Ground Up 18: The Sandstone School of Rock with Professor Joel Brady

Whether you know him as the Vampire Professor, the Banjo Man, or the founding president of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Climbers Coalition (SWPACC), you know that Joel Brady has the undeniable ability to crush nails hard rock climbs. Coming to us live from the Keystone State, Joel recalls his early days competing against legends like Chris Sharma, Dave Graham, and Tommy Caldwell in some of America's first major climbing competitions. We then get into some of his milestone contributions to the sport that have come from more than two decades of establishing and sending some of the Southeast’s hardest routes. Among them are Still Life, a benchmark 5.14b at Summersville Lake in the New River Gorge, which he first ascended at just 18 years old, and Green Magic in the Hills, a recently realized dead-vertical 5.14b at Seneca Rocks that Joel describes as his magnum opus.