The Curious Climber Podcast: Chatting with Hazel and Mina

This conversation is with New York based climber Anyssa Lucena (@genuineclimbing). Anyssa re-found climbing later in life and incorporated it into her already busy life - a single mum of three kids. Not only did she find space for it, it saved her in a difficult period in her life. She felt such a passion for climbing, and it had such a deep personal affect on her, that she underwent a complete career change and created a business around climbing. Anyssa is a guide in the Gunks but she does more than just the standard teaching people to go climbing. She works, predominately with women, by using climbing to challenge self limiting beliefs, find bravery and develop resilience. It was a pleasure to talk to her and to hear both her story and her experiences coaching. Anyssa's Website Anyssa's Instagram

This episode is with Swiss machine Nina Caprez. Nina is known for her hard, adventurous ascents including Sibergier, Wogu, Merci La Vie, Never Ending Story…the list goes on. She has a really interesting attitude towards the mental side of climbing and an unusual relationship with fear. We talk about her experiences on hard routes and what she learnt from them; both successes and failures. We also discuss a new phase in her life that includes a social project close to her heart and a journey into parenthood. Enjoy!

Andrew is a successful writer and social commentator in the world of climbing. He is the founder of evening sends a website that hosts in-depth writing and articles from himself and other writers. He’s also co-founder of the runout podcast with Chris Kalous. He’s maybe best known for unapologetically saying what he thinks. Something of a rarity online in 2022. We talk about his experiences as a writer in a polarised political climate and how the culture wars and the way we tend to converse on social media have affected discourse, writing and activism in climbing.  You can support what we're doing here by donating at hazel-findlay.com/podcast or becoming a Patron of the Nugget Climbing Podcast 

Recently, we have entered into a collaboration with Steven Dimmitt of The Nugget Climbing Podcast who is helping us with the editing, sound and production of our podcast. Steven's podcast is great, with loads of fantastic episodes to choose from. He is also a whizz at all the technical things. As part of this collaboration we are producing some mini-episodes together in pairs called "Reflections". These 10-15 min episodes are discussions around various different topics with the focus on learning, reflection and insights we may have had. They will be available to those who support The Nugget Podcast via Patreon, but we have included one here as a taster - enjoy!

This episode is a conversation between Mina and British climber Hamish McArthur. Hamish is 20 years old and current World Youth Champion in both Bouldering and Lead climbing....a pretty impressive feat. But he isn't planning to stop there, Hamish has big goals and isn't afraid to name them. This conversation is both interesting and empowering. Hamish has a depth of perspective on performance and mindset that is both interesting and useful to hear. As an athlete who is still emerging and finding his rhythm, it'll be exciting to see where his journey takes him. 

Steven Dimmitt chats to Mina on his podcast 'The Nugget Climbing Podcast' about her early life and living in India, learning about impermanence from her dad, chasing flow state, memorable high ball boulders, learning to try hard, becoming a mama and much more... We highly recommend his podcast! You can find it here Enjoy!

Hazel chats to Alex H-bomb Honnold about his current life as a father to be, his environmental foundation the Honnold Foundation, affective altruism and also a bit about climbing!  This podcast was edited by Steven Dimmit of the Nugget Climbing podcast. If you would like to help us keep the podcast going you can donate here or if you also enjoy his podcast the best way to support both podcasts is to become a Patreon of The Climbing Nugget podcast.  As always, thanks for listening and happy climbing! 

This episode is an eye opening chat with Andy Cave. Andy is a rock climber and a mountaineer who has a lifetime of stories to tell about his adventures. Climbing aside, he grew up in a mining community in the north of England and his first job was down the pits. Andy has a special way of being able to describe and paint a picture of his experiences with words - he has authored two books about his life so far - and he does just this in our conversation. From the coal mines to the Himalayan mountains we are taken on a fascinating tour of Andy’s unique life story. You can follow Andy at: @andycavemountaineer www.andycave.co.uk

In this episode Hazel talks with Mina and Steven Dimmitt of the The Nugget Climbing Podcast about their respective recoveries from under-eating/over-training. Although their stories look a little different they both managed to get into a position of poor health in the bid to get stronger and lighter for climbing. Both have since made a full recovery and are in great shape mentally and physically. In this conversation they talk about each of their uniquely difficult journeys back to full health. The emergence of stories like theirs are part of a growing trend in climbing that reprioritises strength gains over weight loss and uses practices that better reflect latest research. Thanks to Mina and Steven for being open to talk about this because conversations like this do a lot to improve the health of our community! Go here for the previous episode on Mina's diagnosis of RED-S. Go here to hear about Steven's story.  

Steven Dimmitt chats to Hazel on his podcast 'The Nugget Climbing Podcast' about mental training, the ego, fear of falling, fear of failure, her experiences with Magic Line and much more...  We highly recommend his podcast! You can find it here  Enjoy! 

This episode is a conversation with Katy Whittaker aka The Grit Kid. Katy is a life long climber. She started young in a family of climbers and outdoor enthusiasts living in the picturesque village of Edale in the Peak District, UK. Katy became known on the UK scene for a number of things; her stand out achievements on hard, scary gritstone trad routes make an impressive CV alone but she has also bouldered hard outside, competed for the British team and excelled in sport climbing. But what makes this conversation interesting isn’t her list of achievements. It’s Katy’s honesty, reflection and her insights into her climbing that are the gold. We talk about risk, motivation to try dangerous routes, her relationship with “hard climbing” and her identity as someone who since so young has been entrenched in climbing culture.

John Kettle is a movement coach based in the UK. He's been the teaching climbing for 20 years. We talk about: his story with his own climbing and what led him to be a coach and interested in movement, why don’t we focus more of movement and technique, what are the many climbers missing, elite climbers versus beginners, what drills can people do, the role of mind and attention in movement efficiency, the role of stress, the ego, breathing exercises and much more. Enjoy! *The first upload of this podcast was cut short. If you listened to that - listen to the other half here. 

This episode is with Mina and Sports Dietitian and climber Marisa Michael and we actually recorded it back in November (sorry for the delay Marisa!!). We cover a bunch of different areas in this podcast, from her academic and clinical background to her work and research in climbing as well as busting some common nutrient based myths that commonly circulate. We then move on to a more detailed discussion around the framework of Intuitive Eating which is a particular interest of mine. I actually recently finished my certification as an IE counsellor and it’s great to have had this chat with Marisa on the subject given her clinical and sports background. Context is key and I hope this conversation helps to expand and explain what can be a misconstrued framework. We have been a bit slower on producing episodes lately - Hazel has been studying more with her masters and I’ve (Mina) been making and now caring for a new baby (2 weeks old as I post this)! Suffice to say, life has gotten a bit busier but we are still very psyched on producing podcasts, albeit at a slower rate!

Maddy and Hazel talk about topics that interest them including women's training, body weight and body image, diet and nutrition, hormonal contraceptives, optimising performance in the menstruation cycle, menstruation and psychology/stress tolerance. 

Maddy just turned 30! We know that's not old but it's a good enough excuse to have her on the podcast to talk about her life (so far). This is the first part of a two part chat. The first part focuses on Maddy and her climbing the second part we talk more about issues that interest us. 

In this episode Mina (18 weeks pregnant at time of recording) chats to Stacy Sims about all things about training and exercise in pregnancy. Pregnancy can be a confusing time in one’s body and experiences of pregnancy also vary hugely. Stacy specialises in exercise physiology and human performance with a particular interest in female athletes through all life stages - one of which for many women will be pregnancy - so it's great to get her take on this tricky area. It's worth mentioning that neither of us are medically doctors and we are discussing medically uncomplicated pregnancies in this context - if you are unsure of anything, please seek advice from your doctor or healthcare provider. At the time of recording I (Mina) was 18 weeks pregnant....I’m now (at the time of publishing) 32 weeks pregnant and it’s interesting for me to notice what has changed and not changed since Stacy and I had this chat. I stopped doing pull ups of any sort (even assisted) around 20 weeks due to the doming of my abdominals and stopped finger boarding soon after for the same reason. But, I’m still climbing with no issues, lifting some weights, doing finger holds by my side, and plenty of walking! Oh and endless pelvic floor exercises.... That won’t be the same for everyone of course and could change again rapidly for me too - each week now it feels like my body is different and has different likes/dislikes and needs. Constantly adapting and modifying. To be honest, I think mental flexibility has got to be a core theme of pregnancy in athletes.

In this episode Hazel speaks with paraclimber Anna Foo and psychologist Doreen Hoerold who is Anna's friend and sight-guide. We talk about climbing blind, living blind, the relationship between climber and sight-guide, politics of disability and 'blind activism', what sighted people should know about blind people, paraclimbing competitions and much more... Enjoy! 

This episode is a a conversation between Mina and Dave MacLeod. Dave is a Scottish professional rock climber and mountaineer who is known for his systematic and scientific approach to training that helped him become a high level all round climber, climbing F9a sport routes, V15 boulders, Scottish XII mixed routes and E11 trad. Dave has authored two popular books on training for climbing and has been blogging and filmmaking since 2006. He has a BSc in Physiology, and MSc in exercise science and and MSc in Human Nutrition and has published sports science research in academic journals. Our conversation is really a two in one. In the first half we discuss his climbing achievements, how to become an all rounder, some of his harder/more dangerous routes, attitudes to risk and consequence and some unusual ways he has prepared for climbs. The second half of the conversation moves to his thoughts on nutrition and nutrition for climbers. Dave has been quite outspoken on this topic, and is well read to support it. We discuss his formal studies as well as his n=1 personal experiments, the relevance of evidence based advice and what is really going on in the body when you manipulate what you eat. Enjoy! Dave's website Dave's YouTube Channel Dave's Instagram

Rosie is a runner and climate activist. This episode is all about climate change and how the outdoor community can be more sustainable. We talk about: how the pandemic could be a good opportunity for a fresh start, individual versus big change, hypocrisy within our community, what we find aspirational, community effort and taking the emphasis away from individual action, flight shaming and why it doesn’t work, offsetting, green washing, brands and events, consumerism, social shaming versus community support and what athletes and influencers should be talking about. This is an honest conversation about the complexities of the human response to the climate crisis. I hope you enjoy and thanks for listening. Here is an article Rosie wrote about this subject  Books by Mike Berners-Lee that Rosie has help to write  Rosie's blog about her running adventures to start conversations about climate activism  Other Resources: - Article by Em Hartova about the problem with seeing the outdoors as a playground/escapism. It's called "Climate action means more than being outside wearing ethical clothes". https://adventureuncovered.com/stories/climate-action-means-more-than-being-outside-wearing-ethical-clothes/ - An article that explains why 'ethical consumerism' isn't the answer https://atmos.earth/ethical-consumerism?fbclid=IwAR390-CfhQhYY2MwS3LtSbAbXQ-Yx4RgeCMFWlj_EQV5LZ8t-l2P2I5bTkU

This is a conversation between Mina and Dhillan Chandramowli, who’s psyche and drive is infectious. And it’s not just about climbing. Dhillan puts his passion into everything, he is one of those people who lives to find and realise potential in its many forms. Whether it’s developing new bouldering areas in remote Himalayan villages, organising marches to support women in sexual politics, advocating diversity by creating platforms for important conversation or using pen to paper to write, story-tell and open channels on things he cares about, he is emphatic in all his endeavours. This conversation was really interesting, enjoyable and educational. Massive thanks as always to Alex Dempsey for the edit. And does anyone notice our new jingle?? Thanks to Morgan Jones for offering his sound technology expertise to create us our very own intro music. Box Talks