Where's the first place your mind goes when you don’t stick a move? If you’re like most climbers, it’s probably your finger strength, or tension, or even your effort, and you’re already considering what hangboard protocol to use or some front lever workout. But it’s possible you’re looking in the wrong direction entirely... Read the rest on the blo…

Will Anglin is one of the founders of Tension Climbing, a company that not only makes training tools, but also is committed to innovation in a way that leads climbers toward mastery over success. In this episode we discuss movement skills, some ways climbers are going wrong in their pursuit and how they can continue improving, and the tools that mi…

Lauren Abernathy works hard to be a better climber. In fact, it’s part of her job as owner of Good Spray Climbing to help other people become better climbers, and she walks the walk. For several years she’s worked with our coach Blake Cash, and has recently been supplementing that with private movement sessions with Nate Drolet. In this episode, we…

For most of us, climbing looks like this: Pull on, try the move, fall off. Stare at your hands and try to understand why you fell. Pull on, try the move, fall off. Stare at your hands and come up with a new reason why you fell. Pull on again, try the move again, fall off. Again You get it. You've been there. But there’s a better way. In this episod…

Taylor Reed is a climber and coach who has worked with high-level athletes – both competitive and outdoor climbers – for many years. He’s the vice president of the International Rock Climbing Research Association and also runs The Beta Angel Project, which takes climbing-specific research and synthesizes it with ideas and experience in order to fin…

A common refrain in climbing is that the more you climb, the better you get. But all of us know some old crusty who has been climbing for 45 years and is stuck at mid 5.10. And they have all of the excuses as to why. But they’re wrong. In this episode, Kris and Nate explore why we believe we’ll just get better if we keep at it, as well as offer str…

Go ahead, grab that foothold. I mean, it’s only a foothold until someone uses it as a handhold. Then it’s just a hold. So use it. And if you don’t want to because you’d rather challenge yourself to do it without using that really obvious hold right there, that’s fine, too. There’s no heroism in skipping an obvious hold. There’s no shame in using a …

Today we REWIND back to one of our favorite Board Meetings of all time. We chose this episode because we are spending the next couple months digging deep into movement and learning, and exploring if there might be a better way to consider movement than the technique-based way we’ve always done it. In this episode, Kris and Nate discuss ideas presen…

Rob Gray is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University, host of The Perception & Action Podcast, and a Skill Acquisition Specialist for the Boston Red Sox. He’s also the author of two great books, How We Learn to Move and Learning to Optimize Movement. In this Part 2 of 2, Kris and Rob discuss the differences between the two predominant the…

Rob Gray is an associate Professor at Arizona State University, host of The Perception & Action Podcast, and a Skill Acquisition Specialist for the Boston Red Sox. He’s been studying movement and publishing research on it for 25 years. In this Part 1 of 2, Kris and Rob discuss the limitations and challenges of using sports science research for coac…

Introducing: Something new. Something different. Something FOCUSED. Rather than doing what most podcasts do and jumping from subject to subject with each new episode, we’re going to be spending the next couple of months focused on discussing one topic. Through Board Meetings, Expert episodes, Taped Tips, and our new Builder series that you’ll hear …

Indoor and outdoor climbing have different constraints, and as such, lead you into different solutions for how to interact with that environment. But there are lessons from the climbing gyms that should absolutely be applied to outdoors in order to get the most out of it and become a better climber faster. In this bonus episode from our Patron feed…

Many people view indoor climbing as less serious than climbing outside, but if we're looking to improve, that may be a mistake. There are aspects of climbing outside that lead us into learning specific things that we don't necessarily find as easily indoors. In this episode, Kris and Nate discuss their top 5 lessons from climbing outside that, when…

With more and more information out there, it would seem that we can learn faster and better. But that isn't always the case. In this episode, Kris and Nate discuss why learning is more challenging in our current environment, ways we can better structure our time, tools we can use for learning, and the changes we are making to this podcast and our w…

Two of the legendary routes from the 90s are now at odds with each other (sort of). One of them was likely the first 9a in the world, but which was it? Hubble or Action Directe? In this bonus episode from Written In Stone, we examine the circumstances, discuss where the debate began, and hear from the only two people in the world who have climbed b…

Four years ago this month in 2019, Yosemite’s Magic Line, a 5.14 crack originally put up by Ron Kauk and not repeated until more than 20 years later by his son, Lonnie, saw its third ascent. Pushing her limits both physically and mentally, the formidable Hazel Findlay solidified her status as one of the strongest trad climbers in the world with the…

The Red River Gorge Climber’s Coalition was one oof the first climber owned organizations to OWN their local climbing. Now they have the opportunity to purchase a huge tract of land with miles and miles of cliffline. Some existing climbing, and a lot of potential climbing of nearly all grades. But they need our help to make it happen. This might in…

You nailed the training and showed up stronger. Still, things went wrong. The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month! Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.…

The year is 1991. No woman has ever climbed 5.14. One French superstar says that no woman ever will. But Lynn Hill didn’t listen...And years later, Katie Brown wouldn't either. This is a sample of Episode 1 of Written In Stone: Climbing's Most Important Ascents, the latest podcast from Power Company Climbing & Plug Tone Audio. To hear the rest of t…

Training principles are important, but when they creep into performance, your climbing will suffer. Nearly every time. Taped Tips is presented by Power Company Climbing and Plug Tone Audio. You can help us keep episodes sponsor-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month. Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.…

Written in Stone tells the (mostly) true stories of the most groundbreaking ascents in rock climbing history. Hosted by Kris Hampton, you’ll hear the narrated, sound-designed stories about what led to new levels in climbing, alternated with conversations with today’s top climbers about what inspired them about what went down way back then. Season O…

If you’re a climber and you haven’t been to Miguel’s Pizza, you probably want to go, or you’ve at least seen a dozen people wearing their t-shirts. Forty years ago, Miguel Ventura moved from Connecticut to Slade, Kentucky and started what was then known as The Rainbow Door, a pizza and ice cream shop that has since become an icon to climbers all ov…

Looking to climb on gorgeous streaky sandstone cliffs full of high-angled crimps? Look no further than the Blue Mountains, sport climbing mecca of the land down under, boasting thousands of routes. Legendary Australian climber Lee Cujes spent more than 20 years taking trips to the Blue Mountains before eventually moving there, and now it’s been his…

You know what highpointing is, and definitely redpointing, but what about lowpointing? And for those of you who know what we’re talking about, do you actually do it? Chances are, you’re not using this tactic to its full potential, which means you’re not using it to your full advantage. In this Board Meeting, Kris and Nate discuss the tactic of lowp…

Five years ago this week, Ravioli Biceps walked into the gym, did his usual detailed warmup, and then set his camera up pointed at the Moonboard. It had only been a year since he'd started climbing on it, and he'd obsessively worked his way through the benchmarks. And on this day, he pulled on and finished the final benchmark of the 2016 set, becom…

There’s more information out there than ever. When I first started Power Company Climbing, there were very few training blogs, no training podcasts for climbers, maybe one other remote climbing coach, and honestly, very few reputable sources for information on how to improve. That lack of information, or of people willing to offer advice, is certai…

Does kneebarring hard boulders make you stronger? What if it IS a kneebar boulder? Is it good for training? We're conflicted. And how does Chris Sharma feel about it? This is a bonus Board Meeting episode from our new series, CONFLICTED. If you want to hear more episodes like this one, become a Patron or Apple subscriber today! Head over to www.pat…

Training is training is training. You’ve done your homework, you know how to periodize a training plan, you understand set and rep schemes and RPE and autoregulation, you’ve got all the latest tech and warmup tools, and you’ve somehow figured out how to fit all 482 things into a week, including recovery time and self-care mental health days. You’ve…

For most climbers, a 100-foot ground fall would be the end of their lives, or at the very least, the end of their climbing careers. Not so for Craig DeMartino. 21 years ago this week, while climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park, a moment of miscommunication nearly cost him everything, and did lead to the eventual amputation of his right leg. But…

In this episode, which comes to us from The Struggle Climbing Show podcast, Kris sat down with host Ryan Devlin to talk tactics. Kris took a look at episodes from the show’s second season – which included interviews with some of today’s biggest names in climbing, like Jonathan Siegrist, Tommy Caldwell, Melina Costanza, Matt Fultz, Alison Vest, and …

As climbers, we fail a lot. And yet, we don’t even like to hear the word. Our ability to return to unsent projects time after time, season after season, along with the deeply ingrained idea that every failure ought to be reframed as a successful learning experience means we rarely – if ever – actually confront the concept in our sport. But maybe we…

Today we REWIND to this classic episode with living-legend and climbing pioneer Paul Piana himself, 35 years after he and Todd Skinner completed their historic first free ascent of El Cap’s Salathé Wall on June 15, 1988, helping to shape the dreams of many generations of climbers to come. Lynn Hill doing the Nose a few years later, Tommy Caldwell o…

Whether you are a pro climber, small business owner, coach, writer, filmmaker or any other entrepreneur in the climbing industry, Taylor Swift has something to teach you. In this Board Meeting, Kris and Nate draw what might seem an odd comparison: pro climbers and Miss Americana herself, Taylor Swift. With some of the recent industry drama surround…

Looking to spend your summer sport climbing on gently overhanging crimps on beautiful limestone cliffs? Look no further than Ten Sleep, a picturesque canyon nestled high in the Bighorns of Wyoming offering tons of generously bolted lines up to grades of 14+. Our very own coach Taylor Fragomeni started climbing in Ten Sleep more than a decade ago an…

We begin this REWIND episode a little differently, with a call to Jonathan Siegrist while he was recently in Catalunya, Spain, to find out if he knew why we're releasing this on May 18th. It's an interesting fact about his own climbing that he wasn't aware of. Until now. Since this episode first aired, Jonathan has climbed 5 routes at 5.15b (9b), w…

When it comes to skincare in the climbing world, Rhino Skin Solutions is the one name you need to know. They’ve got a complete line of products to help you address whatever skin woes you may be having, whether your tips are too wet, too dry, or just totally torn up. Rhino’s founder and CEO Justin Brown joined Kris to explain the different products …

In an ideal world, grades would be objective and we’d have some universal formula for how they’re decided. But we don't live in an ideal world. In this bonus Board Meeting episode, Part 1 of 2 on grades and what affects them, Kris and Nate talk about some things that should be considered when deciding on a grade, but rarely are. They break down the…

In this, the second of two episodes with seasoned big wall climber Josie McKee, she and Kris sit down to discuss how her recent trip to Yosemite turned out – what went well, what didn’t, what she might do differently to prepare for future trips, and so forth. But the conversation goes far beyond training and tick lists as they consider some hurdles…

Josie McKee has been climbing for more than 20 years, racking up speed records, FA’s, and a huge wealth of experience and knowledge in that time. She’s been up El Cap more than 20 times, even working on the YOSAR team for 3 years. Now based in Lander, she found herself with limestone sport climbing as her primary means to train for a recent Yosemit…

13 years ago this month, British climbing legend Stevie Haston climbed 14d, for the second time that year, at the youthful age of 52. Even more impressive is the fact that Haston did this after recovering from a snowboarding accident in his 40’s that left him questioning if he'd ever climb hard again. So what are the complex intricacies of his trai…

It's all the rage. Watching Will Bosi and Aiden Roberts work on the Burden of Dreams replica is fun, but is it valuable for the rest of us? This episode is the first half of the full episode our Patrons and Subscribers get today. To get bonus conversations like this every month (over 100 in the archive currently!) you can become a Patron or you can…

Most of us have never given 100% to an attempt on a rock climb. Most of us just don’t know how. It’s one of the hardest to cultivate components of high performance: effort. So, the big question: How can we all learn to give more effort? In this REMIX episode, we'll hear from climbers Bill Ramsey, Jonathan Siegrist, Jason Kehl, Hazel Findlay, Troy F…

McKenzie Long started climbing like many of us did, indoors, in a midwestern climbing gym, far from the vast landscapes and towering rock formations of the American West. But her love of climbing – and dream of becoming a writer – led her to those places soon enough, and also led her to consider our relationships with those places. Her book, This C…

With the seemingly endless amount of information available online these days, and the newest training trends popping up in reel after reel on our feeds, it can be pretty tough to know what to keep and what to toss when it comes to our own training, and really tempting to overcomplicate things. In this Board Meeting, Kris chats with our very own coa…

Looking for a sport climbing destination where you can climb comfortably from mid-Spring through mid-Fall? Look no further than Wild Iris, with its high elevation, low humidity, and perfectly-pocketed limestone walls. Wyoming local Leif Gasch has been climbing at Wild Iris for more than 25 years. While his life and travels have taken him all over, …

Nearly 15 years ago, with the FA of her route Meltdown, Beth Rodden gave us one of the hardest crack lines in Yosemite – if not the world – helping to solidify the role women have played in the development of hard rock climbing. Since then, she’s also solidified herself as one of the leading voices in support of body positivity and healthier ideas …

If you already spend 4 or 5 days a week climbing for your job as a setter, is it a good idea – or even just a feasible one – to take on a training program? How do you find the additional time, energy, and motivation? Plus, aren’t you just asking for an injury? In today’s Board Meeting episode, our very own coach Jess West answers these questions an…

Don’t be fooled by Patty Law’s small frame and soft-spoken demeanor – she’s a fierce climber, mother, entrepreneur, and community cultivator. She’s been welcoming climbers through the doors of her gyms and into a thriving Cincinnati climbing community for more than 20 years now. Kris sits down with his long-time friend to talk about about her journ…

In January 2015, 7 years ago this week, I, along with countless others including many non-climbers, was glued to a saga happening on the side of El Cap. Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson were battling it out on what would become the world's hardest big wall free route, the Dawn Wall, and it was being streamed live. We watched as they topped out on …

“It's all about the process.” Sure, the journey is important, but so is the destination. It's not all about the journey. It’s about mapping out the journey that gets you to the intended destination. So is there a way to care about the outcome without making it the focus? In this REMIX episode, we'll hear from athletes Sam Elias and Alex Megos, lear…