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What's a training staple of every rock climber who wants to get stronger and also avoid the dreaded pulley injury?
Hangboards and Fingerboards of course.
And who is the person you want to talk to about these crucial pieces of gear? Power Company Climbing's Kris Hampton!
Today Kris joins Colin to talk about about why Tension Climbing and Fingers Of Fury are making some of the best hang and finger boards out there.
And while they chat, Kris insisted that stout training requires a stout beer so he brought a can of Snake River Brewing Zonker Stout while Colin opens a can of Absolution Brewing Oat La La Oatmeal Stout.
Get out there and get strong everyone!
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Full Transcript
Colin (00:01):
Welcome to Gear and Beer, the podcast for Gearheads beer buffs and adventurers with discerning tastes. The latest edition to the Rock Flight Podcast Network. I'm Colin True and I work for brands and makers in the outdoor industry over the past 20 years. And this is the part where Justin Hausman would normally list his many qualifications to be co-hosting a gear and beer focused podcast. But he's a working journalist and he's on the road this week, so I can say whatever I want about him, but I'm not going to, I'm going to take the high road because today we literally take the high road. We're dipping into the world of climbing training, specifically the world of fingerboards and hang boards. And even more specifically, we'll be talking about products from tension climbing and the Baby boss from Fingers of Fury on the beer front, today is Stout Day and our guest is going to explain why it is Stout Day and let's talk about our guest. And if we're talking about training for rock climbing, there's one place you need to go, and that's power company climbing. And if you go to power Company, that means you're going to talk to Chris Hampton and that's who's joining myself. And it's supposed to be producer Dave, no one else showed up today, man. It's just you and me. Our producer's gone. Justin's gone. Welcome to the show, Chris.
Kris (01:05):
Well, I'm glad at least two of us are on top of it. And I've said this in the past, and I'll say it probably every episode I'm ever on, but I love your podcast voice. I love, I love the enthusiasm, the announcer ness of it.
Colin (01:21):
I should have hosted prices, right or something. Let's just just be real. There was a game show out. There
Kris (01:25):
You are. Bob Barker of outdoor podcasts,
Colin (01:28):
Bob Barker. What a legend that guy was. How many sick? We're just talking about before we press record, how sick we've been over the last year. How many sick days when I was a kid watching the prices, right at like 11:00 AM on a Tuesday morning?
Kris (01:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
Colin (01:44):
Well listen, before we get to the gear or the beer, we have a couple of housekeeping items for our gear and beer listeners, please be sure to follow and rake gear and beer wherever you are listening. And if Apple Podcast is your preferred podcast app, leave us a written review. And if you send a screenshot of that review to my rock fight@gmail.com, we'll send you a gear and beer and a rock fight sticker and send us an email. Send your emails. We want to hear from you. What gear do you want to have featured? What be do you want to have featured? Send your emails to my rock fight@gmail.com. So let's stop beating around the bush here. This thing's starting to get warm. Let's get into today's episode by cracking open a beer with our cone, who's Justin out of the office? And Chris, you're our special guest today. What beer did you choose, or at least what style of beer did you choose to pair with? Hang boards and fingerboards?
Kris (02:31):
I have Aker Stout from Snake River Brewing who are in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, just down the road from me. And I chose Stout simply because we're talking about finger strength training and it just seems like a, if you want to climb stout things, you have to have strong fingers. We have the data to back that up from over 800 climbers and it says finger strength is one of the top attributes you need. So if you want to climb stout things, you need finger strength. We're going with stouts today.
Colin (03:09):
I almost went chalk and literally got a Guinness. I went into my local beer store and they didn't have a ton of stouts and I was going to be mad. I know Justin would've been mad at me. We were saving our Guinness for obviously a more St. Patrick's Day focused episode of Ke Beer, but I managed to find an absolution brewing, which apparently is up in Torrance, California, the oat la la, which is a oatmeal stout. There's the artwork there. I don't know what's going on with the fingers on the can, but it looks
Kris (03:36):
Pretty cool. Gang signs of some sort,
Colin (03:38):
So I know, right? But I've never had this beer before. We're going to see how it is. I love it. We've not done a stout yet here on gear and beer is our first stout. So wait, did you already open yours?
Kris (03:47):
I did.
Colin (03:48):
Sorry. You open 'em together, buddy.
Kris (03:49):
You're not supposed to. All right. That's
Colin (03:50):
Okay. It's You're going to get one crack excited. They're going to crack mine open. Here we go. Oh, there it is. All right. How's yours? It Have you had this beer before?
Kris (04:01):
Yes, I have. It's been a while though. And I went looking specifically for a stout, and this was the one that jumped out to me. Oh, that
Colin (04:10):
Taste
Kris (04:10):
Pretty immediately. So we're
Colin (04:12):
Recording this one. Is it August 13th and it's pretty warm. I'm not sure how it is up in Wyoming. So pretty toasty out there. It's
Kris (04:19):
Pretty warm. Yeah.
Colin (04:20):
This tastes kind of like a January beer if I'm being honest. Yeah,
Kris (04:24):
And that's the thing, that's another one of the reasons for me, hang boarding in the summer feels a little hard, a stout.
Colin (04:34):
I should be outside a
Kris (04:35):
Little tough a little. And frankly, I think my beer fits it really well because it's got a little bit of a bitter aftertaste. It's got a little hoppy flavor in it, which is strange for a stout. It's really creamy in the beginning and then it's a little bitter. And I'm definitely bitter about finger strength training in the summer.
Colin (04:58):
So we've talked about it when you've been on the rock fight. So we talk about climbing kind of culture and stuff like that when there's there. I dunno, so much of outdoor, especially human powered outdoor culture, you do extend to like, oh, the beer's in the trailhead and afterwards having a beer after you run or ride or whatever. Is there a beer culture scene to climbing are climbers too? I'm in tune with my body. I will not put those toxins in my body. Does the yoga scene extend to climbing or is climbing have its own beer scene?
Kris (05:26):
No, I think climbers are very, I don't put anything negative in my body except for beer.
Colin (05:34):
There you go.
Kris (05:35):
I think that's pretty much the way it goes. We've convinced ourselves that it's carbs and we need it after a long day climbing, and that's that
Colin (05:43):
I'm going to defend carbs. I think that I still haven't seen the whole movie, but I saw that clip from the movie, the Fall guy that came out this summer where Ryan Gosling's yelling at Aaron ler Johnson, you need carbs, your brain runs on glucose. I'm like, yes, thank you. Totally eat a sandwich. It's okay.
Kris (05:59):
Yeah, and I don't drink a lot anymore. Neither do I. It's just not a thing. Maybe I just stay home too often. I'll drink socially here and there. Yeah, same. But I don't choose it very often anymore. I think I'm just too busy two at home.
Colin (06:16):
Alright, Chris. Well, here's the situation. Let's just say for argument's sake that I've just discovered climbing and I love climbing now inside, outside, whatever, wherever I just want to do it. I love the movement and the activity and the challenge. I've heard other climbers talking about hang boards and fingerboards. I've seen some of those products in my local climbing gym, but I'm not super familiar. They're a little intimidating. So for aspiring or non climbers, why do you start using fingerboards or hang boards and why are you bitter about it in the summertime?
Kris (06:45):
Well, I'm bitter about it in the summer because we can climb outside year round here and I'd much rather be outside climbing. So to force me to go in and train when there are so many hours of sunshine outside and I can go up high in the alpine and it's really nice, that makes me a little bitter. But if you're a beginner climber, frankly most people probably start hang boarding just because they see everyone else doing it and talking about how good it is. I don't think that's a good enough reason per se. I think that you can still gain a lot of finger strength just through climbing, like bumbling your way through learning to climb initially you're going to gain finger strength anyway, however, climbing is a little less controlled than just hanging on an edge is, and you can build up your finger strength.
(07:40):
So I think especially older adults who are starting to climb for the first time can really benefit from it. People who don't have access to climbing as soon as they're starting and they only get to really climb one day a month or something, or two days a month, something like that, they could really benefit from using a hang board or some sort of finger strength tool or you just hang on an edge with your body weight or with added weight and gradually progress that load so that you're gaining finger strength that's more controlled. There used to be a myth that it was more dangerous because people just thought working out was dangerous or something, I don't know. But it's just like any other exercise, it's a more controlled way to gain strength than going climbing. So it's safer than climbing in most regards.
Colin (08:33):
Do we know, you think about your hands and your fingers and there are obviously muscles and tendons and things in there, but I mean it sound like you can bulk up your hands. Is there almost a science behind it in terms of how would strength, is it different than strengthening the muscles in other parts of your body in terms of how, because even imagine, even if you are using irregularity, it could still result in some injury in your fingers depending on what you do.
Kris (08:58):
Yeah, totally. Yeah. So when it comes to, there's a couple of different things going on. There is quite a bit of research and more coming, but your fingers are mostly tendon and the muscles that we're strengthening are in the forearms. So those tendons in your fingers can go down through your hand and into your forearm and connect to these big forearm muscles. So you're strengthening those by training your fingers, but you're also building up more dense tendons and pulleys in your fingers. And the pulleys are just a tissue that holds your tendon to your bone so that you can bend your fingers essentially. And you're building more density in those, so more capacity to be able to handle what you're doing to them while climbing.
Colin (09:46):
As little as I've climbed, I have had a pulley injury in my finger, which I got at the climbing gym and didn't really know what happened the moment that it happened, I knew I did something you do, it's a bizarre and not incredibly painful at the onset of it. It becomes really sore after a while, but you just feel it's like this slow release. It's almost like a deflating balloon in your finger in a way. It wasn't a quick pow it was and it was this immediate kind of throb and then all of a sudden I'm like, well, I can't move my finger kind of the way that I could before. And then you start looking on the internet, I realize what I did and it took a while to heal too. So I mean the pulley thing is real for sure. I mean, is that the number one thing you're trying to prevent when you're using some of these products?
Kris (10:29):
You know what I would say the number one thing you're trying to do is strengthen your ability to resist your hand opening. But then certainly injury prevention is a big part of it. The stronger you are, the less susceptible you are to getting injured. So with your fingers being the only contact to the rock, your fingers and your toes, you want your fingers to be as strong as possible, to resist injury and to be able to do difficult climbs.
Colin (10:57):
Nothing is ever a hundred percent preventable. But when you are using these tools and where you get into them in a second here regularly and you're using 'em correctly, and let's say you're training with a company with a coach like yourself or a company that you own, do you get to the point where the confidence is high? If you take on a big challenge where it's like, okay, that pulley injury shouldn't happen, those kind of forearm injuries, that should not happen again, freak things can happen, but you can strengthen to the point where you're like, okay, I'm ready for. Is that part of the mental thing when it comes to climbing a big project that you have strengthened and prepared
Kris (11:32):
Appropriately? Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. And the place where I live land, Wyoming is known for really small little pockets. So pretty often I would say almost every rock climb I've done in the past year has had at least one what we call mono, which is a single finger pocket. So you only get this much of your finger, just one joint of one finger into a pocket and that's your only contact for a hand for that move. Yeah. So knowing that I've prepared my fingers going into that situation is a really huge help. Knowing that it's unlikely I'm going to get injured. Usually you can tell if you've been climbing a while, you start to know your fingers pretty well and know when little tweaks are starting to happen and you can back off if you're smart and just move on to something else or find a different sequence or something and then continue building the strengthen your fingers off the wall.
Colin (12:35):
So let's talk about the actual products that you wanted to shout out and really highlight today. So first one was tension climbing hang boards. So that was the brand, you call them the best of the business. Why is that?
Kris (12:46):
They put so much thought into what they do. I'm a firm believer that you don't have to have any special tools to get stronger. Just a strip of wood is fine. Hanging on your door jam if your door jamb is strong enough is fine. Probably my favorite hang board I own is one that I made years ago and I still have it in my gym and it just has three strips of wood of different depths on it and it's just a really simple, easy tool to use. So you don't have to have any special kind of hang board, but tension who are based in Denver, they put so much thought into the size edges that they include into the design of their hang boards, into how they feel when you're holding them. The radius of the hold that you're putting your fingers on can be really sharp and then it's uncomfortable to train on, so you're going to do less or you're going to really screw your skin up in the process.
(13:50):
And skin having good skin is important for doing hard climbs. So they think about all of these things and make sure that they've built them into their products. And I would say my favorites of theirs are probably their two most recent and they're sort of a beginner to intermediate and then intermediate to advanced hang board. And those are the wet stone and the hone stone. And then one of their older hang boards, the grindstone MK two might be my favorite of the whole bunch, but they all have slightly different features that you can buy to fit you whatever it is you are looking for.
Colin (14:29):
What are the prices of these things? I know you said you made some on your own, but if you just wanted to go buy one of these from tension, what they typically run?
Kris (14:37):
You know what? I don't know. Let's check it out. I'm betting that attention, like a hone stone will probably run you close to a hundred some dollars.
Colin (14:48):
Let's see.
Kris (14:48):
I really have no idea. What
Colin (14:49):
Was the one you liked?
Kris (14:51):
I like the hone stone or the grindstone MK two,
Colin (14:54):
Hone stone $170 and 90 cents.
Kris (14:57):
Okay. Yeah,
Colin (14:58):
That's a
Kris (14:58):
Littley. That makes sense. That makes sense.
Colin (15:01):
It's a but it's also okay, it is spendy. When we start thinking about, and we talk a lot on the show about what we call our stuff ome and the idea of something might be good, but how is it represented as a category in the marketplace? And I got to think that there's probably not a ton of companies like tension climbing hang boards and that also if you spend 170 bucks on one of their products, when are you going to replace it?
Kris (15:25):
That's the thing. I still have tension hang boards that I bought. Well I have 16 hang boards here available in my gym and I think I have three or four still in storage in Cincinnati at my daughter's house. So I have way too many, but I have tension hang boards that I've had for a decade at this point. So you certainly don't have to replace them anytime soon. Why
Colin (15:46):
Would you get more? Why do you need more than one?
Kris (15:49):
Well, a lot of people use my gym and companies will send them to me to sort of review and give feedback on Tension often sends me boards to give feedback on before they get to their final
Colin (16:00):
Product. You get more because you're you. Yeah. Most climbers just get one and they're good.
Kris (16:06):
Yeah, I wouldn't buy as many as I have though. I would probably collect some just to see what I like that's coming out
Colin (16:13):
Before we move to the next product. How's your beer? I can give you time to have a sip. I've been making you talk. Have a sip of
Kris (16:18):
Your beer. It's good. I've had a couple sips, but I'm also headed out to finish bolting a root as soon as this is over, so I'm not going to overdo it
Colin (16:26):
On When is liquid courage not worked out? Let's just,
Kris (16:30):
When you're hanging way up on a rope with a hammer drill, that's when it doesn't work out. You're going to
Colin (16:34):
Feel so loose up there. You're just going to be placing bolts everywhere. Yeah,
Kris (16:38):
Probably.
Colin (16:40):
Clearly you're not going to be on national land because we know now you have to get special.
Kris (16:44):
Oh my gosh, let's not even talk about that.
Colin (16:47):
I haven't heard any follow-ups on that since that big thing happened earlier this year. I wonder what's going on
Kris (16:51):
With it. Yeah, I don't know what the situation is right now. Yeah.
Colin (16:55):
Alright, so the other thing you want to talk about is from a brand, and I fucking love this brand, fingers of Fury, which might be the best brand name of all time. It also was probably the name of a nineties porno. I just saw that. I'm like, oh my God, incredible name. So I want to know more about the brand if you know anything about them, but you want to talk about the baby boss, which I just looked it up. It's only 50 bucks. So if you're listening to this and you're interested in this category, maybe the baby boss is the place to start based on price alone. But I'll let Chris to tell us what we should know about one the brand and two, the baby boss.
Kris (17:26):
Yeah, so first the brand, it's run by a guy named Carmelo. He's the only guy there, just a brand new brand. Just started recently. He's used our services quite a bit and done some workshops that we've done and it's just also a really thoughtful guy about what he's making. And I believe he's a machinist. I might be getting that wrong by trade. And he just took a look at the current market of hang boards and finger training devices and decided maybe we're not doing this the best way we can. And what he creates in particular are these finger lifting tools. And so there's a couple of different ways to train your fingers. The traditional way is to hang on a board. It looks a little more like climbing. You're getting your shoulders involved, your arms are overhead, but if you want to isolate the fingers a little more, you can lift weight off the ground using an edge or a device that puts your fingers into the same position as when you're climbing.
(18:35):
And that's what Fingers of Fury makes are these lifting devices. And we've had quite a few of those come out on the market. Tension makes a great one actually, but almost everyone makes them out of wood. And what happens with the wood is number one, if you're really strong, the wood can break. If it's a small enough edge, the wood might break. I'm not that strong, so I'm not worried about that. But what does happen for me with the wood is you have to have a big sling off of the wood. So they usually come with some sort of sling that then makes for longer length. And when you're attaching it to weights, particularly a loading pin or a kettlebell or whatever you've got that you're attaching it to, it makes for this long length. So you'll often see images or videos of people on Instagram standing on benches or something so that they're high enough above the ground that they can lift this thing up. So they're
Colin (19:37):
Using the fingerboard to actually pull, yeah, it's doing typically kettlebell or dumbbell workouts, but with a fingerboard. And so you're getting the benefit and the strength in your hands we just talked about on the hang boards, but now you're doing it as part of a more integrated workout. Is that kind of how they're doing it
Kris (19:54):
Essentially and because of this length that it has to have for a sling off of the wood that's attached to multiple points of the wood, there's this long length and it makes for a hard setup because you have to stand way above it because of all this extra length, and I've got so many knotted slings and trying to get the right length with all these long slings, but what he did is he made an aluminum one. I've got one here that you can see. So there's not that long sling, it can just have an eye in it, just a hole.
Colin (20:26):
You got a carabiner hanging up from drill hole and I'll link to it so everybody can see it if you're not sure what they look like,
Kris (20:32):
And I can just clip this directly to a loading pin and it makes the setup so much simpler, so much easier. And for me, I love it when a company interrogates the way hell yeah, that you've been doing things if you're just doing it the old way, because traditionally that's how we've done it. I'm not that interested just
Colin (20:52):
Because that's the way we do it, that's the way we do things. If that's the answer to your question, there's probably a problem.
Kris (20:59):
Yeah, totally. So Carmelo really thought it through and he said, Hey, I know how to use this other material that's stronger. It's almost as light, it's not going to break. It doesn't require this big long sling to be attached to it. You can adjust it for whatever you want. Makes it way simpler. And he made these things and he's got a whole variety of things. I have the baby boss and the Zod and a few of his other tools, but I really like the baby boss. It's just a simple flat forefinger edge.
Colin (21:34):
So going back to that initial thing of maybe someone who's just starting to get to that point in their climbing journey or they want to implement some of these tools. So if ideally the setup is hang boarded on the wall, kind of the traditional thing, the hanging like you said, and then really using the fingerboard. Are the fingerboards more in sort of that dynamic off the ground, like lifting kind of motion? Is that typically where you tend to use 'em, almost like attaching weight to the bottom and bringing 'em up? Or can you also use 'em from a hanging point of view as well?
Kris (22:03):
Yeah, you can hang on these as well if you attach 'em to something. Yeah, generally, so hang boards and fingerboards are kind of the same thing. Those are the things you'll hang on that are generally attached to a wall or attached to a box in the gym or something that's up above you. Yeah, you'll hang from those. These, some people call them no hang devices, some people call them finger lifting. You can call it whatever you want, but it's just a totally separate portable device that you can use. They're great for warming up at the cliff if the warmups that are nearby, don't get your fingers ready for your hard project. These are really fantastic to just bring with a, I use a big monster band or something, a heavy duty rubber band that I pull on it with just to get some pull back on my fingers.
(22:58):
And they're great for that. I do both. I hang board and I use these lifting devices. The lifting devices are a little easier to keep track of the weight that you're hanging if you're hanging from a thing. You also have to keep track of what your body weight is that day, plus the weight that you're adding to it. With this, you just pick up the amount of weight you're picking up and you know exactly what it is. So it's a little simpler I think of a setup. And it works in with my sessions better. If I'm lifting weights, I can just have my lifting pin set up with weights on it and I can just, after each set, I can go lift whatever it is that I'm lifting with my fingers.
Colin (23:44):
Are the use of these products, is that almost like a demarcation line in the climbing journey? I do think about even when I'm climbing in our rock climbing gym regularly, you and I have talked about, again, over on the rock fight, it's not something, I'm not really, I don't have outdoor aspirations. I do like to go climbing, but then you kind of get to that point where the holds, you get to this point where there's a level of discomfort, not necessarily an exposure, discomfort, but in that arm and that hand strength discomfort where those little slope, those little nubby holds that are like, or even you're saying the one finger things where it's not just like, oh, this is challenging from a physicality point, but I am really, my hand hurts and this does not feel comfortable. And if I have to put too much, if I spend any time here, I know I'm going to fall. And is that kind of the progression where you get to where then like, hey, this is where you really need to start using these types of products to get over that hump? Because I selfishly personally, it's just been that, yeah, I don't like the way this feels. I'm going to go back down a level where I'm a little more comfortable. You know what I mean?
Kris (24:45):
Yeah, I think so. There's kind of two layers of what you're talking about and I think one of those layers, if it's a climber listening, like a hardcore rock climber who's listening, I think they may miss mistake some of what you're saying. So if you go to a commercial climbing gym, most of the holds are pretty comfortable. They're rounded and really nice to grab. I mean, that's part of the appeal. And if you go outside and go climbing, oftentimes the holds are going to be a lot more painful. They're going to be sharp. Sometimes they're just going to not be pleasant to grab at all.
(25:27):
And I think that's, commercial gyms I think do a disservice to outdoor climbers in that regard. They don't prepare them for that very well, but that's not necessarily how they make money. So of course they're not going to do that. These tools, I would say are more for the sake of strengthening your fingers, your finger flexors, your forearms. And there is certainly a level of, I'm grabbing this hold, this hold is really difficult to hold and that can be really uncomfortable. So yes, they're going to give you more confidence in those scenarios if you're training your finger strength. And like I said before, I'm a proponent of you can train your finger strength in a million different ways. This is just a really simple, really elegant solution to doing it.
Colin (26:21):
So last question, and I'm going to get a little catty. You're at the climbing gym and you see someone over where there's always that one corner that has all the fingerboards and hang boards and stuff on it,
Kris (26:31):
Right? Yeah. It's dusty dark.
Colin (26:32):
Yeah, right. It just does this chalk everywhere. There's a pull up bar, some kettlebells and 62 different hang boards.
Kris (26:40):
You just described my gym. Yeah,
Colin (26:41):
Exactly. So can you tell who's a poser and who's never done this before and the people who are really like, no, no, you could tell they train on these things.
Kris (26:52):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Colin (26:56):
The guy who's there with this girl, my mine's right by a college right climbing gym. And you can just tell the guy who's there with the girl, they're on a date, the rock gym, he's like, oh, hold on, I got to warm up on my fingerboard.
Kris (27:07):
Oh yeah, that guy's leaving with a pulley injury for sure. Yeah, I think these sorts of tools sort of invite party tricks, especially Jim Bros, to do party tricks. So if you see somebody over there who doesn't have some sort of a timer on their phone or something that they're paying attention to and they've probably got earbuds in or AirPods or whatever they're called these days and they're focused, that person's probably serious. The person who's over there doing party tricks and there's three girls standing there watching because those are because
Colin (27:52):
They're waiting to go actually climb. Yeah,
Kris (27:54):
Exactly.
Colin (27:55):
Hurry up moron.
Kris (27:56):
That guy is the poser who's going to leave with an injury
Colin (28:01):
And it's 62 degrees in the gym and he's already pulled his shirt off.
Kris (28:04):
Oh yeah, his shirt was probably off before he got out of the lobby.
Colin (28:07):
He left it in the car. Alright. The lesson as always, don't be that guy.
Kris (28:15):
Yeah, totally. Don't be that guy, but do be the guy like Carmelo who is constantly questioning things. Yeah, tension climbing is constantly questioning, is this the way we should be doing it and trying to improve. And I think that should go for all outdoor all products really. I agree. Since we are outdoor people, you should just constantly question it.
Colin (28:41):
That's the whole point. And when we talk about this stuff is it's a weird kind of almost paradox where we do love outdoor gear and we like talking about it and it's kind of the business of going outside. A lot of times it's rooted in commerce but then there's always the downside of making things and we make too much stuff and all that. I like this category because it's like, I don't know if you have one of these, what is your motivation to go? You're not going to overindulge and get a ton of them unless you're a coach like yourself and you need them. And it's like how many people can actually play in this? What's
Kris (29:12):
That? I said, I don't need them either. I just indulge. Well, but
Colin (29:16):
You have a real reason. Or if you're someone like Carmelo who's like, Hey, I'm going to make something better, which is the heritage of the outdoor space. It's like it's innovation to solve a problem. And the best. I also
Kris (29:27):
Love, I love the small business entrepreneur attitude as well. That's how I started. How so many of the people I look up to in this industry started with just like, let me solve a problem. Let me then try to sell it. I don't know how I'm going to even reach people to sell this thing, but let me see what I can do. And now it's cool. He has to let people know I'm dropping new things tomorrow because they're going to be sold out and hour two. That's so cool.
Colin (30:00):
Also, Carmelo, if you're listening Fingers of Fury, it's the best. I hope he has merch on his website. I'm absolutely going to buy a fingers of Fury, t-shirt, Carmelo, you're my hero. Sorry. Attention climbing hanging boards. You guys are cool too. But I'm sorry, fingers of Fury wins.
Kris (30:18):
Yeah, good job Carmelo. I appreciate what you're doing.
Colin (30:22):
Alright man, we can wrap it up there. Chris, what's happening at Power Company Climbing? I know you're in pre-production, you've got a bunch of podcasts you host what's going on in your world buddy?
Kris (30:31):
Working on season two of Written in Stone, which is our history podcast. I really excited. We're getting into the 1980s, so we're going backwards in time and this season I'll get to talk to some of the folks who I told stories about in the previous season. Oh, that's cool. Which is going to be really fun to talk about who inspired them essentially. And I just speaking of interrogating how we've always done things, I just put out a course that sort of reimagines how we discuss and teach movement to climbers, just examines the language that we use and how we can do it better and sort of tries to create a categorization that's at the foundations of climbing movement.
Colin (31:22):
And make sure you check out what's going on in power company climbing, sign up for Chris's newsletter. Like I said, I'm not a big climber, but I'm always intrigued by the climbing world and your newsletter comes out just once a month and there's always interesting stuff in there as well. So I'll give you a plug on that, man. Definitely get other folks to hopefully sign up for that.
Kris (31:37):
Thanks man, I appreciate it.
Colin (31:39):
Well that's the show for today. Gear and beers of production of Rock Fight LLC. Our producer today was not David Karta. He didn't show up, but our direction was still provided by Sarah Genser. I'm Colin. True and big thanks to our guest today, Chris Hampton and here to take us out, the voice of the Rock Fight podcast network it's Krista makes. He's going to perform for you now, the gear and beer theme song and we'll see you next time.
Chris DeMakes (32:07):
We have experience, lot of tails to tell. Just like you're with your pals out on the trail, we review outdoor adventure gear Hart with the perfect beer. Now let the games begin. So glad that you're here at the Break. The trail, we crack by beverage where losses we line.