to perform or show up the way I want to.
So in general I think that definitely happens to me the most in training and just climbing around
people who are strong I think it's like a blessing in that it definitely pushes you to be better and
to learn from people but it can be hard because there is kind of for everyone I think just that
element of comparison is always there everyone's working hard and everyone's trying to be you know
as good as they can if not the best and so it's it can be hard to to be out climbed consistently or
or to just feel like you're underperforming I think that really quickly starts to spiral and
it can be hard to kind of keep a good mindset about it. Yeah I can definitely imagine I was so
I had just like recently moved to San Diego and Salt Lake was actually one of the places I was
considering and then I decided not to move there because I felt like the competition would be a
little too strong and scary and so I definitely get why you would feel that way there. Yeah I mean
I think one of the things that's really cool about Salt Lake and the climbing community is
there are people at every level who are psyched and even kind of across levels like if you're
psyched and you're excited to get better at climbing there will be people behind you whether
they're stronger than you or not who are going to be psyched to support you and who are going to see
that and kind of bring you into to their climbing circle so in that way I think it's really cool and
it's really great but it is kind of I think tricky when you have like that kind of competition
specific mindset where you're like these are the people that I'll compete against you know so
that can be tricky for sure. Yeah definitely intimidating but going into your 2022 and 2023
season I think you had mentioned that you did pretty well in 2022 and then last year's season
you were a bit disappointed with your performance so what kind of happened there? Please excuse
this brief intermission but I would just like to remind you that if you are enjoying this podcast
please follow and rate it on your preferred listening platform. If you're watching on YouTube
I would love to hear your discussion and thoughts in the comments below. Anything helps to push this
podcast out to more people and get even more amazing guests on. Back to the show! Yeah 2022
was my first bouldering world cups ever. The first one being Meiringen in Switzerland and I went into
it definitely feeling good but I had been feeling good for a long time on boulders and just kind of
was excited to see how it would go but really had no idea and went out for the qualification
and I remember during the first like right before I got on the first boulder or actually even like a
few moves into the first boulder having the thought of like I can try really hard to do this boulder
or I can kind of relax into the round and see how it goes and I think in that moment I kind of decided
no like I think I can kind of do this one like let me try really hard to do it and it actually
ended up not being so bad. I flashed the first boulder and I think in that moment kind of it
sort of decided my attitude and my approach for that whole season like I would just go on to the
mats with little expectation and just I was really excited to be there for one and also feeling
pretty good and like confident on the coordination moves on the slabs and it really paid off. I mean
surprised myself by just barely making the semis at that competition and then in the semis I really
was really like relaxed. I had no expectations at all. I was just excited to be there. I couldn't
believe that I had even made this semi and I climbed really really like like myself like how I
had been climbing in training which I think is really hard to feel like you're kind of matching
up with your expectation of yourself or your level and training so I kind of was able to tap in
to that and was like more than anything just having so much fun on the mats and I think
if you watch that comp like you can kind of tell I'm just having a really good time and
trying really hard and getting into the grid of it on like the third boulder fourth boulder and
ended up being 10th at that competition after which I like kind of came away and and was
like really pleasantly surprised which hadn't happened very much in many competitions for me
before. I think a lot of the times I had had a pretty high expectation off the bat and either
met my expectation or was kind of below what I expected or underperformed and this was like one
of the first times where I felt like I had exceeded what I thought was possible and so I took a lot
of time to kind of write out like in my journal what I felt like were the kind of conditions that
made it so I was able to climb that way and and be so relaxed and and like not nervous and just
excited to be there and I think a lot of it was like acknowledging that I was finally getting to
live something that I had trained for for so many years and never even knew if I would be able to do
like I never knew if I would qualify for world cups but I always that was always a dream of mine
to do bouldering world cups so kind of being extra like recognizant of that and then also just
kind of like keeping with that energy and really playing into my strengths so like taking a lot of
risks on the wall and like accepting falls and it just that whole mindset of like I was like
it just that whole mindset like worked really well for me that season and I ended up making all of
the boulder world cup semi-finals and it definitely got harder like as the season went on I think by
the fourth fifth comp I started to kind of think okay like I kind of got a streak here I don't want
to break the streak like got harder and harder but definitely until like was able to hold on until
until the very end of that season so that was an awesome season I couldn't have like I couldn't
have hoped for anything better honestly and I think not making a final was really great in that I felt
like I had the consistency and all I needed to do was maybe improve the level but if I could keep
the consistency there then I thought that I'd be able to make a final or two in the next season
and then the next year was much much trickier for me I mean I think just training boulder and lead
together was really hard and I also had a like a concussion in November and December that really
really affected my training and my energy and my mood going into the season and I don't I don't
and I don't I don't think I gave that enough like attention but then the yeah 23 season was quite hard
definitely much worse than the season before and I think it was a combination of like physical issues
and then expectations from this season before so it was a tricky one but hopefully be better this
year yeah I mean a concussion is not like a light injury so that makes a lot of sense did you how
did you get the concussion yeah I was just snowboarding in the park and fell back and hit my
head and thankfully I was wearing a helmet but uh even then I think yeah I was just really kind of
out of it for a few weeks after that but then for months I felt like I couldn't quite place my feet
how I wanted and was having a lot of trouble like feeling coordinated and was like kind of dizzy
sometimes really tired sometimes um and then the big one was kind of I had like this chronic pain
in my neck and like tightness in my neck that has kind of lasted since then and it's definitely
gotten better but I think it kind of affected um not only my ability to train but how much how well
I was recovering um throughout that whole season how long do you feel like that affected you for
or like how long did you feel those side effects or are you still feeling them hopefully not I think
the worst of it was definitely in February and March of last year um and then now I still have like
this neck tightness and like pain sometimes but I've definitely been finding more and more ways to
manage it and talking to people to kind of help me through it um so I think right now it's definitely
not affecting me as much but I think beforehand the combination of that and then I think it
probably affected my mood a decent amount as well um so that and then also training lead so much I
think made it a lot harder to keep my power up for the bouldering season and I definitely improved a
little bit in lead but I think regressed in boulders didn't improve enough in lead to see really
significant results there so it was a weird combination of just kind of feeling like I was
a little bit worse at both and could almost kind of tell I think going into some of those comps
like I just didn't feel physically like where I wanted to be and then on top of that getting
results that were disappointing I think just kind of like kept kept that cycle going a little bit
and kind of kept me like mentally kind of down on myself which made it really hard to have that
really light-hearted and playful attitude that I'd had this season before. Yeah definitely snowballs
for sure um when it comes to training through a concussion um how did you do that? I think I did it
really poorly um yeah I just I really didn't give that like injury the the attention that it needed
I think I've always been really good at training a lot and kind of glancing over like riding over
any little tweaks or whatever for better for worse like I train a lot and I think that I've been able
to handle like a large volume of training and then push through a lot of things that are
uncomfortable or not going well and that's one where I really didn't give that injury the
attention that it needed and so I really trained like straight through it I took like one week
one week pretty light but then just got straight back to my normal volume of training and I think
that was a really bad idea I like also didn't seek out the help that I should have for my neck
kind of early on and so I think that's kind of led to this more chronic problem that could have been
solved earlier um so I definitely have a lot of things that I would have done differently about
that um but now that I know a little more about it and I've talked to some more people about it
I'm finding ways to at least deal with kind of the lasting neck issues but right now how do you
work through the neck issues yeah so I think a big one has been taking just a lot of extra time to
kind of nail in all those recovery measures that people always kind of tell you to do but you're
like I don't know like it kind of gets pushed to the side a lot so a lot of like rolling it out and
I get it massaged sometimes and I have like an acupuncture mat and um like different neck massagers
and things like that and I'm not sure if all of those help but I think at least if I'm doing a
lot of those things at least a few of them will help kind of alleviate the the tension there
I've got like some wave tool cups that I use too and I've talked to like a few different
pts and massage therapists and gotten a few different opinions so just like slowly working
through it and I think it's like a tightness that kind of keeps coming back um so just kind of trying
to relieve that as best I can but I'm definitely not like at the end of of that whole ordeal yet
I'm still learning quite a bit about it and like working with people on it so hopefully it won't be
so much of an issue in the coming years but we'll see I mean at least massages are nice I love a good
massage have you ever gotten like onto a head spa no I haven't oh my gosh you should try to find one
it's it's so nice if you like your like hair like scalp being massaged it's it's the best oh yeah I
like those wire things that you just kind of oh you would love it then on your head
on your head yeah you would love it and they'll do like neck and some shoulders as well so I would
highly recommend it's like a big thing right now nice well that sounds fun yeah I actually had one
I got a massage today but it was quite painful I was almost crying in the in the chair so a little
little different not as relaxing but I think will probably help relax some of that that tension so
we'll see it's good to get a mix I'm a big massage fan so nice I know I know all about them
but yeah speaking of getting injuries do you climb outdoors much during the season I guess even
outside of the season I know a lot of people don't because of like risk of injuries and training
I don't climb outside a lot and I think that climbing outside would probably actually be
good for my training like kind of in the way that it's similar to a lot of board climbing
I think just like crimping more and having smaller holds and more technical feet would be great for
my climbing but I just love the gym but it's not really for reasons of like avoiding injury or
my skin or anything like that I think that it could help me but I really really love just the
ease of going to the gym and then also the volume that I'm able to get in I mean I love how it feels
to move when I'm climbing and when I go to the gym I get to do a lot of that compared to when I
climb outside and it doesn't hurt my skin as badly it's honestly it's just more comfortable
and I mean for comp climbing I think it's great and it's perfectly fine so I climb at the gym a
whole lot and it's more because I like it and I think there will be times in my life where I'm
going to get more excited about outdoor climbing and even now there are some places that I've
climbed outside that I really loved and as I've gotten stronger I've definitely gotten more excited
about trying climbs outside but I think the style that I'm most excited about and the climbs that
excite me the most the types of moves that that really get me psyched aren't things that you find
outside so much so really I'm enjoying the gym I love the climbing gym no that's awesome I love
that because I feel the same way and I usually give the same responses I mean everyone always
asks me to go outside and I'm like for what like no yeah I love to spend time outside but yeah yeah
I love being outside like a lot of time I'll go my friends will go outdoor climbing and I'll go with
them and just kind of hang out and and watch and and spend the day outside and sometimes I'll go
and climb moderates and things but I mean I haven't done much projecting or anything not since I was
younger anyway so but I'll get there I'll get there but right now I like I like my my gym routine
yeah I think that's that's my plan too I'll I'll point people to you next time people get
they should for not going outside at all yeah the gym is fun yeah exactly get to climb more
I'm all about the efficiency it's just yeah so much better
okay last question about IFC related stuff um you've done a few things in the commentary box the
past year or so I think um do you like being in the commentary box and what do you like bringing
to to the commentary yeah I definitely like doing it I think it's it's really fun to kind of play
off someone else's commentary like I think it would be quite challenging to like lead the
the discussion but it's definitely nice to kind of add in your little comments and things I think
that like the comp climbers know the most about the compy moves and kind of um even the different
competitors and and their styles and what they like and don't like and um that makes it pretty
fun to kind of throw in your little two cents about about any one you know move or whatever it
is it's a little nerve-wracking for sure and I don't really know how good I am at it but I always
like to kind of take up the the opportunity when people ask me to join in so hopefully I'll get to
do a little more of it I'd rather be in the round though if I get to choose so right yeah for
bouldering at least for boulders yeah there you go yeah maybe you can do some lead ones yeah um
okay well anything you don't like about being in the commentary box um
I think just when your like voice is kind of out there for everyone to hear like people will
definitely make little comments that are unnecessary like I know the first time I
interviewed someone I said the word awesome a lot and people were at me in the comments about it and
I was like oh I'm trying my best but no other than that I kind of like it and I think I'm pretty good
at brushing brushing over things like that so you're like she said awesome like four times like yeah
sorry like it's really not a big deal but yeah I mean I guess when you're listening you have
nothing else to do except for listen very strictly about what people are saying um through like
editing the podcast there are so many I I edit it out I allow myself to edit it out but when you're
live you don't have that option so I would not do very well at commentating so outside of IFC
climbing uh I've watched you crush at a lot of competitions around the US um I think I saw you
at like a boulder field competition um plastic classic was another one um woman up obviously
um I saw you recently did uh one at mosaic boulders in the bay um I don't know if we just like
happened to both go to the same competitions um but how do you choose which competitions you
participate in locally like is it just for prize money or is there just like how else do you choose
I think the timing is a big one like there's a competition this week that I won't go to because
our team trials is uh coming up and I don't want it to interfere with that but otherwise I genuinely
just I really really love that type of competition I think it's just a little more laid back than USA
climbing events or just because of like you know selection criteria or IFC events because you know
you traveled so far to get there and you've been training so much for those events that you really
want to do well these are a lot more laid back and they're good ways to kind of check in with
yourself throughout the season to see like what you want to work on so I'll do like almost all of
the ones that make any sense timing wise um and then in terms of prize money like I'd say in
general if I'll at least pay for my travel and my being there by being like top three or top four
making finals then then it's usually like a good bet and I try to try to make it out for sure so
as long as it kind of pays for itself then then that's good enough for me and I'm pretty psyched
to be there um but I definitely do a lot of those and have a good streak with those types of comps
for the moment so I'll keep at it they're they're like some of my favorite events to compete in so
for someone like me who wants to start competing in open um at these like local competitions um
what do you feel like are some strategies to have a better chance at doing well I would love to make
a finals one day but if it's always the same six people who I always see at finals it's not happening
yeah I think the first like best thing that you can do to your for yourself if you want to get
better at competing is to compete and so like every opportunity that you have to go to competitions
whether they're like kind of little small bouldering league type things or if they're bigger
competitions is to just like show up and do them and be really open-minded about it like
I think it's important to be pretty realistic and you know maybe you aren't there to make finals and
that's okay you can be there to do other things like learn um like get used to the style or get
used to the pressure of having limited attempts or just having like so many strong people around you
and climbing around people who are maybe stronger than you so I think competing a lot is the first
best thing that you can do if you want to compete and then the second thing that I would say is
really important and that a lot of people kind of dismiss is like outside of the physical training
that you're doing just whether you're hangboarding or board climbing or doing weight training is
when you're climbing is to be pretty intentional with what you're doing and be pretty like let
yourself get pretty uncomfortable kind of push past just like your normal casual session with
friends you know I think kind of what sets a lot of comp climbers apart from just um other people
who are climbing in the gym and climbing recreationally is not necessarily the amount
of time spent in the gym but the amount of like intention behind what we're doing and kind of
pressure and expectation that you put on yourself when you're in the gym and you're doing something
in the gym like when I go into the gym I have a certain expectation of myself that I'm going to
take the boulders seriously that I'm going to take my session seriously that I'm not going to just
get on the wall randomly and just not put focus behind every attempt I think that kind of
thoughtfulness goes a really long way and it's something that doesn't take more time from than
what people are already doing but just like when every single time I step on the wall to be like
I'm getting on the wall right now for this purpose like I'm going to do this with this hand hold
I'm going to do this with this foot and not just like repeating the same thing and not trying to
learn from from your boulders I think that's like really the big one kind of that level of
focus and it's hard to bring that every time but the more that you can show up that way to the gym
the more you'll improve faster and I think one way to force that is to kind of run like little
mock comps for yourself for or different challenges where like on the maybe your gym has just set like
10 new boulders and you're going to tell yourself okay I have one try to do them all and if I fall
like I don't get to try them again until next session I think kind of having that pressure a
little bit a little bit more intensity and kind of forcing yourself into that mindset of like this
attempt matters is good for good for competition I'll try that out yeah and I think solo sessions
have been really good for having that intentionality because otherwise you're like getting in a group
with like other people and then you're thinking about talking to other people and it just doesn't
work as well yeah I think climbing by yourself is really good for getting in like being really easily
getting or more easily getting into the mindset that you want to be in other people can definitely
distract from that but there's also so much benefit in climbing from people because you'll notice
they do moves differently or you'll be like I never thought of doing that move like that and it looks
so much easier and obvious now that I see this person do it like that so there's definitely like
a lot of benefit to that as well so I think it's good to have a balance yeah definitely experienced
both for me competing starting to compete and open the scariest thing would be climbing around a lot
of other strong climbers so if you ever see me at one of those don't look at me just don't look yeah
I think a big one to tell yourself when you're if you're nervous about the people around you is that
they really don't care about your climbing nearly as much as you do and that kind of goes for a lot
of things in life and when we're feeling I guess self-conscious about things but at the gym like
if I'm competing and you're like not doing the boulder that I just did I'm not going to think oh
like she's bad at climbing you know I'm really I'm like okay like she's trying this boulder it's when
you kind of start to like out climb people that they'll be like who is that like this is that girl
that just did like number seven and then then people start to be like who is that they're so strong
but when I think in general like if people show up and are trying hard the like the level really
doesn't matter I think it definitely like it definitely matters the most to you I think
anytime you show up and do anything that you've put work into like it matters more to you than
it does to anyone else there so the more you can like get out of your head about other people
watching you the better I think yeah that's true well put so yeah you also run some clinics and I
saw that you're doing coaching through salt lake bouldering project when did you start getting
involved with those things and is that something you're hoping to move towards in the future yeah
I mean growing up I kind of did a lot of my coaching myself I was on a team but I wrote all
my own training plans and did all my own exercises and everything and so I think I've kind of been
pretty well versed in like climbing training for quite a long time and when I was younger I was
the the assistant coach on the bridges team for a little bit and then I did some clinics there
as well and then after covid I did some clinics at woman up and at at the boulder project and
I think now they've transitioned less from being less like about physical exercises and more
like technique based which I really enjoyed and I think my climbing has changed in that way quite a
bit in the past few years so like focusing a lot on movement and trying to teach people like
different ways to kind of be intentional about how they move when they're climbing and hopefully
being able to learn some of that like ways to learn some of that on your own and that's been
really fun for me I definitely enjoy it because a lot of the time it's cool to see people progress
so fast like you'll have people not being able to do a move and then really work through positions
and all of a sudden they're doing a move that they've never done before that was harder than
they thought they could do and so that's really rewarding and cool to see and in general I think
has gone pretty well so I'm definitely really excited about teaching more clinics and
hopefully coaching more. I don't really see myself coaching full-time ever I think I like having
having it be kind of like this special thing that I do from time to time it makes it more
exciting and I think I'm able to dedicate a lot more attention to the people I'm working with than
if I'm doing that regularly and I can even tell like if I've been doing it all day that by the
end I'm definitely less focused and probably not as helpful so I think having it be something that
I just do from time to time and can put a lot of energy into then is really nice so I do really
enjoy it and hope I'll get to do a little more of it for sure. If you're not doing it full-time
after competitions are done and well I don't want to say like age out I guess well retire
that's the word when you retire from competitions coaching is like not something that you would
want to do full-time still? No I don't think so I think a big thing for me has been to have
balance in what I'm doing and I've noticed that seasons or even months of my life where I only
climb I tend to get worse at climbing or at least get a lot more in my head about it
and so for me I think having something having maybe a job outside of climbing or something
that I'm working on like a personal project that has little or nothing to do with climbing is
important just because if you're only climbing and trying to be strong the days where you show up
and it doesn't go your way it can be really hard to deal with and even like when you're having a
month that doesn't go well like this is all I'm working on and it's not going well like that that
can be really challenging to deal with so for me school was that thing for a long time and right
now I've graduated from the U with a bachelor's and I'm still in college and I'm still in
U with a bachelor's and I'm hoping to do either some more school or start working part-time to
get some experience kind of in another field what that is exactly I don't really know yet and that's
definitely something that I'm working on quite a bit just personally is trying to see what other
things I can be fulfilled from outside of climbing so I think it's definitely important for me that
I have that distinction and I think staying in coaching for me will be too close to like
climbing full-time yeah that makes sense yeah I think one of the difficult parts of adulthood
is the journey of figuring out how you're gonna sustain yourself so good luck with that I'm also
trying to figure that out but yeah good luck to you on that thank you yeah working on it
and what was your degree in in economics well that could be applied to everything so yeah that was
kind of the goal but maybe to a fault it's a little too broad for me I have it's been struggling to
find some direction in like a professional field outside of climbing but I'll get there yeah now
you have like too many choices I think is the issue yeah but yeah so similarly outside of climbing
you did a lot of other sports that you mentioned earlier what are the things you've learned from
those other sports that you feel like you uniquely could apply to climbing yeah I think
risk and like grit or try like being able to try hard are things that I kind of learned before I
started climbing and kind of applied pretty well to climbing I think like I used to kind of like I
used to go to skateboard camp and skateboard a little bit and got banged up like many many times
and then from like swim practice and and running it was just it's just like so purely effort-based
like past a certain point you know it's just like how hard can you push yourself and I think going
into climbing like very early on I had that kind of approach of just like the harder I try the
better I'll get and so I would do a lot of workouts that were pretty heinous and just try really
really hard which I think really like made me into the climber I am now but also led to like
periods where I was maybe overtraining and kind of doing like training was being was detrimental
to my performance but overall I think it created kind of a standard that I hold myself to in
training that is pretty beneficial and kind of has made it so that like I always feel the need to
push myself which when I do push myself it's great but then when I don't or I kind of fail to do that
it can be hard because I feel like I've kind of failed myself and my training but I've definitely
learned yeah to push myself and to try just try hard like to suffer in training from a young age
and then yeah I think getting banged up from skateboarding and kind of biking and those
types of sports when I was younger made me really willing to like do dinos and take huge falls and
I was like I now had crash pads under me all of a sudden so I was like oh I could do whatever I want
over here and now ever since my concussion I've been a lot more careful and notice weird falls
but I think just like being able to do kind of jumps and just being really bold in my moves I
think helped a lot like like I never had to kind of transition into having a jumpier style I kind
of was immediately pretty aggressive in my climbing off the bat like I just remember in the gym like
we would be trying like huge jumps with just massive swings and like we had a slack line and
I would try to back flip off the slack line and just like land all sorts of weird ways on the mats
and stuff and so I think that kind of playfulness and also just like willingness to to take some
risks definitely has translated um pretty well into my climbing but maybe to a fault like maybe
I wouldn't have had my concussion and maybe I wouldn't have this like neck injury either so
did you ever do like parkour or anything like that no no no not really that's a popular one but yeah
I just did so much like I was the kid at recess who would be like trying to get everybody to like
race me on the track or play basketball or like play tag or whatever it was I was just always
running around and my family was really active growing up so I think I just had a really good
base of like athleticism and ball sports and running jumping and I think that just like
translated really well into my climbing style yeah that's awesome always had like a competitive
drive I guess for sure yeah I think even like as a first or second grader I was always like
I want to be an athlete like when I grow up I want to be an athlete and I never even knew what sport
until I was maybe 13 14 and started climbing um a lot but even well before then I was really really
drawn to and like driven by competition and sports do you feel like you've fulfilled that part of your
childhood dream or is there still much more you want to do yeah I think I've definitely like
in some ways exceeded what I hoped for and then the more like kind of realistic version of
my like teenage self at least I always kind of wanted to do world cups and and just climb for a
few years and I like never knew if that would be a possibility but in a lot of ways I haven't
kind of accomplished what I've wanted to do at all like when I was younger than that I wanted to
go to the Olympics and win something and I like like I said I didn't even know what sport but I
was like I want to be Olympic champion or world champion or some like huge huge athlete which
in that way I definitely haven't accomplished that and even within climbing like I think
my like hopes and dreams just kind of keep building the more I'm able to kind of start
getting a little taste of it so uh definitely far from satisfied okay well good luck I think we'll
yeah we'll be really excited to see where you go with that thank you okay so those were all of my
questions so we can move into a few of the discord questions that we got um the first one kind of
ties into what you were talking about earlier with like being in the salt lake training center um
so this question is benefits versus downsides of competing for one of the biggest and most competitive
teams on the circuit I think benefits is definitely just the amount of people to kind of look up to
and train with like even just in salt lake there are so many people who are so strong across every
style of climbing um and just having the training center it's like an incredible resource and
working with josh larson our head coach is like it's definitely changed my climbing career for
the better and made me a much much better comp climber than I like ever really imagined when I
was younger um so like the caliber of setting and training in that space is really really good
and like world class for sure but I think with that comes like with having so many people who
are capable of making team or capable of competing in world cups it's really stressful and hard to
have to qualify for the team again every year there's a few athletes who do well enough on
the world cup circuit to be like qualified for the next year but I think that's pretty rare and so
I mean for myself it's been like three years of I don't know if I'll make the team next year but
like I want to train for world cups and kind of build on what I did last year in world cups but
maybe I won't even get to do them and um I think having so many strong people is hard in that way
for sure yeah and so I guess that affects your training because you I guess ideally you would be
peaking for a world cup and now you have to also take into account peaking for team trials and
all the other competitions and I think just mentally it's challenging to kind of
almost figure out how to like where you fit into the climbing world at least for myself I kind of
it can be challenging to think well if I'm not selected for any world cups then like
am I really like a pro comp climber or like if I have a few seasons where I'm on the circuit
and I'm doing well then okay that's great but then if there's a year where I'm not then
do I like have to re-question like everything I've been doing and kind of climb out do I have to
climb outside now even though I'm not really super psyched on climbing outside right now it's it's
kind of tricky like I think for me it's like I want to compete and world cups is are like the highest
level of competition right now for climbing apart from maybe the Olympics and so it's like I want to
do those but if I don't get to do those then it's it can be I think challenging to kind of
stay confident and and continue to kind of believe in the year after that and the year after that
so I think for me that's been the trickiest thing is the selection process
yeah the competition here is not easy so that makes it rough I think probably a similar issue
in Japan with all the strong competition there absolutely yeah I think the Japanese have a very
similar situation and honestly the French as well like at least from what I've seen their like field
of skilled climbers and people who probably could be pretty skilled climbers but they're not
really a lot of people out there that they're not really good and they're not pretty good but
they're still getting better and better so I think the difference between skilled climbers and people
who probably could be pretty successful on the world cup circuit is pretty deep and we only really
get to see like the very top of that yeah that's uh stressful um hopefully a little bit less
stressful question um I think this was referring to a video that you did with La Sportiva um
Um, I mean we had so much fun living in that house and I don't actually live with them
anymore but they're just a block away so they come over all the time.
They'll be over for dinner I think tonight.
But um, yeah, oh we did all sorts of things.
Like the big thing, like most nights around like probably three nights a week at least,
it would get to be like 11pm and we'd be like, we need to go to the grocery store right now
and we would all go to the grocery store and just like, to like Walmart and just run around
the grocery store and just like pick up random things and we'd just like, just basically
go on a field trip to the store.
We would always be doing that.
One time I asked Cece to bring me a zucchini for dinner because I was cooking and she came
home with a cucumber and that was a pretty classic, classic Cece moment right there.
Um, we were, we painted our other roommates, uh, she has a white minivan and we painted
her rims hot pink.
Um, we were just always doing, doing silly stuff.
It was, it was a fun time.
If you're comfortable answering like where are you living now?
Yeah, I live like just a little bit, uh, south of downtown Salt Lake now and I live with
Taya, who I lived with in that other house with Cece and Quinn also.
Um, yeah, so we're all still real close and we're just down the block.
Oh, that's so convenient.
It's hard when people live far away.
Yeah, no, it's been great.
Yeah, I think that's what everyone dreams of.
Um, I think another thing that came from that video, what do you like so much about French
rap?
Um, well, I think in general, I like listening to hip hop when I'm training, not always,
but sometimes just cause it can be pretty aggressive and it'll help me like try a little
harder and get really into it and really focused.
And I, I like listening to French and kind of hearing French.
I think I especially like grew up listening to French all the time at home.
And now that I live in Salt Lake, I don't get immersed into that as much.
So I definitely like to, to listen to it.
So I listened to some rap in French, but I also like, I don't know, I like watching French
movies and things.
And I think there's an element of it that just feels me like feels really tied to like
my family and my like memories when I was younger of like spending summers there and
all like a lot of good times are associated with like hearing French.
So I definitely like to listen to it as much as I can.
Any like recommendations for songs that you like listening to when you're training?
When I'm running, I usually listen to Eminem or something like really intense.
Okay.
Well, that's not French, but okay.
Oh, in French.
I don't know.
I have a really random playlist.
No like favorite go-to that's like on repeat.
Like La Présence is pretty classic for just like a hype, like get after it type of song.
But no, not too many on repeat right now.
I've been listening to a lot of like reggaeton when I train like Spanish music.
That's been pretty fun.
That's been my go-to lately.
Anything there you want to recommend?
It's just pretty basic like Bad Bunny and Daddy Yankee and that kind of stuff.
Nice.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'll try to find the one that you just mentioned and I'll link it in the description for people
to listen to.
I'll take a listen to it as well.
I feel like yeah, French hip hop hits different.
Yeah, it's just, I don't know.
It just sounds good.
I don't know if I have like a way better reason than that, but I like how it sounds.
No, that's totally fair.
Okay, last question from the Discord.
How does training with teammates and friends impact you attitude, motivation, enjoyment
wise?
I think like when I have a really fun session with my friends, that's like, it really takes
me back to the root of why I like climbing.
I think a lot of the times our sessions will be really playful and we'll kind of make up
moves and it really becomes not about like doing a boulder, but about how the move looks
or like a different makeup that we made.
Those kinds of sessions really are like the root of why I like climbing.
It's just so fun and it's just like pure enjoyment.
And then in general, like in normal sessions, I think having people around not only are
like all the people here really supportive and generally like super psyched for you as
long as you're pushing yourself and you know, you're trying hard and you have a good attitude,
but just seeing so many people who are strong and being able to bounce ideas off each other
for moves and get recommendations is super helpful.
Like a lot of us have a pretty similar level and so we'll out climb each other on some
styles and other people will out climb us on other boulders and having that really like
judgment free dialogue of just like, hey, how'd you do this?
Like, can you help me through this move?
And having people work through moves with you that way is not only really helpful, but
it's also really fun and it's social and it just like makes you feel pretty supported.
So I definitely like having people around for that.
But definitely the solo session, like kind of by yourself definitely has its special
place in my heart for me as well.
I think that's the time when I can climb with like the least amount of insecurity or like
worries about how I look or what like how I look on the wall or what other people are
thinking of my climbing.
Like I'll definitely like make more try hard noises and kind of get like let myself get
a little more emotional when I'm climbing by myself.
So I think it's good to have a balance of both.
Awesome.
Yeah, that's definitely relatable.
But okay, I think that's a good place to end it.
That's all the questions I had as well as the discord.
Yeah thanks for joining me.
Anything that you want to shout out or let people know where they can find you?
Yeah, I mean thanks for having me.
It's been a lot of fun.
If you guys want to follow along with like some of the moves I'm doing or just my comp
journey and my climbing, you can definitely follow me on Instagram.
I try to kind of post a lot of some more serious things but then a lot of like day to day shenanigans
on there as well.
And then like super thankful to Prana and La Sportiva and Kinetic and Friction Labs
for helping me out because it wouldn't be possible to like train how I do or go to all
these competitions without them.
So really, really appreciate that.
Awesome.
Okay, yeah.
Thank you again.
Awesome to chat.
Thank you so much for making it to the end of the podcast.
Don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed.
Otherwise you are a super fake climber.
If you're listening on a podcasting platform, I'd appreciate if you rate it five stars and
you can continue the discussion on the free competition climbing discord linked in the
description.
Thanks again for listening.