EP 196: Pete Whittaker — Chasing the Hardest Cracks in the World, Embracing the Suck, and Futuristic Desert Projects

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

Pete Whittaker is widely regarded as one of the best crack climbers of all time. We talked about his current trip to Moab trying Stranger Than Fiction, how he trained for the FA of Crown Royale 9a, the skills needed to climb cutting-edge cracks, why he is still working on improving at ring locks, the futuristic Crucifix Project, his most fun/rewarding/miserable/traumatic trips with Tom Randall, and much more!

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Show Notes:

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/pete-whittaker

Nuggets:

0:00:00 – Intro/Ads

0:05:34 – Pete’s breakfast and voice

0:06:29 – Pete and Tom’s current mission in Moab, and what makes that area so unique

0:10:02 – Goals on trips, and working on ring locks as a weakness

0:12:22 – How Pete and Tom ring lock differently

0:14:57 – Pete’s book on crack climbing techniques

0:15:56 – Trying Mason Earl’s route Stranger Than Fiction

0:20:14 – Breakdown and progress on Stranger Than Fiction

0:21:58 – Pete’s first visit to the Profile Wall in Norway to try Recovery Drink, and working his way through the established free routes

0:27:54 – The style of climbing on the Profile Wall, and the skills needed to climb hard there

0:30:08 – Placing 17 pieces of gear on the 100m Crown Royale 9a

0:32:35 – Breakdown of Crown Royale 9a, and running it out on the send

0:38:13 – Pete’s process on Crown, and projecting the top half as its own pitch

0:40:42 – How Pete and Tom decide which projects to try together vs. individually

0:43:19 – The most FUN trip with Tom (Century Crack trip)

0:45:20 – The most MISERABLE trip with Tom (Bridge Boys)

0:46:21 – The most TRAUMATIZING trip with Tom (Yosemite)

0:49:09 – The most REWARDING trips with Tom (exploring the White Rim)

0:50:27 – The Crucifix project

0:53:26 – How Pete trained for Crown Royale 9a

0:57:06 – Embracing the suck, why Pete is good at resting in stressful positions, and training stamina as a kid

1:00:17 – Pete’s early climbing, venturing into more dangerous routes as a teenager, and doing the first ascent of an E9 at age 17 with his mom on belay

1:06:12 – Why Pete loves offwidthing, and other styles of climbing that involve lots of suffering

1:10:42 – How geeky is Pete about training?

1:13:10 – Adding structure, and training with Lattice for Crown Royale

1:14:51 – Shoulder conditioning for Crown, and what exercises he plans to continue doing

1:17:51 – Keeping tabs on the world’s hardest trad routes, and Pete’s thoughts on trying Tribe

1:20:09 – How Pete picks objectives and goals, and riding the waves

1:23:07 – Pete’s recent trip to Yosemite with Mari

1:25:37 – Using Darth Grader to suggest the grade of 9a for Crown Royale

1:34:33 – How Pete’s experience with Crown Royale compared to Recovery Drink

1:37:33 – Unclimbed lines on the Profile Wall, and where the name “Crown Royale” came from

1:39:26 – Check out the Patron-only EXTRA with the Wide Boyz!