73 | I Am Gravity Lab Part I w/ Brant Hysell

In the age of social media and digital platforms like YouTube, creators often develop a "digital persona" that’s shaped by the content they produce. As viewers, it’s easy to make assumptions about who they are and how they live their lives. Today, we have the chance to peel back the layers and break down the digital persona behind The Gravity Lab YouTube channel.

At first glance, this channel seems to be run by a pair of climbers living out of a van with endless time to send some of the most epic routes around the world. It’s easy to watch with envy and wonder how it’s all possible. But as it turns out, Gravity Lab is the passion project of a single crusher named Brant Hysell. Brant is just like most of us—he juggles a full-time job, a relationship, and home responsibilities. Where he differs is in his deep passion for climbing and his dedication to making the most of every moment.

In part one of our conversation with Brant, we dive into how he supports his climbing lifestyle and the secrets behind balancing a full-time job, running The Gravity Lab YouTube channel, training, and, as he puts it, squeezing fun into every available moment. Brant’s main lesson? Time is precious. It’s easy to waste it by watching TV or endlessly scrolling on social media. Brant encourages us to be intentional with our time and to plan our lives around what makes us happiest—from sunup to sundown.

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We are always looking for new guests. If you or someone you know would be a great fit for the show please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can reach us on IG or email us directly @ theclimbingmajoritypodcast@gmail.com

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Resources

The Gravity Lab Youtube Channel

Brant's Instagram

Brant Hysell's Mt. Project Profile

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:11 Breaking The Digital Persona
• 19:17 Climbing Progression
• 47:30 How To Manage Time
• 56:01 Closing

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;28;05
Unknown
Have you ever felt that most climbing media only tell stories about what's happening at the pinnacle of the sport? Leaving the stories of everyday climbers untold. I'm Kyle and I'm Max, and we believe that there is a growing group of climbers that want representation, and we are here to give them a voice. Welcome to the Climbing Majority podcast, where we capture the stories, experiences and lessons of nonprofessional climbers, guides and athletes around the world.

00;00;28;12 - 00;00;32;12
Unknown
Come join us as we dive deep into a more relatable world of climbing.

00;00;34;21 - 00;00;43;02
Unknown
In the age of social media and digital platforms. Like YouTube, creators often develop a digital persona that's shaped by the content that they produce as

00;00;43;02 - 00;00;55;25
Unknown
viewers. It's easy to make assumptions about who they are and how these people live their lives. Today, we have the chance to peel back the layers and break down the digital persona behind the Gravity Lab YouTube channel.

00;00;55;27 - 00;01;14;07
Unknown
At first glance, this channel seems to be run by a pair of climbers living out of a van with endless time to send some of the most epic routes around the world. It's easy to watch with envy and wondered how it's all possible. But as it turns out, Gravity Lab is the passion project of a single crusher named Brandt High Cell.

00;01;14;09 - 00;01;42;00
Unknown
Brandt is just like most of us. He juggles a full time job, a relationship, and home responsibilities. Where he differs is in his deep passion for climbing and his dedication to making the most of every moment. In part one of our conversation with Brandt, we dive into how he supports his climbing lifestyle and the secrets behind balancing a full time job, running the Gravity Lab YouTube channel training and, as he puts it, squeezing fun into every available moment.

00;01;42;03 - 00;01;58;28
Unknown
Brandt's main lesson time is precious. It's easy to waste it by watching TV or endlessly scrolling on social media. Brandt encourages us to be intentional with our time, and to plan our lives around what makes us the happiest. From sun up to sundown.

00;02;10;21 - 00;02;34;24
Unknown
no. Climbing today. Lame. But. Well, I guess that's not totally true, because I worked for a bit. And then I went to my buddy who? Buddy's place, who owns a gym. And so I did some light climbing there and some kind of more theoretical climbing training of, you know, because I think a lot of us think about thinking about, like, power and like power endurance.

00;02;34;29 - 00;02;57;22
Unknown
Right. And then just like endurance, ability to climb all day, whatever. And we got into some theoretical like 20 move endurance, first 60 move endurance versus 120 move endurance. And by the end of it, I'm not sure if I know anything more, but we've got some things to test.

00;02;57;24 - 00;03;03;09
Unknown
Yeah.

00;03;03;12 - 00;03;22;07
Unknown
Yeah yeah yeah. Like a little bit though. Just like. Oh okay. What would, what would a 20 move hold feel like versus a 60 move hold versus 120 move hold. Right. Because like 120 moves on a 15 degree slanted board. Like those are mega jugs.

00;03;23;29 - 00;03;32;23
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. I mean like, you're talking like a super grippy 30 mil edge,

00;03;34;09 - 00;03;40;09
Unknown
okay. Yeah.

00;03;43;13 - 00;03;52;13
Unknown
Oh, nice.

00;03;52;15 - 00;04;05;03
Unknown
So is that as you're hiking? As you're hiking, as if you would go, do you park in the same spot as if you'd go, like I.

00;04;05;05 - 00;04;14;21
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like up and right. Yeah. I looked at those. I've looked at those before and been like, those look sweet.

00;04;26;21 - 00;04;28;24
Unknown
Damn.

00;04;33;14 - 00;04;36;19
Unknown
Yeah.

00;04;36;19 - 00;04;42;29
Unknown
The occasional limestone or. No.

00;04;43;02 - 00;04;48;11
Unknown
Yeah.

00;04;48;14 - 00;05;01;00
Unknown
Because you guys got a lot of limestone out there. Like I started climbing and it's like, It's all. It's all. I thought, you know, Nevada in general, only sandstone. And the last two years, I'm like, I got limestone.

00;05;11;04 - 00;05;17;18
Unknown
Dam.

00;05;55;10 - 00;06;12;24
Unknown
Yeah.

00;06;12;27 - 00;06;26;27
Unknown
It's.

00;06;26;29 - 00;06;37;05
Unknown
Yeah. It. Yeah. Is it on Mountain Project?

00;06;37;08 - 00;06;38;00
Unknown
Okay.

00;06;38;00 - 00;06;44;03
Unknown
yeah, I might even have a picture of it. But, dude, just like a single aluminum hanger. I just found it so

00;06;49;19 - 00;07;01;18
Unknown
life, you know, like like it wasn't like a fixie hangers, something I literally just look like a, like, 90 degree like, fold with, like a circle of aluminum, like hand cut out of it.

00;07;01;20 - 00;07;04;09
Unknown
Yeah.

00;07;04;09 - 00;07;11;24
Unknown
climbs. They're notoriously run out. They're notoriously sandbagged, like, everywhere you go. Why is that discipline

00;07;34;23 - 00;07;51;03
Unknown
They have a lot of that. Like. Like some of the, Like some of the more classic, like, like, climbs in, like, like the apron in Squamish. I think a lot of it had to do with, like, the original Ascension is, like, back in the day. They're like, ground up and drilling. And they weren't exactly, you know, fucking rich.

00;07;51;09 - 00;08;09;03
Unknown
So like, you're like, oh, well, I've got like eight bolts for the day, you know, and and like, I'm hand pounding this in, so you're just going to climb until you get to like a really good stance or until you're like, I can't take this anymore. And I need to do this. So I think there's like a financial component to that and like time and all these things.

00;08;09;03 - 00;08;14;18
Unknown
Whereas I'm pretty sure if someone was now doing that route in modern fashion with a power drill, they would have been

00;08;16;27 - 00;08;20;28
Unknown
Yeah.

00;08;21;00 - 00;08;43;11
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. And I think those guys just got on a. That was just their vibe, right? And they're just like, oh, we don't have that much money. We don't have that much, you know, energy to put into this. So we'll just, you know, if we can do it in three bolts, let's do it. And you know, we did those all those other five tens and three bolts.

00;08;43;11 - 00;09;01;27
Unknown
So you know, it's it's like we think of oh yeah I've climbed you know a bunch of five eight. So now it's time to do five and nine. So like I've bolted a ton of hilariously run out five, eight. Now it's time to bolt some hilariously run out five nines. You do one of those, you're like, let's do some tens.

00;09;01;29 - 00;09;02;18
Unknown
Yeah.

00;09;30;12 - 00;09;32;16
Unknown
Yeah.

00;09;32;16 - 00;09;43;00
Unknown
introduce you to the show, you know? Welcome back. We tried to, get you on the show a couple weeks ago. We had some technical issues, so we're psyched to have you here and, our new fancy studios. And welcome

00;09;44;09 - 00;09;48;25
Unknown
Absolutely. Thanks for, thanks for having me. It's like to be here.

00;09;48;25 - 00;09;52;23
Unknown
round to you, man. Much appreciated.

00;10;42;06 - 00;11;24;10
Unknown
Yeah. Absolutely. So hit the nail on the head. yeah. We. I live in South Lake Tahoe with my girlfriend, and I have a van. It is a totally beat up, soon to be newly painted van. and, yeah, I work full time as the sales manager for an international olive company based out of Spain. And, yeah, I work full time there and then, you know, climb as much as I can after that, outside of that, and then do the YouTube channel after that.

00;11;24;10 - 00;11;33;04
Unknown
So that's kind of priorities one, two and three in that definitive order. and then have fun ideally everywhere and in between.

00;11;33;04 - 00;11;46;14
Unknown
for some reason, the first thing popped in my mind. When you're like. I'm a sales manager for an international, companies like I instantly associated that with, like, the mob. I don't know why. I'm like, you're hanging out with, like, a whole bunch of, like, fat dudes in new

00;11;54;05 - 00;12;18;04
Unknown
Yeah. I, I joke a lot that I work for big Olive. I actually have, like, Big pharma. You have big tobacco where you have all those. This big olive. Right. So, like our for laundering money for, you know, all these criminal organizations to, you know, really have their way with the US political structure, is really what's going on.

00;12;18;07 - 00;12;42;27
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, I would have to say I know it's it's kind of simple, but, blue cheese, stuffed olive in a martini. I mean, yeah, but that being said, I will also smash like a full can of green olives. Like, just a castle for Toronto. Yeah, just like a whole can. Like it's not even a big deal.

00;12;43;15 - 00;12;45;25
Unknown
The calomel. Because a black one. Am I totally wrong with that

00;12;45;27 - 00;13;10;03
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. Kalamata. Yep. Those are Greek. Yep. Castle of Toronto are like, technically Italian, but, but most of the castle Toronto we have in the US are actually more of capital for Toronto style. And they're not actually Castle Toronto olives, but they're cured in the same way. and then, yeah, Kalamata are Greek olives and they're supposed to be like a dark hue of purple.

00;13;10;03 - 00;13;36;17
Unknown
And those are only grown in Greece. but they have these crazy hook pits that make them like, you know what? Most olives like when they come out, especially like a stuffed olive, which are typically clean olives, they're like beautiful, right? And nice looking. And if you really look at Cal models, they're all kind of like bashed. They all kind of look like someone like, you know, not to get too clammy, but like put them in a crack and kind of like hit them with a hammer a couple times, then they're like, here's what we got.

00;13;36;20 - 00;13;44;08
Unknown
And, that's because they have these crazy hook pits that are like impossible to get out clean. So they just end up kind of like bashing out.

00;13;44;19 - 00;13;55;19
Unknown
Do you know what the reason. Like why they're the. They're only grown in Greece. Like, you know, like champagnes from a only a region in France. Is it just the region or is it like, this is like some specific, unique thing there that they've just been doing?

00;13;55;24 - 00;14;20;15
Unknown
I think they just grow naturally. They're like, if you look across the world at places that grow olives, you think like, oh, it's like here and here and here. No. And if you look at the latitude, that's it dictates it. And it's like this latitude. And I think Greece is a specific latitude that not many places are. And so they just absolutely thrive there and everyone else, everywhere else you could force it to happen.

00;14;20;15 - 00;14;39;15
Unknown
But olives are one of those where if you get it right, you get a ton of fruit right, which is what they are. And if you get it wrong, you just end up spending money on farms and trees and stuff and have no fruit. And if you're not psyched, you blew it. Yeah.

00;14;43;14 - 00;15;03;26
Unknown
Yeah. funny enough, when I was after. So I kind of went the normal route. Like I grew up in Ohio. I went to college, thought, like I was going to be, I wanted to be a CEO of a company. Was what? I thought my parents were both business people. I thought, you know, I'm going to be a CEO of a multinational corporation.

00;15;03;28 - 00;15;23;02
Unknown
And then I kind of started working at multinational corporations. And I went, no, no, I know the CEOs, and I don't want to be any part of that. I don't want to work 70 hours a week. I want to be like a fat old white man, potentially with gout, who's, like, not happy with his life and then retires at 70 and is like, well, what am I going to do?

00;15;23;02 - 00;15;47;07
Unknown
I guess I'm going to, you know, drink and be. Yeah, yeah. Like at 72. Right. You're like that worth that work wasn't worth it. yeah. And then so I ended up moving to Tahoe, after just a bunch of, kind of moving around. And the world went remote and I was like, sweet. And then my company was like, oh, no, we're going back into the office in the Bay.

00;15;47;09 - 00;16;13;03
Unknown
And that just I just wasn't willing to after I got a taste of what true, I don't know, fulfillment every day felt like I was like, there's no way I'm going back to an office every day. And so I took a year off. Actually, I started the YouTube channel. Funny enough. And then, my girlfriend, I were in Italy and I never grew up eating olives, but we just started.

00;16;13;06 - 00;16;32;23
Unknown
We were just like, oh, look, olives are everywhere. Yeah, we'll have some. We just started like having a little bit and then more and we're just smashing olives. And then we got back and, a couple of head hunters that hit me up about jobs, right? Because I had, like, multinational, like, you know, big company experience. And I was like, no, I don't want to do dog food.

00;16;32;23 - 00;16;49;23
Unknown
I don't want to do, like, this weird stuff. And it was an olive company hit me up like a week after we got back from Italy. And I was like, well, I should at least like, hear them out. And then I was going to Yosemite and I was like, hey, I'm going to be in Yosemite. So like, I got an interview in Yosemite.

00;16;49;25 - 00;16;57;05
Unknown
is that okay? And they're like, yeah, that's fine. Okay, cool. here we are three years later.

00;16;57;05 - 00;17;00;27
Unknown
That you found a love for olives before you started working for

00;17;04;23 - 00;17;18;25
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. Just felt like, you know, in some things, sometimes things just feel right. And you're like, cool. Like, I wasn't really looking for work, but I was like, I'll take it.

00;17;18;27 - 00;17;42;11
Unknown
I help manage. So we have a group of salespeople in the US, five of us, five people. And so I just help manage that. So, you know, Publix has, you know, Publix or Fry's, right? I'm trying to think of what else would be. Do you have Albertsons bio Kroger. Yeah. So they're. Yeah. WinCo. Yeah. That's a classic one there.

00;17;42;11 - 00;18;06;15
Unknown
Walmart. So people are calling on there. So there's people at each of those retailers that manage every section of the store. And so people like for example, a classic a common one is salad dressing and pickles, peppers, relish and olives. And so that's one person's life is to make sure that that section at Walmart is as good as possible.

00;18;06;15 - 00;18;20;18
Unknown
It's got the right price, it's got the right items, it's got they're all in the right place. Right. So you go there. You're not like there's pickles here, here, here, here, here. And there's olives everywhere else. Right. You want to go there and be able to find the shit you want. And so it's one person's job to do that.

00;18;20;21 - 00;18;39;14
Unknown
So then we have people who go and call on that one person and just have a meeting with them and say, hey, buy these new olives. We'll sell them to you at this price. Every day, four times a year, we'll give you an extra buck, run them two for five and you'll sell this much. You'll bring in these extra customers.

00;18;39;14 - 00;18;49;06
Unknown
Bada boom, bada bing. We're going to make millions together. Let's do this. And it's all yay!

00;18;49;08 - 00;19;13;15
Unknown
And then exactly. But, yeah, it's very much along those lines where it's pretty, you know, it's it's somewhat it's salesy, but a lot of it is data and numbers and stuff. And I think that's kind of what interests me because I just like numbers in general. And so it's fun for me. So it's a challenge and it's number based.

00;19;13;15 - 00;19;17;11
Unknown
And I guess that's kind of what I'm into now. I think about it.

00;19;17;11 - 00;19;43;00
Unknown
So, on that note, I think this is a great transition. numbers to grades. So I think another part of the perception that people have had about you is a rapid progression, especially in the trad climbing range and especially between the grades, like from, you know, ten and 11 to above. I think that's like a cap for a lot of people, myself included, tens and elevens.

00;19;43;00 - 00;19;58;03
Unknown
It's like, okay, that's like comfort zone. I have to be fit to get there. But like to go to 12, it's like, fuck, it's a whole nother level. I got to change my lifestyle. I got to be, you know, way stricter about my fitness and my risk tolerance and everything. So, what was that progression like for

00;19;58;03 - 00;19;58;08
Unknown
you?

00;19;58;09 - 00;20;04;17
Unknown
How did you progress into those kind of more prolific, harder grades of of track climbing?

00;20;05;12 - 00;20;23;26
Unknown
Yeah. I think the biggest thing for just climbing in general is just all about building a pyramid is, you know, you start out and you climb. Let's say five, seven, your first day out, and it feels good, right? But then you go and try five eight the same day and it feels hard. And then you go back and you try a bunch of five sevens.

00;20;23;26 - 00;21;14;00
Unknown
You do much five sevens, then you do five, eight. Right. Do you watch five, eight, five, nine, one, two, five, nine, 510? I think so much of it is just about continuing to build that pyramid so that when you get to like let's say 511, right? So when you get to 511, if you've done 25 tens from 510 to 510 and you've done 55 nines and you've done a 155, eight and you've done 505 sevens, all of a sudden you have so much experience and so much movement knowledge of, oh, I did a drop knee once on a trade route on A58 in Wyoming rate or wherever, wherever it might be.

00;21;14;02 - 00;21;28;21
Unknown
But just your movement repertoire is so much higher, and you just have this library of climbing experiences where you can look back and say, oh, this place is actually kind of like that one and this one. This move is actually kind of like that. And then

00;21;28;21 - 00;21;36;01
Unknown
also the confidence of, hey, I've done a ton of five tens and, you know, even five, ten pluses.

00;21;36;01 - 00;22;02;10
Unknown
So 511, isn't that hard. Right. And then you do your five elevens and you go, okay, well now I've done, you know, 25, 11 minuses, but I've never touched the 511 D okay, well I bet I could do it and you try it and maybe it's super hard and maybe it's not, and maybe you flash it or something, but I think it's it's really all about building that pyramid.

00;22;02;12 - 00;22;22;20
Unknown
And then when you hit like kind of inevitably you're going to hit up a little bit of a plateau because you could build the widest pyramid of all time. But if you only climb five, seven or, you know, let's say 510, right? Once you hit 511 B if you're only trad climbing, things are going to kind of start to get difficult, right?

00;22;22;20 - 00;22;51;08
Unknown
And you're above that. It's kind of hard to get significantly better in progress without throwing some other stimulus in, because I think like with 511, you can get away with really good clock crack climbing skills and just experience. But once you want to get higher, you kind of got to think, okay, what's holding me back? And then attack that and figure figure out whatever that is.

00;22;51;08 - 00;23;07;16
Unknown
And at 511, I think it's I think it's pretty obvious. And if it's not obvious, then ask your climbing partner or ask me, because I could just ask you three questions and or whatever. A couple questions. Okay,

00;23;07;16 - 00;23;14;15
Unknown
what it's like what's what's a grade that you, you know, you pretty regularly do.

00;23;14;17 - 00;23;30;26
Unknown
Like what. Decorate B like on sight or second go like something you go up to and you're like, I'm going to get up this. Am I going to on-side it? Maybe. Maybe not. But like, am I, what do you like most? Okay, cool. Trad.

00;23;30;26 - 00;23;35;24
Unknown
could pretty much walk up to any 510 and pretty much on site.

00;23;36;15 - 00;23;46;18
Unknown
Okay, cool. So then what's the grade that you have that you're like, man, I on, like, the best. Like you're projecting. Like, what's a project grade for you?

00;23;56;04 - 00;24;18;16
Unknown
Yeah. Okay. I was going to guess 11 c. nice. So then what stops you from doing those? Like, what stops you from. Do you have a is there a five, a couple, five, 11 six. Right. That you've tried. They're like what's the highest one that you've tried that you're like, I'm close but I haven't done it yet.

00;24;18;26 - 00;24;32;17
Unknown
I don't have an answer to that because I don't usually go after those climbs. I don't like I don't go after them, especially in trad, just because of the risk factor. And usually the gear gets thinner and smaller, and I'm a heavy dude. So to me, it's

00;24;40;11 - 00;25;02;13
Unknown
So the first thought is you got to try harder. Like really you got to go for it. because there's plenty of 511 with great gear. Right. Like 530. If you said the same thing for 513 I'd say okay, you kind of are on one. But you, there's so much 511 with good gear, like, even like your semi, there's a ton of five 11ft.

00;25;02;13 - 00;25;13;15
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, of course there's sketchy stuff, but like, there are a lot of us. Good gear. Okay. What about sport? Do you climb sport often?

00;25;13;17 - 00;25;41;15
Unknown
Oh, okay. Cool. There you go. Perfect. So that's probably a better because then the the gears take it out of it. Right. Like the danger the risk is taken out of it. So for 512. Right. Low 512. Right. What, what stops you from sending them? Are you is it.

00;25;41;17 - 00;26;05;17
Unknown
Okay. Third go. Third. Go. Fourth go. What stops you? So you never like you. Try it. Okay. Well, then that's it. On side or die, one of my friends has a sticker that says on cider. Or have you wrote it on a shoes?

00;26;05;19 - 00;26;32;16
Unknown
Okay, so then that's all you gotta do, is you just gotta. You got to find places to try hard is really what it is. Is like that could be bouldering, right? That could be going back to that. If you don't like bouldering, that's totally fine. I used to hate it too. you're right, it's. You think it was boring and mundane, but you could go back to the same, like, find stuff near you that you're like, okay, this is a beautiful area.

00;26;32;16 - 00;26;58;12
Unknown
There's a ton of routes here I can still work on, on sighting these, you know, for other ones. And then I'm going to come back to this one every time. Right. And just do it. But just the feeling of and really the skill to be able to like grit your teeth. And when things get hard, you're just going to make it happen like you.

00;26;58;17 - 00;27;19;06
Unknown
Because, you know, a lot of people make it look pretty and stuff. But Andreas, I think a great example of this. The dude is an excellent climber, right? The best in the world. But sometimes he just gets through things and he just, like, grits his teeth. And that feeling that's not unique. His skill is unique. That feeling isn't unique, right?

00;27;19;06 - 00;27;47;16
Unknown
Like the ability of like when things get hard to just bear down on that, you know, that horrible hold and know have the not the let's say like the movement repertoire like we were talking about before, but the feeling repertoire of, you know, I've felt this on the edge of doing it or whipping 20 times now and ten of those I did it and ten of those I whipped and I was fine.

00;27;47;18 - 00;27;54;14
Unknown
So now I'm willing and I know that I just need to give it a go. And 5050. I'm going to send

00;27;54;14 - 00;28;06;26
Unknown
how much of that is more of just being relaxed mentally and physically through those motions where you get all that stimulus, like I'm going to come off, but you've been there so many times now where you're actually just kind of calm, and that actually allows you to send.

00;28;07;28 - 00;28;31;09
Unknown
I think some of it I just think being comfortable, just trying hard, just being like, and dude, you could even top rope it doesn't matter like it really does. But just that feeling of like, especially a sport climbing, right? Like it's pretty much it's so similar to top roping in my opinion. in a lot of places nowadays with like, modern bolting, right where you're like, okay, like sometimes I'm at a crag and I'm just like, okay, I cannot clip all these bolts.

00;28;31;09 - 00;28;57;13
Unknown
This is insane. but where like, yeah, I think so much of it is just feeling okay while you're like, kind of on the edge, right? Of like, oh man, am I going to be able to do this or not? And really trying hard because that's that extra like probably 3 to 5% of how hard can I possibly try?

00;28;57;16 - 00;29;03;09
Unknown
And then that's where you'll really grow, in my opinion, because,

00;29;03;09 - 00;29;19;06
Unknown
I mean, I know plenty of people who just like, try to float everything, and that's great. But eventually, if you really want to like push difficulty, which there's no one saying, anyone has to ever push difficulty. But if they want to, trying hard is what it comes down to.

00;29;19;15 - 00;29;42;26
Unknown
Because like, I mean for Andre, right? Like he he's trying hard, right? You watch the videos of him. He's not even in a lot of the like for him. Easy stuff. Five mid five Fourteens upper five fourteens. He's still trying hard. He's not like oh this is so easy. Like I'll, you know have a bad get over here and kick it.

00;29;42;26 - 00;29;54;16
Unknown
He's like he's still going for it. And like death screaming and stuff and like you see him grab these horrible things and just like, bear down on him, you're like, oh, it's terrible. And he like, really lets you know it.

00;30;07;29 - 00;30;10;18
Unknown
Oh.

00;30;38;19 - 00;30;53;15
Unknown
Totally. Because like, if you think about if you've cranked on, like, let's just use, edges. Right. Because that's easy to measure if you've pulled as hard as you could on one arm on a ten mil edge. Right. But you never felt a nine mil. All right. Well, how are you going to know what you got to try it, right.

00;30;53;15 - 00;31;08;08
Unknown
And then like, how are you going to get to a how are you going to get to, let's say a formal right. Which is really, really, really oh, let's go six mil. That's like reasonable. how do you get to six mil? Well, you realize you're not going to go from a 20. You'll start at 20. You can't go from a 20 to a six.

00;31;08;11 - 00;31;28;05
Unknown
Right? Like that's insane. Right? But if you've done moves on a 20 and a 19 and an 18 and a 14 and that there and you work all your way down, not saying you get to a six and you go, I mean, this is dog shit hold. But I've felt other slightly less dog shit he holds and I got through those.

00;31;28;08 - 00;31;35;00
Unknown
And so all of a sudden, like, you just trick your mind into, oh, you know what? This actually isn't that hard. I can, I can do this.

00;31;35;12 - 00;31;55;04
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely. I think another thing that's kind of analogous to this, though more in the psychological side, is like, how many times have you just top rope to climb where you just walk it, but then like, if you're on lead, you're like over gripping and freaking out and all these things and it's like, it's almost like your willingness to just not just like try your absolute best, you know what I mean?

00;31;55;04 - 00;32;01;25
Unknown
And it's like, so there's actually like, it's actually possible, but you won't know unless you put yourself in that situation and just give it your all,

00;32;05;04 - 00;32;08;15
Unknown
yeah.

00;32;08;15 - 00;32;26;01
Unknown
The the risk factor in terms of how that was holding me back. Personally, I think that, you know, you said there's lots of five elevens with good gear and stuff. I totally agree. but I would say in general, as you progress in the grades, the gear becomes more of a challenge to kind of articulating get it right.

00;32;26;03 - 00;32;42;27
Unknown
So how was what was your progress like and what was your thought process like in terms of getting the gear dialed and not putting yourself in a situation where if you did come off the wall, you're like, wow, this is kind of fucked. Like I might deck or like, how are you managing that risk as you start to get into the higher grades and tread?

00;32;42;27 - 00;32;50;08
Unknown
Hey everyone, please like, subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. Word of mouth is the best way to support the show.

00;32;51;18 - 00;32;52;19
Unknown
And I

00;32;52;19 - 00;33;02;12
Unknown
honestly just think climbing more, I. I mean, I let a 511 draw, like, one of my first.

00;33;02;15 - 00;33;27;20
Unknown
Certainly my first, like, 30 or 40 pitches. Climbing or climbing trad. Sorry. Climbing. Trad. And I was not. I was like, barely. I think I had maybe done 112 b at that point, but I like went up. There was a to be fair, there was a 510 C next to it and I did that, went to the anchor and then I top ripped the 11 D twice and I didn't send it the first time.

00;33;27;23 - 00;33;52;11
Unknown
And then the second time I think I maybe, I think I maybe did send it, but it was really close and I was like, I think this gear is good enough and I'm far enough up that like the the bad gear, right? It was, it was quite good gear until you got to, let's say 60ft up. And it was only an 85ft route.

00;33;52;13 - 00;34;17;07
Unknown
And so in the last five feet were get me right. So you're talking 20ft of legit climbing. And that's where the crux was. but, you know, I had three good pieces within the last 15ft, so I was just like, okay, well, if I blow it, you know, I'm going to take a whip, but it's clean. and those pieces have to hold.

00;34;17;07 - 00;34;38;15
Unknown
And if they don't, then the gear doesn't work. And I'm playing the wrong sport to begin with. and funny enough, I. The next question is. Oh, so you sent it? No. So I whipped, and exploded a point to, like, just totally ripped it out the backside, like the wrong way, you know, and like, when cams rip and they go up.

00;34;38;17 - 00;35;05;04
Unknown
Yeah. Full umbrella. Yeah. yeah. Yeah, yeah. Straight out. no, it's actually double. It was a, it was a BD point two x4. It just totally and so that was exciting. And I lower down and clean the gear, and then let it again and then sent it, yeah. Because I didn't have point to. So.

00;35;05;07 - 00;35;27;13
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, I there wasn't that I didn't have a point to so I like I filled in a horrible point one and then just was like the it clearly held like the point to was, was mental pro. so it might have been a soft, climb, but it was definitely like, I mean, I took, I don't know, probably a 35 footfall, very clean, like, borderline scabby.

00;35;27;13 - 00;35;51;15
Unknown
Not quite, but like just less than vertical. And the people around the corner were like, this dude's a psycho. And, because they could clearly see me, and it's like one of the most classic areas in the red is to climb. No one does. And then they saw me rack back up and do it again, and they're like, I lower down and they're like, dude, you are a psycho.

00;35;51;18 - 00;36;17;08
Unknown
Yeah. but I think for me, I read a book once. I love reading and I read a book once. I read, I don't know, probably 8 or 10 books on climbing. And it was just talking about analyzing risk in terms of a few different factors. But one of them is, is it? And like analyzing fear and climbing.

00;36;17;08 - 00;36;23;01
Unknown
Right. Cause that's really what it comes down to is fear. And one of them is is it rational or irrational?

00;36;23;01 - 00;36;38;01
Unknown
And I think, like off the bat, probably 50 to 80% of the fear in climbing is irrational, right? Like we know that. I mean, that's hard to say because like caveman brain, you're like, this isn't like you're not supposed to be up here, right?

00;36;38;01 - 00;36;59;14
Unknown
We're not supposed to be doing this. But when you think about it, like Gregorys work, ropes work and cams work, right? And, like, bolts work, right? Assuming they're placed, everything is placed. Well, it all works so, so much, I think of people in generals. Fear and climbing is irrational,

00;36;59;14 - 00;37;02;06
Unknown
right? It's like you're not actually going to die, right?

00;37;02;06 - 00;37;24;24
Unknown
You're you're just up on a wall, like you're you're 40ft up, right? And so people get scared on top of you, like you're 40ft up like you're fine. It's a fear. But it's there's nothing bad that's going to happen. Knock on wood. and so like immediately there's a big chunk of it that can be dispelled. But then the next question was like rational, rational.

00;37;24;24 - 00;37;58;16
Unknown
And then it's like, okay, where are my actual risk points? And where's the dangerous part to fall? if I were to fall and like, is it likely I'm going to fall there and then what would be the ramifications? Right. It's like in this example, if I, the place I wouldn't want to fall would be in the first like 30ft, because the gear was not that like it was okay, but it was like five, eight and I'm like, I'm not going to fall on this five eight.

00;37;58;21 - 00;38;20;22
Unknown
So like the risk of that was incredibly low. But then you get up and you're like, okay, you know, I've all this gear, I've placed three really good pieces and then I have to run it out to the anchor chances. The risk there of me falling is not super high, because it's like kind of a swinging into just a totally open zone.

00;38;20;24 - 00;38;45;05
Unknown
the risk would be hitting the the ground if I'd have to fall, I'm gonna have to fall 65ft, so I'd have to blow every piece. real estate hit the ground, and they were good piece like the ones below that were, like, actually properly like, oh, I'm actually really psyched on this. the chances of me falling were pretty high as the first go proved.

00;38;45;08 - 00;39;10;01
Unknown
and then, like, the risk of actually being injured with a fall was pretty low. So like, okay, risk is low, chances are high could be a big fall. But the ramifications are low and it's a sick line and I feel like I have to do it. And so that's like, wow, I hadn't thought about that climb in forever.

00;39;10;03 - 00;39;36;10
Unknown
But that's kind of how I think about it is like, what are the actual chances of me falling? What's that? Or excuse me, what's the true risk of the, you know, of falling, right? What would happen then? What are the chances of me falling? And then what are the ramifications of, like, yeah, am I going to break a leg or is there no gear in the anchor sucks.

00;39;36;10 - 00;39;40;11
Unknown
And we're going to the bottom of the Earth.

00;39;40;11 - 00;40;03;01
Unknown
of me falling? How often do you rely on your ability to stay attached to the wall to ensure your safety versus, like always being in a position where, you know, I know if I randomly come off at any time, I'm always going to be safe. Like, how well do you play that line between like, okay, like, you know, I'm climbing into this realm where I know I'm not going to fall, but if I did, I die, or if I did, I break my leg.

00;40;03;01 - 00;40;09;09
Unknown
Like, how often are you putting yourself in that situation? Because I find myself very often putting myself

00;40;11;09 - 00;40;48;27
Unknown
Yeah. Pretty often. Like. I mean, every time I speed climb out in any capacity, any time. I mean, pretty often, I would say. But again, going to the percentage chance of me actually falling that I don't there's not often when I have the, you know, I'm putting myself out there and there's a high chance of me falling and there's a high ramification if I fall.

00;40;48;29 - 00;41;15;00
Unknown
But I definitely am pretty regularly relying on my own ability to climb. Well, yeah. Because like, if I'm climbing and like, if I'm climbing, let's say a 511 rate, something enjoyable and the top 30ft or five eight, like I'm not placing gear like, I mean, I might if it's obvious and if I should or if like, the follower would really want me to or something.

00;41;15;03 - 00;41;31;08
Unknown
But once it gets to five eight and if it's if there's only 30ft, like I'm probably just going to go for it, I'm probably not going to like stop. And maybe I would stop and place like one piece. but I'm certainly not placing a piece every ten feet, right? Like,

00;41;31;08 - 00;41;46;11
Unknown
it's an important thing I want to hear. And just, something I'm interested in hearing is just like our our our abilities as climbers to stay attached to the wall is is paramount in our safety while also understanding, you know, okay, like, the chances of me coming off are going up significantly.

00;41;46;16 - 00;41;51;28
Unknown
It's time to take the gear a bit more seriously and like switch modes and actually start to solve that puzzle in a different

00;42;35;26 - 00;42;38;24
Unknown
For sure. Yeah.

00;42;58;27 - 00;43;27;24
Unknown
For sure. I. I had never thought about it, but it's kind of like the inverse pyramid, right? Where, like, once you've, like, let's say, like 512, right? Like, once you've climbed a few, five, 12, all of a sudden, like five six. Right. You're like, that is cakewalk, right? Like I am. This is my bread and butter I love this is enjoyable for me, but I really like it.

00;43;27;24 - 00;43;49;26
Unknown
I can't fall like, unless I'm just not paying attention or, like, the rock explodes. Yeah. So it's kind of you're you're actually really right on that. I was. Yeah. Yeah. I think just the more that you, the higher that you kind of put your ceiling, your floor comes up as well where you're like, okay, cool. Now I feel really comfortable, climbing harder.

00;43;49;26 - 00;44;09;05
Unknown
Like if I was climbing 515, right. I bet my floor of, hey, I feel really comfortable running it out here would go from, you know, five, nine, five, ten minus to like 511 for sure, you would think. And maybe even higher.

00;44;09;05 - 00;44;18;01
Unknown
that. Like Alex Honnold free solo video with Magnus. Or, like, Magnus is, like, shitting his pants on, like the five nine move and red rocks. And Alex, just, like, filming, holding onto the

00;45;49;07 - 00;46;16;04
Unknown
Yes. Yeah. Do I laugh because you are 100% right. I've had the same discussion. People are like what do you mean. You think you're just going to like lob your, your whole carcass off this cliff.

00;46;16;06 - 00;46;21;18
Unknown
So.

00;46;21;18 - 00;46;23;27
Unknown
it and imagine, like just hocking yourself off.

00;46;23;27 - 00;46;41;08
Unknown
For some reason, I've never experienced it climbing like, that's a pretty bizarre one to me. but in general, like I've heard of other people, like, it's not like a suicidal impulse or something, like, there's this weird, like, it's almost like your brain's just exploring, like what would happen, and then you have the quick realization where you're like, oh yeah, fucking danger.

00;46;41;08 - 00;46;41;26
Unknown
Don't do

00;46;43;13 - 00;46;58;02
Unknown
I mean, I've felt it in terms of, like, you know, you're like, 30ft up on a cliff above water and you're like, yeah, we should jump in, but not, like, not 1000ft. I'd be like, no, no, no, no, no. That's like, let's get as close as we can and then back up.

00;47;01;27 - 00;47;31;02
Unknown
Yeah. But yeah, definitely don't. Definitely. Please. No. And take this as a you should be A58 climber and go run out five eight like go climb. I mean I've climbed. I bet in the last two months I've climbed C. Probably. 200 pitches of five, ten and under.

00;47;31;02 - 00;47;48;09
Unknown
before we jump into these stories and I want to jump into for kind of like the second half here. you have a full time job, you have a relationship, you have this channel that you're running, and you just said in the last two months you've climbed 200 pitches of five, ten and under.

00;47;48;11 - 00;48;08;24
Unknown
How are you managing your time to make that a reality? Because I think that a lot of people struggle with time management and priority management, like, how are you allocating this much time? Because I think that's part of the illusion of why people think you're living in a van and Yosemite because you're like, well, how does he have time to to climb as much as we see him climb?

00;48;08;24 - 00;48;10;22
Unknown
So how is that possible?

00;48;11;08 - 00;48;36;15
Unknown
And people also think that I record every climb that I do. And I can assure you that would be. And that would be a nightmare. No one wants that. Like it's just climbing the same five, eight again. Like again. yes. I think a lot of it comes down to just trying to be choice ful and intentional about how we spend our time.

00;48;36;18 - 00;48;37;21
Unknown
And

00;48;37;21 - 00;49;01;21
Unknown
like my standard day is wake up ideally morning session before work. So maybe either hang boarding or try to get to a, a local crag really early and then work a normal day, and then get done it for ideally climb again. So either indoor or outdoor, I'm usually one indoor, one outdoor. Just because I'm, I don't have unlimited time.

00;49;01;23 - 00;49;28;16
Unknown
And then work on the channel. for usually I don't know, two hours a night is pretty standard. And then late dinner. We like European dinner, so we tend to eat like 9 to 930 ish, which I know everything in. Health magazine since 1986 says that you should eat at 6 p.m., but I'm just not ready yet. My night isn't.

00;49;28;19 - 00;49;42;20
Unknown
I'm not done enjoying my night yet. and then we'll usually, you know, maybe watch an episode of TV. maybe not. And then, you know, it's kind of time to wind down and read and go to bed.

00;49;42;20 - 00;50;01;13
Unknown
I think a lot of people lose time in changeovers between activities. and then also gets sucked into either TV or these beautiful yet horrible things that are kind of attached to our hips at every point.

00;50;01;15 - 00;50;23;01
Unknown
And I'm guilty myself. I mean, I put a 30 minute my main vices Instagram and I put a 30 minute timer on there because I'm just like, I know myself, I cannot be. I can just get, you know, you get sucked into something and all of a sudden you're like, oh, that's interesting. What about this? And even if it's productive, it's, you know, it's 20 minutes of your life that you'll never get back.

00;50;23;03 - 00;50;47;25
Unknown
And so I think so much of it is just knowing what I want to do, or at least I'm not the best at thinking 25 years down the road. But I'm decently good at knowing what I want within the next year or two, and so I can at least visualize that and just like, attack that and then, you know, once I get a year down the road that I've got like a vision for the next year.

00;50;47;25 - 00;51;06;17
Unknown
Right? And so all of a sudden, after a couple of years, I'm like, oh, man, I kind of had some good vision. I look back and I'm like, no, no, no. Like I that was just a year at a time. or maybe too. Right. But, I don't have the ten year, 20 year vision that some people do, and I commend them for it, and I'm working on that.

00;51;06;19 - 00;51;39;17
Unknown
being so much of it is just trying to use time efficiently and not spend time sitting there captive watching the TV, because I know, I mean, I grew up in Ohio and I know so many people who, you know, just spend a lot of time watching TV, and that's fine. There's nothing against it. But it certainly doesn't help if, you know, we've all got stuff going on, like it doesn't help if you got a job, you want to, you know, you got friends, you want to spend time with them, you wanna spend time with your family.

00;51;39;17 - 00;52;00;07
Unknown
Oh, and you also want to, like, crush rocks and you want to have another hobby, right? There's not enough time for all that. And TV. And so it's just like, okay, is TV my priority? If it is, then like I'll spend 2 or 3 hours a night watching TV, but it's not a priority for me. So I'm like 30 minutes is good.

00;52;00;09 - 00;52;05;09
Unknown
My priority is kind of everything else.

00;52;20;13 - 00;52;38;04
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. My girlfriend Brittany, she's, she's a climber as well, which helps. She's less of a psycho. which also helps because like, I don't I'm not good at sitting down. like I'm good at sitting down to edit. Right. Like I like that. But, like, if you just sit me down, like, I'll sit down and meditate.

00;52;38;04 - 00;52;53;28
Unknown
Sure. But after you, like, I want to do things, I don't want to just sit there and talk about my feelings all day. that's just not me, right? And I don't want to just sit around and talk about what could be possible. I'm like, no, let's go build something. Let's go do something silly. Let's go jump off something.

00;52;53;28 - 00;53;29;23
Unknown
Let's go climb something. but, yeah, it definitely helps that she's, she's a climber, so she understands the, I don't know, the need to go higher, bigger, faster, all that stuff. But also, it's nice that she's a little bit less of a wild person so that it helps to kind of bring a little bit more balance into my life and maybe helps me slow down a little bit because like me, if I don't feel well, like if I get sick, I hate feeling sick, right?

00;53;29;23 - 00;53;53;21
Unknown
I take supplements and try to, I always like I sleep till like I sleep ideally at least eight hours. Like I absolutely like wore myself out this past weekend climbing just like as much as I could. And, I slept ten hours Sunday night, and then I was like, I wasn't training Monday because I was absolutely destroyed. And I took an hour nap Monday to.

00;53;53;26 - 00;54;14;28
Unknown
I slept like 11 hours and not like Denver. And because I was just like, I'm beat and I'm not going to be able to do it two a day on Tuesday. if I don't chill. so it definitely helps to have someone who's like, hey, like, if you're, you know, if you're feeling worn down, like, let's just chill.

00;54;14;28 - 00;54;32;24
Unknown
Whereas if I get sick or something, I'm like, I've been sick for three days. Like, I need to, like I need to do something like, let's go do something big. And she's like, you've been sick for three days. Why don't you, like, chill for one more day, get feeling 100% and then go do something like medium, see how you feel, and then go do something big.

00;54;32;26 - 00;54;52;28
Unknown
And I'm like, but I haven't done like I get like this itch and I'm like, but I haven't done anything. And she's like, yeah, that's okay. yeah, it's good to have that.

00;54;53;00 - 00;54;55;17
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00;55;32;17 - 00;56;00;28
Unknown
So for instance, a classic example of measuring risk. Right. And trying to understand what the, what the ramifications are, but also at the same time trying to keep the mindset of the first essentialist in mind and not trying to get too much information and trying to just make it a wild adventure. because I think it's easy to read every single mountain project.

00;56;00;28 - 00;56;07;03
Unknown
Everyone's ever every comment they've ever written. Right. And you get the getting these like, arguments about like, oh, no,

00;56;07;03 - 00;56;24;09
Unknown
That concludes today's episode. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. If you'd like to learn more about Brant, check out the links in our show notes. And if you haven't seen his YouTube channel yet, just go check it out. It's sick. Just a reminder, please share this podcast with your friends. Word of mouth is the best way to support the show.

00;56;24;11 - 00;56;43;20
Unknown
Plus, don't forget you can watch our full episodes on YouTube. Stay tuned for our next episode for part two of this conversation, where we dive into his recent accomplishment of Breaking the Speed South, a solo record, a record that stood for over ten years. Until then, keep exploring, stay safe. And as always. Thanks for being a part of the climbing majority.

00;56;43;22 - 00;56;46;19
Unknown
See you in two weeks.