Ethan Salvo is a Squamish-based climber. He's been climbing just over 7 years and has climbed some of the hardest boulders in North America. Last summer he broke out of his boulderer shell and climbed the Cobra Crack, a notorious 5.14 gear climb.

I had the chance to write some training for him late last year, and we reconnected to talk about his experience trying one of the hardest boulders in Bishop over the winter.

We talked about:

- Personal growth and trying Lucid Dreaming V15

- Doing all the best and hardest climbs in Squamish

- Future projects in Squamish

- Skin management & tactics

- Northwest climbing conditions (kind of a Squamish conditions masterclass)

- Why Ethan doesn't practice flashing

- The ups and downs of dirtbagging

- My general training advice for someone at Ethan's level

0:00:00 Intro

0:03:34 Ethan's trip to Bishop to try Lucid Dreaming

0:15:15 Summoning the try-hard in Bishop vs Squamish

0:23:24 Was Ethan "strong enough" to do Lucid right off the bat?

0:29:01 Is Ethan a physical outlier? (I put my foot in my mouth)

0:34:23 Penrose Step & the insane minutiae of hard grips

0:40:22 Skin management

0:45:09 Living in a 2002 Subaru for months (tips for unwelcome mouse friends)

0:53:00 Ethan's current climbing and upcoming plans

1:05:10 Weather

1:13:51 Maximizing time vs other variables

1:17:25 What to look for on the weather forecast & learning micro-climates

1:22:52 Ethan's flash of Mad Bush V12 (nuts)

1:26:40 Discussion on flashing/onsighting in general

1:34:00 Squamish weather details

1:36:10 Return to Lucid, skin management details

1:45:18 Manufactured condies and bouldering ethics

1:54:43 Strength training suggestions for Ethan

2:02:22 What do good genes get you?

2:03:37 Wrap up

In this episode I chat with Juliet Hammer and her dog Addy. Juliet is a climbing coach and an experienced boulderer and sport climber. She has a degree in biology and she's a certified strength and conditioning specialist. We talked about:

• Juliet's climbing history
• Differences between bouldering and sport in terms of preparation, mindset and tactics
• Being a short climber
• Board climbing
• Coaching philosophy and shop talk
• Personal grades
• Social media, content creation and voluntary hardship
• Value capture as both a coach and climber
• Dangers of focusing on dopamine hits

00:00:00 Intro 00:02:43 Juliet's sport/bouldering identity & seasonality 00:16:02 Proper introduction, comp/cordo climbing, coaching indoors vs outdoor clients 00:25:27 Board climbing & being a short climber 00:30:31 Strength training 00:37:27 Coaching philosophy and shop talk 00:48:07 More short climber tips, self-comparison 00:54:43 Personal grades and the toxic wasteland of 8a.nu 01:00:41 Motivations 01:02:38 Jesse is ignorant about the southeast and complains about summer 01:05:51 More seasonality / sport & boulder logistics questions 01:08:08 Hot take 1, is climbing harder always more fun? 01:12:28 Hot take 2, are sport climbers better climbers? 01:13:56 Sport climbing vs bouldering popularity and value for progression 01:16:37 Content strategy and value capture as a content creator and coach 01:26:33 Dopamine hits, voluntary hardship, video beta and availability bias 01:42:55 Addy 01:45:09 Work with Juliet

Questions from my Patrons and clients for April 2025. Thanks to Ryan Frecka for joining me for the weight management questions. Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jfireclimbing Questions: 0:00:00 Intro 0:00:45 Jishnu - What is good footwork? 00:09:35 Jishnu - Modern classics 00:11:01 Nico & Giancarlo - Returning to a project after a tweak/injury 00:16:28 Briana - Managing detraining on a long trip 00:20:37 Victor - Indoor vs outdoor technique 00:25:32 Caleb - Cycling between bouldering & sport climbing 00:29:54 Jeffrey - Podcast update 00:31:11 Brian - Motivation behind doing first ascents 00:35:33 Stephanie - Strength to weight ratio (w/ Ryan Frecka) 00:43:01 Stephanie - Body composition (w/ Ryan Frecka) 00:47:46 Stephanie - When to put on more muscle (w/ Ryan Frecka) 00:53:07 Stephanie - Signs of a strength deficit (w/ Ryan Frecka) 00:58:42 Stephanie - Nutritional approach (w/ Ryan Frecka) 01:06:02 Ryan's additional comments on set point theory 01:09:02 Outro