u/Brox_Rocks

Hey everyone! I had the unique opportunity to sit down in person with Mark Hudon in his apartment in Reno. Mark popped onto my radar during the boom of media coverage surrounding Mark and Jordan's ascent of the Salathé Wall and the accompanying film "Free As Can Be". After some more research I was absolutely blown away at how accomplished of a climber Mark is and how impactful he was during the sports transition into big wall free climbing. I am stoked to share this "trailer" of our conversation and hope it inspires you to watch the whole conversation.

You can watch it HERE

OR Listen to it HERE

Here is some more information about Mark Hudon and our conversation:

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Mark Hudon is a Yosemite legend whose work in the late 1970s and early 1980s helped push big wall climbing into a new free climbing era. Often partnered with the equally groundbreaking Max Jones, Mark became known for his bold, ground-up style—blending meticulous preparation with a willingness to test the limits of free climbing on terrain that had previously only been aided. Few climbers have shaped as many eras of the sport as Mark Hudon.

Mark was born three years before El Capitan was first climbed. That kind of historical proximity gives him a perspective on climbing's evolution that almost nobody else alive can offer—and that's exactly where this conversation starts. We dig into what the lives of Royal Robbins and Warren Harding actually represented, why their conflict mirrors the tensions we still see in climbing today, and why Mark thinks ego is at the root of most of it.

We talk about how ego in climbing has evolved—for the sport and for Mark personally—why partnerships have been the single most important element of his climbing life, and what it actually looks like to build a life around climbing without letting climbing become your entire identity. Mark built a coffee roasting company from scratch, lived in a van for ten years, spent winters in Baja, and at 70 years old remains fit, healthy, and largely injury free. He values experiences over trophies and partnerships over pride.

We also explore his remarkable relationship with Jordan Cannon—how they met, what they gave each other, and why Mark considers Jordan as close as family. And we close out talking about Mark's recent pivot to public speaking and his desire to help people acquire more agency over their own lives—a philosophy that, it turns out, he's been living since he was a teenager in New Hampshire learning to climb on granite.

Hey everyone, I decided I should take a little more of a personal approach with the community when posting these. My name is Kyle Broxterman the creator behind The Climbing Majority Podcast.

I had a chance to sit down with Brent Barghahn early last week in my home studio in Las Vegas NV. Ever since 2024 Avant Climbing Innovations' products and videos starting popping up in my feed and on the racks of people I climbed with. I know for the LRS and TRS community Brent is a leader in helping make those systems safer and more efficient. I had Brent on my radar for several months before he reached out and suggested a conversation.

Stoked to share this conversation with the community and hope you all get as much out of it as I did.

You can watch the full conversation HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgyD_XGKqAs

More info:

Brent Barghahn is a tinkerer first and a climber second and understanding that order tells you a lot about him. Since he was a child Brent saw the world through the lens of design, building gadgets to solve the problems he found along the way. He even had a charge account at his local hardware store that was funded by his parents. That same instinct to build, solve, and design has followed him through his life. He spent five years at Black Diamond as a product designer where he helped shape the equipment that we use every time we climb, with one of his highlight contributions being the trigger keeper we now see on large C4 cams.

While Brent lived in his van in the Black Diamond employee parking lot, he spent all his free time climbing and managed to tick his way into the elite tier of climbing athletes. With accomplishments like rope solo NIAD, an onsight of Ecstasy, and ground up Golden Gate. This conversation goes deep on what it actually means to approach climbing as a maker rather than just a performer. Brent talks about onsight threshold climbing, his term for the style of climbing he values most and why he thinks redpointing has become a party trick that the media celebrates at the expense of something he feels to be more meaningful.

We talk about the Flip-Stop—the product that started Avant—which was born from a frustrating session on Cobra Crack. Brent explains why he built Avant as a hobby business on purpose, why he describes his twelve-product lineup as solving problems that big brands ignore and the four words he uses to describe why he climbs: puzzles, community, solitude, and toil.

Brent is one of those rare people who exists at the edge of the elite climbing community without being a professional climber by his own definition and he's made peace with that in a way that feels on purpose rather than resigned.

Steph's detailed route topos, trip reports, and beta overlays appear all over the internet covering climbs from the North Cascades to Red Rocks. For nearly 20 years, she's been quietly building one of the most comprehensive free climbing resources on the internet—not for profit, not for sponsorship, but because she genuinely loves documenting routes and helping people have better days in the mountains. She's what the climbing community needs more of: someone creating value without asking for anything in return.

This is Steph's second time on the show. Three years ago, she had just landed a data science job and bought a house in Estes Park. Now she's unemployed, living in a Transit van, and writing a book of her favorite climbs across North America. What happened in between is a story about rejection, redirection, and choosing passion over security—even when it doesn't make financial sense.

Watch the full conversation HERE

OR Listen to it HERE

Steph Abegg's detailed route topos, trip reports, and beta overlays appear all over the internet covering climbs from the North Cascades to Red Rocks. For nearly 20 years, she's been quietly building one of the most comprehensive free climbing resources on the internet—not for profit, not for sponsorship, but because she genuinely loves documenting routes and helping people have better days in the mountains. She's what the climbing community needs more of: someone creating value without asking for anything in return.

This is Steph's second time on the show. Three years ago, she had just landed a data science job and bought a house in Estes Park. Now she's unemployed, living in a Transit van, and writing a book of her favorite climbs across North America. What happened in between is a story about rejection, redirection, and choosing passion over security—even when it doesn't make financial sense.