Ω POWERBAND PODCAST

Welcome to the 50th and final episode of the Ω Powerband Podcast - a podcast dedicated to rock climbing in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode, I speak with the man who (unwittingly) inspired this entire podcast project, Chris Kalous. 
Chris who? Well, Chris is an American climber based in Carbondale, Colorado and is perhaps best known as the host of the world's best climbing podcast: The Enormocast. Or maybe the aid rant.
So what does that have to do with New Zealand climbing? Not a lot. Chris did spend a formative ~9 months living and climbing in New Zealand and, as such, has some great stories to tell and some interesting insights into the New Zealand climbing scene in the 90's. But the main reason he appears as the 50th and final guest on the podcast is because he's the godfather of climbing podcasts and this whole endeavour has been a shameless ripoff of his show.
So sit back and enjoy Chris' silky voice and classic comic timing. Enjoy!PS. I hope that you enjoyed the podcast series.

Welcome to Episode 49 of the Ω Powerband Podcast - a podcast dedicated to rock climbing in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode, I speak with mathlete, engineer, runner, boulderer, tradster and alpinist Rose Pearson.
Rose hails from Dunedin. A few forays to the local climbing wall sparked an early interest in climbing but all climbing opportunities ceased when her family moved to Springfield, Illinois, USA when she was 11.
Returning to New Zealand after completing secondary school, Rose attended Canterbury University and completed an engineering degree (majoring in electrical engineering). While there, she combined her "deep love" of mathematics and physics with a growing passion for bouldering. The more problems to solve, the better!
Bouldering slowly gave way to trad climbing and then alpinism. Rose was part of the first wave of young climbers to join the New Zealand Alpine Team. Unlike the others, however, she managed to complete her menteeship while also completing a PhD at Cambridge University.
Rose has since gone on to accomplish many impressive climbs, including first ascents in the Southern Alps, Canada and Peru. Yet, those accomplishments very nearly did not happen following a serious accident Rose and her brother suffered while adventuring through the western flanks of the Southern Alps.
In our conversation, we cover all of that as well as Rose's thoughts on risk in the mountains, managing irrational and rational fear and making good decisions. And we discuss the value of climbing clubs and communities and the importance of the deep connections that can be made with other humans through climbing. Enjoy!

Welcome to Episode 48 of the Ω Powerband Podcast - a podcast dedicated to rock climbing in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode, I speak with the first woman to climb Mt Everest without supplemental oxygen, Lydia Bradey ONZM.
Lydia grew up in Christchurch and started her adventuring as a young teenager when she joined one of the local tramping clubs. She quickly developed a taste for tramps off the beaten track and above the bushline.
Tramping gave way to mountaineering (same same but different, she would say) and before you could blink she was climbing big aid lines in Yosemite and tackling 8000m peaks in the Himalaya. 
In 1988, following her (near solo) ascent of Mt Everest without supplemental oxygen, Lydia became embroiled in an unsavory controversy when fellow Kiwi climbers (who had been members of her expedition) called her ascent into question.
The immediate aftermath of that experience was extremely difficult for Lydia, as rumours, half-truths and lies swirled around the New Zealand climbing community and she was powerless to stop it. Happily, after 2 years of darkness, she reclaimed her place in the mountains.
These days, when she isn't guiding climbers or skiers in some far flung corner of the globe, you'll find her hanging out with her partner and her cat in the Lake Hāwea township or maybe enjoying a cheeky sport climb on the cliffs around Wānaka.
In our conversation, we chat about her origins, her love of tramping, her love of aid climbing and, of course, the whole Everest thing.
If you want to know more about Lydia or to buy her book, click here.
Enjoy!
 

Welcome to Episode 47 of the Ω Powerband Podcast - a podcast dedicated to rock climbing in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode, I speak with mountaineer, paraglider, caver, board gamer, mountain runner and rock climber, Mike McManaway.
Mike grew up (mostly) in Canterbury. As full time boarder at a very traditional boys school, he signed on for mountaineering mostly as a means of escape. But those early experiences planted the seed of adventure and, in one way or another, Mike has been chasing it ever since.
After the death of a climbing partner on Aspiring and then a brush with death himself in a crevasse, Mike put the crampons away in his early 20s and settled into a corporate career, with a bit of competitive backgammon on the side. Backgammon led to starting a small business selling board games and, eventually, inventing a board game himself:
The global success of Tantrix enabled Mike to enjoy a lifestyle of travel and adventure. At some point, paragliding became his obsession and he found himself competing internationally as part of the New Zealand team. He also set some flight distance records along the way. 
At some point, his partner Britta decided that they should both take up rock climbing. Mike was 40 years old at the time and was initially skeptical. But after seconding a climb at Cathedral Rock in Golden Bay, he caught the bug and, with now customary obsessiveness, committed himself utterly to climbing. 22 years later, he might just be starting to slow down. 
In our conversation, we chat about Mike's many obsessions but, perhaps more interestingly, about his philosophy for mind games, adventure and life. And we chat about his 350 attempts on Mea Culpa at Paines Ford. That's right, 350 attempts. Enjoy!

Welcome to Episode 46 of the Ω Powerband Podcast - a podcast dedicated to rock climbing in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode, I speak with inveterate climber, photographer, coffee drinker and one half of the senior management team at Unwin Lodge, Simon Middlemass.
"Simon is a middle-aged, semi-retired, semi-reclusive climber..." - at least that's how Simon is described in a guidebook to climbing in Golden Bay that he co-authored with Mark Watson back in 2003. These days, he might be slightly more middle-aged and slightly more retired but, fortunately for listeners of this venerable podcast, his level of reclusiveness was no barrier to getting him to sit down in front of a microphone and talk about himself. Twice.
Simon grew up in Otago. Secondary schooling at a couple of traditional boys schools confirmed that the mainstream (in the 1970s at least) was not the stream for Simon. He eventually found his tribe at the Otago University Tramping Club, despite professing to dislike tramping intensely. Climbing, on the other hand, quickly became Simon's thing and four decades later he's still very much a part of the New Zealand climbing world, even if his actual climbing output is modest these days.
In our conversation, we tour through some of the highlights of Simon's climbing and travels while he reflects on the way that climbing has shaped, and still shapes, his life. Enjoy!

Welcome to Episode 45 of the Ω Powerband Podcast - a podcast dedicated to rock climbing in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode, I speak with Manawatū's best rock climber, Scott Mooney.
Scott was born in Palmerston North but grew up (mostly) on the north shore of Auckland. Like many before him, Scott's first exposure to climbing was on a school trip to the short side at the Quarry. Where would New Zealand climbing (and, in Scott's case, Swedish climbing also) be without the Quarry? That's a rhetorical question but the answer is nowhere!
In the 1990s, Scott quickly became the best of Auckland's new generation of climbers. He had oodles of natural ability and strength but perhaps what set him apart the most was his insatiable appetite for ticks. Very quickly, Scott became a crag ticking machine, happily working his way through the local crags, move by move, climb by climb.
In the 2000s, Scott kicked things up a notch, moving to Sweden and getting stuck into the local granite crags and the best limestone that Europe has to offer. His ticklist from the last 15 years is staggering, with something like 500 29/8a routes, and several hundred routes between 31/8b and 34/8c+.
In our conversation, we chat about Scott's affection for the Quarry, about 90s climbing culture in Auckland and all that was good and bad with the local scene. We chat about Built To Last (Scott's famous test piece at Froggatt Edge/Waipari) and about never climbing 9a. We chat about bolting projects and stealing projects. And Scott reflects on recent changes to his drive to climb every route on the planet. Enjoy!
 
 
 

Welcome to Episode 44 of the Ω Powerband Podcast - a podcast dedicated to rock climbing in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode, I speak with rock climber, big waller, ice climber, whitewater canoeist and orienteerer, Rick McGregor.
Rick was born in Auckland in the 1950s and, as a young Auckland Grammar student, happened upon the opportunity to climb at the short side of the Quarry (now known as the crag that Auckland Grammar School closed because of ridiculous ideas about ridiculous health and safety laws). He quickly fell in love with climbing and fell in with the leading (only?) Auckland rock climbers of the day, including the famous Robbie McBirney.
As Rick tells it, it wasn't long before he and Robbie grew bored of the short side, whereupon they wandered around the corner to see whether the long side (hitherto used to practice the obscure and doomed art of aid climbing) to see whether there were free climbing opportunities. The rest is literally history, with Rick bagging many classic first ascents such as Bandersnatch 19, Thimblerigger 21 and his Quarry test piece, the cleverly named Perennial Pipedreams 26.  
Driven and productive would be two words to describe Rick and his approach to climbing. In a climbing "career" that spans more than 50 years, Rick has travelled and climbed extensively in New Zealand and abroad, including extended periods in Australia and Yosemite. He has lived in Sweden for the past 25 years but that hasn't stopped him making regular visits to the Shaky Isles. And it seems that he hasn't ever slowed down.
Besides the climbing, Rick found time to become an internationally competitive kayaker. As you do. He has also done "about 450 days" of ice climbing, competed internationally in orienteering and no doubt done many other things. Exhausted? Rick isn't. At 67 years young, he's still going strong.
Enjoy!

Welcome to Episode 43 of the Ω Powerband Podcast - a podcast dedicated to rock climbing in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode, I speak with father, businessman, alpinist, ice climber, rock climber and big waller, Daniel Joll.
Daniel is one of New Zealand's best all-round climbers. From the Hawke's Bay to the Himalaya via Whanganui Bay, the Blueys, Patagonia, Yosemite and the Darrans, he has climbed more hard pitches and rapped off more V threads than you've had hot dinners.
Perhaps best known for his role in establishing the New Zealand Alpine Team or for being part of a team of 3 that claimed the first repeat of the infamous west face/rib on Changabang in the Garhwal Himalaya, Daniel has also climbed 8a sport routes in Europe, established grade 28 multipitch routes ground up in the Darrans and freed El Capitan in Yosemite (one of only 3 New Zealand climbers to do so). In short, his résumé is deep and impressive. And yet you probably didn't know that because Dan prefers to let his climbs do the talking....until the Powerband Podcast twisted his arm, that is.
In our conversation, I try to get to the bottom of who Dan Joll is as a person and as a climber and what makes him tick. I'll let you decide how well it went. Enjoy!

Welcome to Episode 42 of the Ω Powerband Podcast - a podcast dedicated to rock climbing in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode, I speak with the one of the finest climbers ever to escape from the Manawatū, Mike Rockell.
Born in Waiouru, Mike went to school and university in Palmerston North. He was an adventurous youth, who quickly developed a keen interest in mountaineering and rock climbing. After some top roping on the vertical dirt cliffs that flank Pork Chop Hill near the Manawatū river, Mike's interest in the mountains quickly gave way to an interest in (solid) cliffs and soon Mike was flying north on his motorcycle heading for Whanganui Bay. And, more or less, the rest is history.
In our conversation, we chat about Mike's early years as a climber, his days at the Bay and Paines and Baring Head and about some of his classic first ascents such as Bizarete and Fawlty Towers. Mike reflects on his place in New Zealand climbing history and on the many ways in which the climbing scene has changed since he first tied in. He shares some stories about his travels to Yosemite and the Verdon and we even get 'deep and meaningful' on climbing ethics, retrobolting and the value of risk.
Enjoy!

Welcome to Episode 41 of the Ω Powerband Podcast - a podcast dedicated to rock climbing in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode, I speak with the most internationally famous Kiwi rock climber of all time, Mayan Smith-Gobat.
Mayan needs no introduction. In her prime, Mayan was one of world's leading female adventure and big wall climbers. And her sport climbing game wasn't half bad either. From freeing the Salathe on El Capitan, to the first female ascent of Punks In The Gym at Arapiles, to nearly the first full free ascent of Riders On The Storm on Torre Central, to a speed record on The Nose, Mayan's climbing resumé is impressive by any measure. She has been on the cover of Rock & Ice magazine, been fully sponsored by Adidas and she even has her own Wikipedia page. How cool is that?
Mayan grew up in the shadow of Aoraki Mt Cook and climbing and adventure were in her blood. However, it wasn't until Mayan suffered a jaw-shattering accident while extreme skiing that her passion for rock climbing emerged. Mayan was a natural and she had all the attributes necessary to climb at a very high level: she was athletic, adventurous and single-minded.
In our conversation, we cover the formative years that Mayan spent climbing in New Zealand, we talk about the long, winding path to becoming a professional rock climber, we discuss the good, the bad and the ugly sides of being paid to climb, and we go deep as Mayan reflects on what has she learnt along the way - about climbing, about life and about her body and about herself.
Enjoy!