Ground Up 27: 24HHH Veterans Leather & Lace

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Dick and Natalie
in anyway, but I put the word in for her. So she said, let me design a sea shirt for you. So the full color version of this was our shirt one year.

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Dick and Natalie
And then the next year, they took that same graphic and made it for everybody. And people were saying, what is that? What is that? And if you look real close, one has long eyelashes. That's Natalie. and

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Robert
Oh, nice.

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Ari Grode
ah

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Robert
OK, nice.

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Dick and Natalie
And if you look really close, there's lions because our theme was unicorns in a field of lions.

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Robert
okay

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Ari Grode
ah

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Dick and Natalie
So there's all these little lions and we're dominating them.

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Robert
nice

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Dick and Natalie
there Well, the funny thing about that was also that we had this t-shirt that was like, we're unicorns in a field of lions. And everyone else was like, that's cool.

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Dick and Natalie
Can we get that too? And we're like, no. Unicorns are unique. I mean, how you know, then we'd be a unicorn in a field of unicorns.

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Dick and Natalie
Makes sense. but then next year everybody got one yeah

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Dick and Natalie
yeah what year was this does say 2021 2021 we've been so many years that um yeah they kind of run together i actually have a cheat sheet of every year uh when tommy came when uh

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Ari Grode
Uh, so what, what year was that then?

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Ari Grode
Okay. Okay.

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Ari Grode
Perfect.

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Robert
That's awesome.

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Dick and Natalie
You know, Sonny Trotter came, what our scores were, how many people competed. I did that because wrote the software for the scoring, the original scoring software.

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Robert
Okay.

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Dick and Natalie
Because whether you know it or not, the the initial two years were on Excel spreadsheets.

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Ari Grode
I don't doubt it.

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Robert
Wow.

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Dick and Natalie
And you had to fill out your own scorecard at the end of the competition.

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Ari Grode
Yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
And do math. but But it was. After 24 hours of climbing. Scorecard was 20.

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Ari Grode
The real challenge.

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Dick and Natalie
It was clustered by grade, not by area. So you had all the five sevens clustered together, all the five eights clustered together.

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Robert
wow.

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Dick and Natalie
So you had to have a guidebook to find out where you were and what it was. And then at the end, you'd have like five five sevens at 70 points. And you had to do the math. Well, I did four of those, four sevens at 280 Well, when I wrote the software for the third year, I had all those old old spreadsheets and all that the old scorecards.

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Dick and Natalie
And I figured out, people can add, but they can't multiply.

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Robert
ah

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Dick and Natalie
yeah The results were wrong for those first two years.

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Robert
I, I don't doubt it

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Dick and Natalie
not Not desperately wrong, but a couple of places were definitely wrong because all all the people with the spreadsheets were doing, they'd take it, see the person's total, put it in a master spreadsheet, and at the end, they'd say, Jeremy Collins scored 10,200 points. And they'll say, well, what did he climb? I said, I don't know.

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Dick and Natalie
Nobody knows. He just got 10,000 points. Oh. So the funniest thing about that, when my score...

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Dick and Natalie
wow We got to put the dogs up. ah When my software came out, it was hilarious. Jeremy said, you mean everybody's going to know what I did?

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Ari Grode
Hmm.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah. Everybody's going to know exactly what routes you did to score your points. says, man, that's horrible. and nancy everybody yeah Because it showed what everybody did. You could get online and and see what everybody did, how they did it.

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Dick and Natalie
So that changed everybody's strategy. They say, oh, wait a minute. Nobody went east. Nobody climbed this route.

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Robert
Yeah, yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
now with the phone and now with the phone app And even if you're knowledgeable how it works, you can go to their score and you know what routes they did first.

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Dick and Natalie
Because when you enter your as you enter your score, it gives a timestamp. And so you could say, oh, wait a minute. Yes, they clustered their first 10 routes. They didn't put them in.

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Dick and Natalie
They put them in all at once. So you look at it and say, oh, those are the first 10 routes they did. I know where they started, which is valuable information if you do the 24 very often.

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Robert
Yeah, I think i think it's it's more it's always like it's always funny seeing all the new groups and everything.

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Ari Grode
Yeah.

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Robert
and And I feel like everyone has to learn the hard way of like where maybe where to start, but more so like where not to start. So that's always like ah it's always a fun one.

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Dick and Natalie
Oh, yeah.

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Robert
You know you got to pay your dues, to say the least.

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Dick and Natalie
When Natalie was really fighting it out sometimes for for most routes and stuff, she had a couple of friends. They'd show up and say, well, where you starting? I don't know. Where are you starting? Oh, I don't haven't decided yet. And they're playing all this coy stuff that was that's just hilarious. Keeping the cards close to the chest.

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Robert
of course, of course.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

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Ari Grode
Yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

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Ari Grode
Yeah. Over, ah over're we're starting over in the East, you know, we'll we'll be there for the first eight hours.

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Dick and Natalie
yeah

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Robert
hit

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Ari Grode
We'll see you there.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah. Well, the very first year, nobody knew what to do. And the very first year, anybody that went east was totally screwed because you take 20 minutes to get over there.

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Dick and Natalie
And there are not that many. Don't forget, this is way back when there weren't near as many routes and there weren't very many easy routes and people didn't make their first hour. And if you don't get around every hour, both both people, you miss the bonus points at the end.

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Robert
Oh, wow.

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Ari Grode
Oh, wow.

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Dick and Natalie
And you don't get a t-shirt, you don't get the horseshoes came later on. Yeah, so after that, people pretty much figured out. Very, very few people started going east. And so it became everybody running up to the North 40 after a couple of years.

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Dick and Natalie
How many years have we done it? 20 or whatever? We never once ever have gone east. Not once. Nope.

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Ari Grode
During the whole, during the whole event.

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Robert
at all or or to start it off?

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Dick and Natalie
and And any, river no, ever. I mean, we when we're when we're not at when we're not at the 24, yeah, we climb over there. But not ah not during 24 hours.

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Dick and Natalie
It's just not worth 20 minutes of walk over there. There was only one year where we considered it. um The year I got the most five nines. This was after my injury and after everything, after Natalie had had her her big push and got her 206 routes.

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Dick and Natalie
you know I looked at, you know as a scorekeeper for years and years and years, I knew the low hanging fruit. And the most five nines for an advanced climber was low hanging fruit.

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Dick and Natalie
So we started out and only five nines. That's all I climbed until 1.30 and ah I showed up later on in the in the morning around 3 a.m., 4 a.m., and we were talking to climbers, they were saying, hey, what are you doing? I said, oh, just most five nines. They said, yeah, how many of have you got? And I said, 84. And they said, oh, never mind.

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Dick and Natalie
They were going for the same thing.

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Robert
Yeah, And there's some fun ones in the East.

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Dick and Natalie
right But as far as I went, we considered going east because we were running out. Instead, we just kept going further west, like over to Street Fighter and and the arcade.

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Ari Grode
Okay.

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Dick and Natalie
And that's as far as we've ever gone. We've never gone past those two walls.

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Ari Grode
Okay. Yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
no Those are pretty new ones.

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Robert
There are there are some fun. Ari and i did 5'9 push one year while we were doing the Golden Horseshoe. So we kind of had to do more than the 5'9s.

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Dick and Natalie
Okay.

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Ari Grode
Two.

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Robert
But... Yeah, there's some ones over there. There's also some ones that hurt quite a bit. So probably for the best.

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Dick and Natalie
Oh, well, I failed on one, on 159 on the wall behind the Titanic boulder, really sharp and really, it did.

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Ari Grode
Oh, I know that one.

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Robert
Yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
yeah i tried it three times and put him down

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Dick and Natalie
think was just growing up at that time. I probably had you know upper 70s, so i i just I just gave up on it.

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Ari Grode
We always joke that there's like three routes right there.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

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Ari Grode
There's like 10A, and 5.9. And a 5.9 is the hardest. The is the middle one and the is the easiest. Yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

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Ari Grode
ten a's the you know the e the middle one and the ten b's the easiest

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Dick and Natalie
Exactly. yeah You know the trick by going a little bit right. yeah You can go right and then go back left.

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Robert
Yeah,

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah. Yeah.

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Ari Grode
yeah

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Robert
yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
but once you Once you know the tricks, it's hilarious.

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Robert
Dog's barking because we're giving away too much beta. That's the that's the micro beta there.

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Dick and Natalie
Well, they usually bark and she gave them some treats and that usually shuts them up.

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Robert
Yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
But they get nervous when we aren't usually talking like like this over here. You know, it's just like, oh, and so she could put put them in the gym. No, I didn't do that.

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Robert
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
Oh, you didn't. Okay. Well... But yeah, we we learned a long time. Some of the tricks that that we've developed over over the years have become pretty standard.

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Dick and Natalie
Like at first, nobody stashed. You'd be at the start. Everybody had your backpacks on and stuff. Then when you start stashing, ah and you're stashing ropes then you're stashing And then you're stashing your trad gear.

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Dick and Natalie
Everything started to develop. But we've never done the the super duper, go super fast by everybody having a

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Dick and Natalie
Everybody has a carabiner you pass back and forth between you. We always tie it in with a traceback bowline, and we just untied and retied because it never locked up. And it takes a few seconds, but I don't think there's any manufacturer on earth that would would certify their harness to have a beener click to the belay loop as you're meaning of taking a lead fall.

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Ari Grode
Yeah.

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Robert
Yeah, there's certainly some shenanigans that go on, hell, to say the least.

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Dick and Natalie
But that's how that's how That's how almost every everybody trying to go fast does it that way now, or they have their own separate ropes. Everybody wants, oh yeah.

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Ari Grode
yeah oh like two ropes yeah yeah interesting

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Dick and Natalie
but But some people like ah Jeremy and when he was climbing with Tommy, they had rope stashes at different crags so they can just that leave their stuff behind and yeah.

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Ari Grode
yeah yeah yeah i mean

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Dick and Natalie
You find out some of the secret stuff sometimes when you're hanging around the right people.

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Robert
Yeah, for sure. There's that whole wiki page too, on just like all the different nuance beta and all of that stuff too. It's

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Ari Grode
Yeah, i think I think with the 20th anniversary coming up this year, it's going to be really fun to kind of... Since you guys are probably one of the only teams that has climbed at pretty much every...

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Ari Grode
Or has climbed at every iteration of Horseshoe Hell over the past 20 years, including the one that nobody climbed at.

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Dick and Natalie
Well,

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Dick and Natalie
ah we did. We did. We're the only ones that did.

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Robert
Yeah, yeah.

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Ari Grode
Yeah, so it'll be it's really...

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Dick and Natalie
We went down there, we did by the rules, and we did a full 24 by the rules, brought all our stuff in, did it all by ourselves, like on a Tuesday, and there was nobody else there, and and and took it all out just to go by the rules.

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Robert
Nice.

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Dick and Natalie
I was going to get, I have 15 tick marks on my arm for my 15 years of doing D24, but it's really 16, but we stopped after that. Now we've been doing the 12th.

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Robert
ah

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Ari Grode
Yeah. Yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
But up yeah up until when we stopped, we were the only team. No other team stayed together with it with the same name and the same two people for those years. But there are two other guys that have done done it every year.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah. look Luke Stuffelbe, the guy that writes the software now, he's done it every year.

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Ari Grode
Who or who are they?

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Ari Grode
Okay.

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Robert
yeah

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Ari Grode
Yep.

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Dick and Natalie
and John Richard. John Richard's done it every year.

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Robert
so god Gotcha.

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Ari Grode
ah cool. Okay.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah, from St. Louis.

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Ari Grode
I didn't that.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah. yeah They just haven't had the same partner every year.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah, they switch around and other people people are pretty close. i don't know if anybody's done it. Take those two away. jeremy Jeremy's missed one year. No, he missed last year too.

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Ari Grode
Gotcha, gotcha.

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Dick and Natalie
Oh, did he? Yeah, he ran it. Oh yeah, because he wasn't climbing. Yeah. I mean, he was there. So mayor Jeremy's probably done it like 13 times, maybe something like that. So I don't know you're, I don't think you can run it and and still compete in it.

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Dick and Natalie
I've been trying to get Andy to do it.

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Ari Grode
would be tough.

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Dick and Natalie
I said, come on Andy. That's the one time I said, I

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Robert
Yeah, now that he's not running it, he's got to jump in, right?

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Dick and Natalie
Oh, yeah. I tried to talk. Natalie, I said, Natalie, why don't you climb with so-and-so? And I'll try to get Andy to do it with me. and But she says, ah, we've been together all this time.

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Dick and Natalie
This is the 20th year. So, you know, doing singles, is I've pushed for singles since almost from the start.

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Robert
yeah

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Dick and Natalie
And Patagonia shut it down a while back. that they didn't want They didn't want to change. and You can see they were really excited about it. And they just didn't want changes when, you know, why why change it? If it's not broke, don't fix it.

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Dick and Natalie
Then finally i said, we we got to do something different. You know, talking with Jeremy finally for the pulled the trigger and say, yeah, let's have fun. let's Let's get everybody excited again to try new stuff.

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Ari Grode
Yeah, ah not going to lie, when that first came out, I think at least my reaction was, oh, no, like, you know, that's I was a little bummed. But after thinking about it for a little bit, i I actually got pretty excited about the idea of like, wow, it's kind of a totally new like blank slate.

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Ari Grode
You know, it's going to be really interesting.

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Dick and Natalie
Yeah. Well, one of the reasons

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Ari Grode
Everyone's on the same like playing field.

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Dick and Natalie
Well, one of the reasons was, have you ever talked to anybody about what you did in the 24?

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Ari Grode
It's going to be it's going to be cool.

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Dick and Natalie
Every time you do it, you have to put the caveat, oh, by the way, I didn't do 150 routes. I did 75 routes times two. you know

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Ari Grode
Mm-hmm.

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Dick and Natalie
And after a while, it got kind of tiresome to say, come on. And they say, well, why did you climb it twice? Well, those are the rules.

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Ari Grode
Yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
i you know I climbed it twice.

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Ari Grode
Some

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Dick and Natalie
and And so now it's just like, no, I climbed 100 routes.

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Robert
Yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
on your back i think it's going to be tough this year to make the standards they have to re-qualify, though.

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Robert
Yeah. We were curious what, uh, what you were thinking in terms of like what the overall experience will be like now that there has been that shift from two laps to one.

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Ari Grode
ah some of them are pretty tough.

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Dick and Natalie
oh for For me, since the last few years, um not for me, but I've got some nerve pain in my leg that's I had a new hip last year and my hip pain was tolerable.

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Dick and Natalie
We did 75 routes last year for my 75th birthday. you know That was my kind of birthday challenge after my birthday. But I had a new hip in October after that.

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Dick and Natalie
And I've always had nerve pain since my accident, but now it's gotten worse because of that. i think all the muscles they had to pull and it's on the same leg, you know, that where I've pain before and all the nerves they had to push around. Well, so we're just gonna go cragging.

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Robert
Nice.

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Ari Grode
I see.

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Dick and Natalie
We've done that the last couple of times we've gone, we've done that, cause I've had various issues ever since. Some years I feel really good and I can do things, some years I can't. Some years I have to take off my, I can't tolerate nerve pain in my feet. I have to put on trail shoes.

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Dick and Natalie
so So this year, to me, it's more important to see if I can climb 10 Ds or maybe even 11 A than it is that I could do 50 routes.

174
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Dick and Natalie
So we'll see. ah It's harder to stay say fit when you get in your 70s, believe me

175
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Ari Grode
How about you, Natalie? You got anything on the agenda for this year?

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Dick and Natalie
me. Well, I don't, you know, he has he has thoughts on climbing hard things. And that's not what I do. best.

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Dick and Natalie
I do best a lot of things, but you know, every year he says, we don't have to climb that crappy five, seven again. So, you know, don't want put that on him.

178
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Ari Grode
Yeah.

179
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Dick and Natalie
Um, we'll see what happens. I mean, I can climb the five C's and D's. I just, you know, my game has never been how hard can I climb?

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Dick and Natalie
It's always been how much can I climb? So, um, but you know, we're only doing the 12.

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Ari Grode
yeah

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Dick and Natalie
It doesn't mean anything, uh, You know, I will say it's going to be a different game for everybody climbing one route an hour because there's only so many easy routes.

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Dick and Natalie
So if someone does have some thoughts of climbing, you know, 150 routes, they're not going to be able to climb 150 five-eighths.

184
00:16:01,130 --> 00:16:01,180
Ari Grode
yeah

185
00:16:01,180 --> 00:16:01,490
Robert
Right.

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Dick and Natalie
you know what I mean? They're going to have to climb more hard routes in their set to get that many routes. So it'll be interesting how people change their ah strategies and their goals for that.

187
00:16:16,580 --> 00:16:16,890
Dick and Natalie
Natalie is always the groundbreaker on route.

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00:16:16,890 --> 00:16:19,920
Ari Grode
So maybe we can.

189
00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:31,900
Dick and Natalie
She's had the woman's records for route count a lot. First person to break 100. And then somebody broke it at 132. Next year, she did 133.

190
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Dick and Natalie
then she did 160, then she did 180, then she did 206. So she's always been, now it's gone up, you know, 300. Genevieve did 300, just blew it out of the water.

191
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:41,920
Robert
yeah

192
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Ari Grode
Yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
But I've always thought it was kind of cool for us as the older generation, the fact that she has been, spurring the youngsters to action when they see what she can do.

194
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Dick and Natalie
I think it really motivated some of these youngsters to say, you know this this lady is kicking her ass, but we're 25 years old and weigh 120 pounds.

195
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Dick and Natalie
What's going on here?

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Robert
Right.

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Dick and Natalie
ah So I think that that's been a motivation.

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Ari Grode
Hehehehe.

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Dick and Natalie
And I think Jeremy used to tell me, you know there's i said, I don't think anybody cares if I beat him. He says, oh There's a lot of people that care if if if you beat them, but they never say they're worried about Natalie beating them. Because when we first started out, we went one-two in the intermediate division before we both had climbed an 11 when I was still ah an intermediate.

200
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Dick and Natalie
And she was second overall, not not you know female. So that was kind of funny. People say, yeah, i want to beat you. say, well, don't you want to beat Natalie? It was kind of funny.

201
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Dick and Natalie
But sometimes don't think you do.

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Ari Grode
but so was gonna say some i mean maybe this is like a good transition you know it'd be kind of fun since we're coming up on 20 years here to kind of throw it back to you know i'm really curious to hear how the the event kind of started and how you guys heard about it i mean and then talk a little bit about you know what that first year was like i i can imagine the ranch had a lot less roots and

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Dick and Natalie
Go ahead.

204
00:18:14,980 --> 00:18:18,140
Dick and Natalie
Oh, yeah.

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Dick and Natalie
I did a post back, I didn't put it down here um about the difference of how many routes it has been added. But the very first year we heard about it and I hadn't really climbed in Arkansas that much. i hadn't even done very much sport climbing.

206
00:18:33,380 --> 00:18:42,320
Dick and Natalie
I was a El Dorado type of guy and it's a little, Kansas City is not noted for having a lot of climbing. but

207
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Ari Grode
Mm-hmm.

208
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:57,540
Dick and Natalie
Everybody was pairing up. And I just asked Natalie if she wanted to. I was getting back into climbing after um kind of a a little bit of a hiatus while my daughter was a swimmer, a collegiate swimmer.

209
00:18:57,540 --> 00:19:10,790
Dick and Natalie
So all the way from when she was 10 years old and and my son too, and they're swimming. I kind of devoted a lot of my time and writing software. That's what I did. So I was writing software, worked at the post office and wasn't climbing a whole lot.

210
00:19:10,790 --> 00:19:26,980
Dick and Natalie
I got back in into climbing, so we paired up. and Everybody's talking about strategy and how long should we sleep? Where should we come down? We go down to the campground to eat eat dinner and things like that. it's We only did like 33 routes, and but but she got third in female.

211
00:19:26,980 --> 00:19:39,700
Dick and Natalie
And I think 10,000, around 10,000 points, in fact, that year, 10,000 points in 70 routes. That's what won the very first year. And it it was amazing.

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00:19:39,700 --> 00:19:50,180
Dick and Natalie
weird. Then after that, the next year, let's see what I've, Travis, Don and Jesse Gross did 99 routes each.

213
00:19:50,180 --> 00:19:56,070
Dick and Natalie
And we, everybody was blown away like, whoa, that's, that's like impossible. We did

214
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Ari Grode
so And, and, and what did the, like, what did the tactics look like, I guess, for those first couple, or even that first year, I mean, was everybody just, you said everyone has their packs on, it's like a day out climbing, you're just kind of extending it for 24 hours.

215
00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:07,820
Dick and Natalie
Oh yeah, everyone just walking up to the prairie.

216
00:20:07,820 --> 00:20:08,960
Robert
1155. Yeah.

217
00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:19,240
Dick and Natalie
You were afraid of bonking. You were absolutely terrified. You'd be too sleepy. It'd be dangerous. So you'd take naps. You know, you'd you'd say, okay, you had this strategy.

218
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:32,440
Dick and Natalie
Well, if I do ah ah route at five minutes after 10, that's my 10 o'clock route. And I don't have to do another route till, you know almost two hours later.

219
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Dick and Natalie
Yes. So we were going to try to sleep in between.

220
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Robert
that Yeah, of course.

221
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Dick and Natalie
Overnight, we were trying to get some naps.

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Robert
Because the original the original format was just you had to climb one route per hour, right? To re-qualify. That was the original.

223
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Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

224
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Robert
Okay.

225
00:20:46,300 --> 00:20:48,280
Dick and Natalie
Yeah. Well, there was no re-qualifying.

226
00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:48,300
Dick and Natalie
It was how fast are you on the button to hit

227
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Robert
Oh, okay.

228
00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:53,580
Robert
Oh, okay.

229
00:20:53,580 --> 00:21:04,520
Dick and Natalie
Oh yeah, that's why that's why the lottery came up. It was just like, here's the day you can, quiet you you can but yeah, you I don't. I don't think that was even an issue the first couple of years.

230
00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:04,660
Dick and Natalie
They just let people, you know they didn't have a ah limit.

231
00:21:04,660 --> 00:21:08,130
Robert
of course.

232
00:21:08,130 --> 00:21:11,290
Dick and Natalie
They didn't have to, hardly anybody had heard about it.

233
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Robert
How many people like roughly were there that that first year?

234
00:21:11,470 --> 00:21:13,900
Dick and Natalie
So.

235
00:21:13,900 --> 00:21:14,250
Dick and Natalie
i can I can tell you, 120 competitors first year.

236
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Robert
Oh, wow.

237
00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:19,380
Ari Grode
Okay, it's decent sized actually.

238
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Dick and Natalie
Second year, yeah, second year, 180.

239
00:21:20,570 --> 00:21:24,190
Robert
It's not nothing.

240
00:21:24,190 --> 00:21:33,900
Dick and Natalie
Third year, 184. Fourth year when Tommy Caldwell showed up, 216. That's probably when they started having to hurry up and push the button. Yeah, in 2010 when Alex Donald, 240.

241
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Robert
Yeah.

242
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Dick and Natalie
So it it really started. yeah People were finding out about it. Wow.

243
00:21:40,390 --> 00:21:40,680
Robert
Yeah.

244
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Dick and Natalie
A lot of those, they were limited to 150 teams. But when I say 240, that's not how many were actually signed up. That's how many ended up showing up.

245
00:21:52,390 --> 00:21:52,520
Dick and Natalie
you know Because his thought if you looked at it, you could say, oh, my there was 300 people, but people didn't show up.

246
00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:57,260
Robert
Yeah.

247
00:21:57,260 --> 00:22:04,060
Dick and Natalie
or But yeah, by 2010, I think that's probably about when they put the lottery in.

248
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Robert
Do you know how many are are active now?

249
00:22:04,340 --> 00:22:08,510
Dick and Natalie
The first couple of years, the first couple of years, the ill go ahead.

250
00:22:08,510 --> 00:22:12,690
Robert
I was just going say, do you know how many are active now?

251
00:22:12,690 --> 00:22:19,670
Dick and Natalie
they don't have I can tell you what the last year I had here. Let's see.

252
00:22:19,670 --> 00:22:33,370
Dick and Natalie
I didn't put how many people were in it those years. yeah he took that Luke took down some of the, well, 2019, 294. twenty nineteen two hundred and ninety four so but

253
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Robert
pretty big difference.

254
00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:45,890
Dick and Natalie
I looked at it. one One thing they've been opening up a little more, and I think Jeremy's been opening up, is the 12. They were used to limit it to 100, and now now it's gone.

255
00:22:45,890 --> 00:22:49,840
Dick and Natalie
He's pretty much just opened it up because he opened it up to the whole canyon. So it's kind of like, okay, and the canyon's open, so I don't care if if it's crowded, go somewhere else.

256
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:55,770
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

257
00:22:55,770 --> 00:22:57,830
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

258
00:22:57,830 --> 00:23:05,210
Dick and Natalie
And the standards are going to be be tougher. But we were discussing that in the 12-hour. I don't know if you have time to run across the canyon. Yeah.

259
00:23:05,210 --> 00:23:18,050
Robert
I mean, we, so we did pretty big push last year in the 12th. We like went for as many trad routes as we could and we were pretty jam packed and there was like the idea, like you said, of running across the Canyon, just like, it seems like such a waste of time.

260
00:23:18,050 --> 00:23:20,390
Dick and Natalie
Yep.

261
00:23:20,390 --> 00:23:20,720
Robert
Like it's either like either go on Easter, you go on West, but like, I don't know why you would even consider crossing the Canyon if you're the 12.

262
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:27,000
Dick and Natalie
yeah

263
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,860
Dick and Natalie
Well, the routes are taller and harder over there too, in my opinion, ah by grade.

264
00:23:29,860 --> 00:23:31,430
Robert
Yeah.

265
00:23:31,430 --> 00:23:53,550
Dick and Natalie
You know and you know you do a over there. 510s on the North 40 and the West side are pretty much, except for a couple like, uh, um, Scampi one move wonders, there's the short sequence, but you you go to the East side and they're long and sustained and, uh, great routes.

266
00:23:53,550 --> 00:23:57,510
Dick and Natalie
There's a difference between competition routes and, uh, and, and great routes, you know, know, things that, you know, uh,

267
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Robert
Yeah, for sure.

268
00:24:00,450 --> 00:24:19,870
Dick and Natalie
You know, I would never do Hacker Crack unless I was a really, really good crack climber in the comp just because it takes too much work to do for five, nine points. yeah You know, when some of these little sport routes, that you can do it like one hard move and then jug haul to the top, you know.

269
00:24:19,870 --> 00:24:22,460
Ari Grode
That's funny you say that. Do you remember, Rob, I think it was ah two or three years ago, I took a nice nice fall on Hackberry Crack.

270
00:24:22,460 --> 00:24:25,700
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

271
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Ari Grode
So not only did i not only was it slow, but I had to do it three times total.

272
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Robert
In the middle of comp.

273
00:24:26,350 --> 00:24:30,480
Dick and Natalie
Whoa.

274
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:30,530
Robert
to To be fair, that was a that was the year we were going for most five nines and the golden.

275
00:24:30,530 --> 00:24:34,850
Dick and Natalie
Oh,

276
00:24:34,850 --> 00:24:43,820
Robert
So we needed tried laps, but we also wanted every five nine we were getting by. So we had rehearsed it a bit ahead of time. But yeah, that was a slowed things down a little bit.

277
00:24:43,820 --> 00:24:48,530
Dick and Natalie
wow. Yeah, the the cracks on the west side are tough. And I don't know what these people, these people that are going to try to trad qualify, they're going have to leave the North 40.

278
00:24:48,530 --> 00:24:48,950
Ari Grode
Yeah.

279
00:24:48,950 --> 00:24:53,960
Robert
yeah

280
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:54,090
Robert
Yeah.

281
00:24:54,090 --> 00:24:54,590
Dick and Natalie
And I don't know where i don't know where they're going to go.

282
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Ari Grode
Yeah.

283
00:24:58,150 --> 00:25:03,130
Robert
Yeah. We've got couple of recommendations on where to go, but mainly where to not go for a trad routes. Yeah.

284
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Dick and Natalie
Well, that used to be the easiest way to requalify was TRAD.

285
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:07,060
Robert
yeah Oh yeah.

286
00:25:07,060 --> 00:25:14,720
Dick and Natalie
It was 60 TRAD, which is only 30 routes in 24 hours, which is, you know, 30 routes times two. You can do it on the North 40. Yeah, you used to be do it on the North 40.

287
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:15,330
Robert
Oh yeah.

288
00:25:15,330 --> 00:25:16,210
Ari Grode
Mm-hmm.

289
00:25:16,210 --> 00:25:17,020
Dick and Natalie
Yeah. That's

290
00:25:17,020 --> 00:25:27,440
Robert
Ari and I used to joke all the time about how like all of the minimum requirements for requalification have like steadily outpaced like the jump of the trad laps.

291
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:31,460
Robert
Like the trad laps have gone up like five laps total. And it's like, you went from like a hundred to 115 to 130 laps on like other anything else.

292
00:25:31,460 --> 00:25:35,190
Dick and Natalie
right.

293
00:25:35,190 --> 00:25:38,550
Robert
But like trad, it was like, yeah, like if you're climbing trad, we don't care.

294
00:25:38,550 --> 00:25:43,850
Dick and Natalie
yeah Yeah. Well, we know some people that that's the only way they know they can qualify because they aren't strong enough to to do the huge volume.

295
00:25:43,850 --> 00:25:48,560
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

296
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:58,940
Dick and Natalie
And so they unfortunately for them talk about climbing the same crappy routes year after year. If you do a trad on the north 40 year after year, that's the ultimate crap, crap route collection.

297
00:25:58,940 --> 00:26:01,730
Ari Grode
Mm-hmm.

298
00:26:01,730 --> 00:26:06,500
Robert
but Best five, best five, two in the world. I don't know what you're talking about, Nick.

299
00:26:06,500 --> 00:26:17,600
Dick and Natalie
I can't think of one good trad route on the North 40, not even one that I'd say, oh, I can't wait to climb that. But there's so many sport routes that I'd say, wow, I really love that one.

300
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:18,950
Robert
Oh yeah.

301
00:26:18,950 --> 00:26:32,680
Dick and Natalie
Like Crim Scampi. Crim Scampi is always my, let let's see if the old man can still do it. Crim Scampi and Brad Holes is, I think, a little easier, but my nemesis is Portside.

302
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,820
Dick and Natalie
I did it in 2019 and I haven't been able to repeat it.

303
00:26:35,820 --> 00:26:39,240
Ari Grode
You talking about the 10 plus on a Titanic?

304
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:49,820
Dick and Natalie
The 10D that's really an 11A or 11B that I couldn't convince Cole to make an 11A in his guidebook. The old guidebook had 11A by, what's his name?

305
00:26:49,820 --> 00:26:53,220
Robert
Yeah.

306
00:26:53,220 --> 00:26:56,220
Dick and Natalie
Clay Frisbee's guidebook had it as 11A.

307
00:26:56,220 --> 00:26:57,890
Ari Grode
Okay. I don't think we've never even tried that one.

308
00:26:57,890 --> 00:26:59,650
Dick and Natalie
Have you done it?

309
00:26:59,650 --> 00:26:59,790
Ari Grode
We've done most of the other ones um the types, not that, not the really hard ones, but, uh,

310
00:26:59,790 --> 00:27:03,900
Dick and Natalie
Well,

311
00:27:03,900 --> 00:27:06,460
Dick and Natalie
it's it's real it's real rock climbing. I mean, it's-

312
00:27:06,460 --> 00:27:07,880
Ari Grode
Yeah, everybody warned us about that one.

313
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:08,040
Dick and Natalie
It has multiple cruxes and it's really super crimpy.

314
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:13,520
Robert
yeah

315
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:25,380
Dick and Natalie
and And the other one on the other end there that is, I did it in 2020, I think, is cracked rib on the end. that That one's really hard too.

316
00:27:25,380 --> 00:27:34,560
Dick and Natalie
Similar type of low um low percentage moves at the beginning to to try to get up to the slots and stuff. so

317
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,040
Robert
Yeah, just what you want 16 hours into hell, right?

318
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:38,310
Dick and Natalie
Oh, yeah.

319
00:27:38,310 --> 00:27:40,760
Robert
Nice low percentage beta.

320
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:56,310
Dick and Natalie
It's kind of interesting. Things like that, i always tell people, say, and i my argument with Cole was, port side, I had in my software that I wrote for for scoring the comp, I could go to any route and see who climbed it.

321
00:27:56,310 --> 00:28:09,690
Dick and Natalie
I said, why did no intermediate climbers that top out at 10D ever climb port side in the comp? It's only 30 feet long. Well, it's because it's not 10D.

322
00:28:09,690 --> 00:28:27,260
Dick and Natalie
But I don't know whether you know it or not. When I did the most five nines that was 84, I went back and looked at that score, and it says I only did 64 because they downgraded 10 five nines since I did it.

323
00:28:27,260 --> 00:28:28,030
Ari Grode
Oh, really?

324
00:28:28,030 --> 00:28:30,480
Dick and Natalie
Yep, they downgraded them to five eighths.

325
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:31,600
Ari Grode
um interesting.

326
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:31,710
Robert
Wow.

327
00:28:31,710 --> 00:28:31,850
Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

328
00:28:31,850 --> 00:28:36,950
Ari Grode
It's funny because there was one on ah the west side that got upgraded. It must have been upgraded a couple years ago.

329
00:28:36,950 --> 00:28:38,270
Dick and Natalie
Wow.

330
00:28:38,270 --> 00:28:40,530
Ari Grode
it was the I think it's called Duck Hunt. And it's like so it's such a gift because it's such an easy one.

331
00:28:40,530 --> 00:28:42,830
Dick and Natalie
OK. Is

332
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Robert
Yeah, yeah. It's insane. Like it's borderline 5, borderline 5, 7 and they give it 5, 9 now.

333
00:28:46,700 --> 00:28:46,920
Dick and Natalie
that it?

334
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,350
Ari Grode
And you get the 5.9 points for it.

335
00:28:50,350 --> 00:28:51,600
Robert
Yeah, it's pretty wild.

336
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:53,270
Dick and Natalie
Is this sport route or a trad route?

337
00:28:53,270 --> 00:28:53,630
Robert
Sport.

338
00:28:53,630 --> 00:28:54,530
Ari Grode
It's a sport route.

339
00:28:54,530 --> 00:28:54,660
Robert
It's over by Legend of Zelda.

340
00:28:54,660 --> 00:28:56,360
Dick and Natalie
Oh, where is it?

341
00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:58,080
Robert
Don't tell anyone.

342
00:28:58,080 --> 00:28:59,630
Dick and Natalie
Oh, OK.

343
00:28:59,630 --> 00:28:59,700
Ari Grode
It's in the arcade.

344
00:28:59,700 --> 00:29:00,860
Dick and Natalie
We don't.

345
00:29:00,860 --> 00:29:03,310
Robert
Yeah, it's like to the right of Legend of Zelda.

346
00:29:03,310 --> 00:29:04,910
Dick and Natalie
Oh, in the arcade.

347
00:29:04,910 --> 00:29:05,190
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

348
00:29:05,190 --> 00:29:05,320
Dick and Natalie
OK.

349
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,740
Ari Grode
Yeah. on the west side.

350
00:29:08,740 --> 00:29:17,290
Dick and Natalie
OK, yeah. We're we're probably going to end up visiting that some of those this time because we used to, our first route used to be learning fly.

351
00:29:17,290 --> 00:29:17,530
Robert
Oh, nice.

352
00:29:17,530 --> 00:29:17,800
Dick and Natalie
That used to be, we did that at least two years in a row, maybe three years in a row.

353
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:21,670
Ari Grode
Okay.

354
00:29:21,670 --> 00:29:34,350
Dick and Natalie
ah And you run up that hill dying to try to get it. And we would go there and then go over to Ren and Stimpy and then go over to Titanic. That that was our normal start.

355
00:29:34,350 --> 00:29:35,190
Robert
Okay.

356
00:29:35,190 --> 00:29:42,530
Dick and Natalie
When you're doing hard routes, that's a good way to start. When you're doing easy routes, that's a horrible way to start.

357
00:29:42,530 --> 00:30:02,260
Ari Grode
So, so Natalie, I'd love to hear kind of, I know you kind of pushed the pace there, especially, you know, in some of the women's categories. I mean, can you talk about like, you know, what the kind of what the tactics were like and, you know, how, how you started kind of stacking, uh, you know, pushing the root, the root count further and further each year.

358
00:30:02,260 --> 00:30:04,010
Ari Grode
That'd be kind of interesting, I think to dive into.

359
00:30:04,010 --> 00:30:15,640
Dick and Natalie
Well, It helped that my partner is an analyst. I always said, he just told me what to climb and I just climbed it. Cause he would go through, i mean, and then he had the software.

360
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:27,580
Dick and Natalie
So it was real easy for us to do. Well, if we do this, this and this, and then this, then, you know, we could do mock setups of our set really easily.

361
00:30:27,580 --> 00:30:40,510
Dick and Natalie
So that was one advantage. I've always said my main advantage was my partner. um not only for that, but just for the training that we do. I don't know anybody else that would want to suffer like we do.

362
00:30:40,510 --> 00:30:42,490
Dick and Natalie
um i Honestly, I can't think of anything anybody else that I would have been a good partner with or for, or that would be a good partner for me because, you know, who really does want to climb all those five sevens over and over and over and over again?

363
00:30:42,490 --> 00:30:56,050
Ari Grode
Yeah.

364
00:30:56,050 --> 00:31:09,210
Dick and Natalie
um Or who wants to suffer that much or who wants to, you know, tear up their hands and their body? um So I guess our strategy was we would We would do a set.

365
00:31:09,210 --> 00:31:22,880
Dick and Natalie
you know We'd figure out what our water set could be. um He would look at the numbers and be like, well, if we did this, then you could win this. There again, we're low-hanging fruit. um I mean, honestly, don't climb hard.

366
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:33,690
Dick and Natalie
ah you know eleven a maybe is my my best red point outside is 11A. But I've been in the elite division since, I don't know, 2010.

367
00:31:33,690 --> 00:31:47,930
Dick and Natalie
twenty 12 or something like that because i climbed enough a lot. um You know, my strategy is just to suffer. They made the rule that if you won your category, you automatically moved up.

368
00:31:47,930 --> 00:31:48,170
Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

369
00:31:48,170 --> 00:31:48,290
Robert
Right.

370
00:31:48,290 --> 00:32:10,740
Dick and Natalie
Because Natalie was going to win intermediate for the rest of my life. The rest of her life. soon yeah Because she could do crimp scampi with no problem. But um There aren't very many, ah except for horseshoes and hair knees, there aren't very many friendly 11s that we were really interested in. and She didn't do an 11, I think, until we moved to Vegas.

371
00:32:10,740 --> 00:32:20,410
Dick and Natalie
Yeah. so she didn't she was an elite climber before she ever did an 11A. Yeah, I was up against the pros in my division.

372
00:32:20,410 --> 00:32:22,220
Ari Grode
Mm-hmm.

373
00:32:22,220 --> 00:32:34,730
Dick and Natalie
So I just had to train really hard. like in the We spent our summers... auto blades in the gym, going outside and doing like hours of climbing, you know, fitting it in whenever we could.

374
00:32:34,730 --> 00:32:42,080
Dick and Natalie
Vegas was nice because you can climb before or after work there. You know, it's just, we were what, five miles from the gate. So we could, we could go, you know, we could go anytime and just,

375
00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:46,220
Robert
wow

376
00:32:46,220 --> 00:33:01,910
Dick and Natalie
You know, crank off. It's not, it's not horseshoe though. Like when you go to Vegas to climb, I did a 50th birthday thing there and I did 50 routes, which you would think, well, I've done 200 at but to do sport routes,

377
00:33:01,910 --> 00:33:16,160
Dick and Natalie
um And the first and second pull out there, you're like, you have to clean everything. And you have to hike five miles because there's only six here. And then you have to hike for a mile and there, you know, whatever, you know, that is one advantage of horseshoe.

378
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:27,110
Dick and Natalie
um And I will say you were asking about the first year. you had to clean your routes. There wasn't like beaners at the top of every route. So that slowed everybody down down and repel.

379
00:33:27,110 --> 00:33:46,760
Dick and Natalie
And you had, yeah. So you had to clean your route and repel. You didn't have all these great, um, ideas for transitions and things like that. Um, so yeah, I mean, I always wondered when I was, you know, over the years, I was like, how, like, i don't climb hard and I'm old.

380
00:33:46,760 --> 00:34:03,360
Dick and Natalie
And honestly, I'm, you know, I'm not exactly skinny. So why aren't all of these young ladies that are coming out here that climb way harder than me? I would see, we would be at the comp watching other, and I'd be like, oh my God, she's crushing. She's going to beat me.

381
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:19,300
Dick and Natalie
You can't climb that many routes when you're climbing hard routes. You have to have rest at some point. um Also, I think, I'm, For a while, i don't think very many women were willing to suffer like I was. And that was, think, honestly, that's what it boils down to.

382
00:34:19,300 --> 00:34:32,420
Dick and Natalie
i was willing to suffer for years. I was willing to do the work. That's what I did. I did the work. The funniest time that she broke the the She had lost the route count record.

383
00:34:32,420 --> 00:34:45,420
Dick and Natalie
But we were really keeping too track of that. But the first and one year we did the double, she won the women's stuff in the 12. And we're going into the 24, we just say, let's just have fun. Let's just just go and have fun.

384
00:34:45,420 --> 00:35:01,250
Dick and Natalie
So she we said, just five nines and under. We didn't do anything hard. And it was easy. It was easier than the 12 because we, we did almost all tens in the 12. And so when we were doing that, so that she ended up getting near the end, I said, I got to stop climbing for a little while.

385
00:35:01,250 --> 00:35:08,480
Dick and Natalie
You were really close to the, to the route count record, which we couldn't believe. and Which he knew because, yeah you know, so, uh,

386
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:09,170
Robert
Yeah.

387
00:35:09,170 --> 00:35:10,140
Ari Grode
Keeping track.

388
00:35:10,140 --> 00:35:35,070
Dick and Natalie
ah So I kept track. So I stepped back but for a little while and I still got my 100 routes, but she got 134. I think that's how things have progressed. But I don't know. I'd have to look up the post I did several a while back about how many routes there were available in the North 40 that there was no land beyond there was no early morning light kindergarten boulder had like three routes on it uh titanic had like three routes on it there was no wall behind titanic um unbelievable number of routes all these stolen of course there was no arcade there was no doomsday wall there there was none of that so uh it it was uh all these fill-in routes every time the routes were

389
00:35:35,070 --> 00:35:35,400
Ari Grode
Oh, interesting.

390
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:53,650
Robert
Wow. wow

391
00:35:53,650 --> 00:36:13,800
Dick and Natalie
you You couldn't do what you do now where you run, pull a rope and go to the next route. No, the next route was, was a ways down. Yeah. I would say a hundred routes used to be pretty hard. It's I think it'll be, it used to be as hard as maybe it will be now with only being able to climb one, yeah one instead two. That'd be good to bring back the t-shirts.

392
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:17,890
Dick and Natalie
The hundred route t-shirts. We used to live for those things. Yeah. Yeah.

393
00:36:17,890 --> 00:36:19,830
Robert
Yeah, now it's the Mile High Club.

394
00:36:19,830 --> 00:36:31,250
Dick and Natalie
Uh-huh. The Mile High Club. Yeah. we We found out that year she did 134 routes and just made just made the mile. And I think that's the first year that they did the mile.

395
00:36:31,250 --> 00:36:40,250
Dick and Natalie
Because after that, you and I both did 152. And yeah, we we don't, some of the

396
00:36:40,250 --> 00:36:51,440
Dick and Natalie
Speed ways people do things, we we don't believe. We pretty much clip every bolt. you know We stick to the second bolt and we put we put gear in when we do trad.

397
00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:52,240
Dick and Natalie
yeah we don't

398
00:36:52,240 --> 00:36:52,970
Ari Grode
Yeah.

399
00:36:52,970 --> 00:36:57,600
Dick and Natalie
We don't risk our life and to get a couple more seconds.

400
00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:07,140
Robert
Yeah. No, i'm I'm just cracking up internally now hearing you talk about how like Dick analyzes everything. Okay. We know that there's this many routes left. You're this close to this.

401
00:37:07,140 --> 00:37:07,490
Dick and Natalie
hu

402
00:37:07,490 --> 00:37:14,490
Robert
Cause this is like, this is me and Ari. Like I just get, I'm like, where do we need to go? I show up. Let's have a good time. Ari's like, here's our plan. Here's our strategy go.

403
00:37:14,490 --> 00:37:15,950
Dick and Natalie
Bye.

404
00:37:15,950 --> 00:37:32,550
Robert
ah But no, you also mentioned like a couple of things were obviously different early on. Like, yeah, you used to have to clean the routes. Right. And like, okay, there's only so many routes available and all. When did, horseshoe hell really start to get enough traction that like some of these logistical things started getting figured out.

405
00:37:32,550 --> 00:37:42,470
Robert
People started putting up more routes so that there's more access for like the climbers on the actual event day. Any other like big changes that you guys started to notice? i don't know if it was like five years in or seven years in.

406
00:37:42,470 --> 00:37:46,580
Dick and Natalie
You probably hear three or four when the pros started showing up. Yeah, they started they started putting carabiners on the first pole.

407
00:37:46,580 --> 00:37:49,700
Robert
Yeah.

408
00:37:49,700 --> 00:37:50,210
Robert
Okay.

409
00:37:50,210 --> 00:37:56,560
Dick and Natalie
So you would take the carabiners up to the top and clip them to the anchors so people could lower off. Right, if you were the first one on the route.

410
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:57,400
Robert
Right, right.

411
00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:09,650
Dick and Natalie
Now the entire North 40 is mussy hooks. And a lot everywhere else are mussy hooks. So... That was the first one of the first steps like, oh, that makes it fast.

412
00:38:09,650 --> 00:38:26,720
Dick and Natalie
um When you didn't have to clean the routes, that that made it fast. And yeah, I think when Tommy Caldwell showed up and well, Sonny Trotter showed up the third year and Brittany Griffith showed up, I think once the pros started showing up, everybody started paying attention.

413
00:38:26,720 --> 00:38:36,580
Dick and Natalie
And then there was at least one guy that was noted for his getting route count. And he was also a route developer. you know, bless his heart, love him, but he started putting up some crap routes just to get more routes in for the 24.

414
00:38:36,580 --> 00:38:42,510
Robert
Okay.

415
00:38:42,510 --> 00:38:43,190
Dick and Natalie
Seriously, he did that.

416
00:38:43,190 --> 00:38:43,440
Ari Grode
Hmm.

417
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:44,240
Robert
Yeah.

418
00:38:44,240 --> 00:38:56,740
Dick and Natalie
You know, it was like, wow, these are, you know, we still do them, the three-bolt routes on the back of the Titanic, or maybe they're two-bolt. If you clip the second bolt, you only have to go to the anchors.

419
00:38:56,740 --> 00:39:14,860
Dick and Natalie
Yeah, you know, those are routes. And, uh, Dean Potter actually soloed one of those routes on the first ascent on the backside of the Titanic. But some of the routes that, some the routes they put up in between routes and stuff are pretty pretty nice routes as far as for the grade.

420
00:39:14,860 --> 00:39:21,270
Dick and Natalie
But One time I asked Jason, you know, Jason down there, the main climbing guy, I said, early early morning light wall.

421
00:39:21,270 --> 00:39:24,020
Robert
yeah

422
00:39:24,020 --> 00:39:33,010
Dick and Natalie
I said, how come there's no routes in that? he says He says, because you you can put you can drive a drill into it's like butter. He says that the rock isn't near as good as some other places.

423
00:39:33,010 --> 00:39:33,360
Ari Grode
Yeah.

424
00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:36,150
Robert
Yeah.

425
00:39:36,150 --> 00:39:41,130
Dick and Natalie
And you'll notice if you climb there, the rock is not that good. And now there's like a dozen routes on that wall or something.

426
00:39:41,130 --> 00:39:42,230
Robert
Oh yeah, there's there's a lot.

427
00:39:42,230 --> 00:39:42,810
Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

428
00:39:42,810 --> 00:39:43,530
Robert
That wall saved us our first year.

429
00:39:43,530 --> 00:39:44,850
Dick and Natalie
yeah

430
00:39:44,850 --> 00:39:48,270
Robert
We were not going re-qualify and we went on a tear on that wall. So appreciate those butter bolts.

431
00:39:48,270 --> 00:39:51,940
Dick and Natalie
yeah in

432
00:39:51,940 --> 00:39:52,190
Robert
Yeah,

433
00:39:52,190 --> 00:40:01,890
Dick and Natalie
Those starts, broken holds have made those starts like at least a letter grade harder than what they're listed as. And it's just to get off the ground because all the all the stuff that's broken off.

434
00:40:01,890 --> 00:40:05,360
Robert
yeah.

435
00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:19,020
Dick and Natalie
But those those are the types of stuff that, um, um People got excited. Oh, now they finally had to stop doing the 100 route t-shirts because all of a sudden there were so many easy routes that people could do it really fast.

436
00:40:19,020 --> 00:40:34,360
Dick and Natalie
The Titanic boulder, if you do the Titanic boulder and the Emma's got a mullet area, you're almost there when you can do two routes, you know, when the old style. You didn't have to go very well, very far. The kindergarten boulder. Yeah, kindergarten, Boulder area, and Emma's got them all.

437
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:45,100
Dick and Natalie
Man, you clean up those. In fact, the year and Natalie did a 206, we had 120 routes by 12 hours. You know, she did.

438
00:40:45,100 --> 00:40:45,340
Dick and Natalie
I didn't.

439
00:40:45,340 --> 00:40:45,780
Robert
that's That's a good feeling, isn't it?

440
00:40:45,780 --> 00:40:47,160
Ari Grode
Yeah.

441
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:50,580
Dick and Natalie
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, you know you're going to slow down overnight. i mean, that that's a fact.

442
00:40:50,580 --> 00:40:50,760
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

443
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:52,260
Ari Grode
Yeah.

444
00:40:52,260 --> 00:40:57,020
Dick and Natalie
You're not going to get 120 more routes if it's 9 o'clock. At least I'm not going to.

445
00:40:57,020 --> 00:40:57,280
Robert
Yeah,

446
00:40:57,280 --> 00:40:57,330
Ari Grode
yeah Yeah.

447
00:40:57,330 --> 00:41:00,800
Dick and Natalie
So I needed to have a head start. She's.

448
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:02,200
Ari Grode
Put them in the bank and and yeah, get them done for sure.

449
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:03,050
Dick and Natalie
yep Yeah.

450
00:41:03,050 --> 00:41:12,910
Robert
yeah, yeah. Yeah, I feel like most of the time things don't always go according to plan. So if something is like you're ahead of schedule at hell, you're like, this is incredible.

451
00:41:12,910 --> 00:41:27,850
Dick and Natalie
we We have a couple of little hints we give people that are that are new to it that we know, that we've done over the years that that help. that We don't want to give too many away yeah but because too many people would do the same thing.

452
00:41:27,850 --> 00:42:02,360
Dick and Natalie
But it definitely helps if you know way way the traffic flows uh when you're on the wall and you're in your observer you'll you'll see certain patterns of of way um climbing groups work almost like a living organism they're all up here and then they're all over here then they're all right same group and you'll you'll find out throughout the day you're with the same group of people because you're all moving like an animal and you all and it's smooth because they're going quit you know who the fast people are and they're all cooperative and uh

453
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:19,520
Dick and Natalie
Once you know that and you you get the right group of people, you'll trade, you'll share routes. Hey, can I have that route? I haven't done that. If you want want to do this one first, the real cooperative people. And then every once while you get the the jerks that Jeremy ran into a jerk one time. He was going for 300 routes.

454
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:29,180
Dick and Natalie
And the guy wouldn't give up the route ah to let Jeremy run up there in 20 seconds. and they and And he said, there was plenty of routes around. He said, but I'd already done them all. And he just really needed one route.

455
00:42:29,180 --> 00:42:29,220
Robert
Yeah,

456
00:42:29,220 --> 00:42:31,980
Ari Grode
Yeah.

457
00:42:31,980 --> 00:42:35,110
Dick and Natalie
But 99% of the time, people are real cooperative. And we almost never end up in a group with people we know right off the bat.

458
00:42:35,110 --> 00:42:40,440
Robert
yeah.

459
00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:43,640
Dick and Natalie
But we after 24 hours, we know him pretty well. Yeah.

460
00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:46,650
Robert
Yeah, yeah. No, no chance.

461
00:42:46,650 --> 00:42:54,260
Dick and Natalie
Because of my work in the past, and I'm writing the software and helping get this going, because let's face it, this is not possible without software.

462
00:42:54,260 --> 00:42:55,710
Robert
no no chance

463
00:42:55,710 --> 00:43:12,420
Dick and Natalie
There's just too many data items. Take 300 people with 100 data items each. That's a lot of data items. to type in. But we have a we always have a cabin right right next to where the the volunteers are.

464
00:43:12,420 --> 00:43:22,110
Dick and Natalie
So we we have ah an ace in the hole whenever we need something up at the crack. Hey, you need a shower?

465
00:43:22,110 --> 00:43:29,020
Dick and Natalie
So I said, what? I said, I'll give you a shower. You can have a shower at our at our place if we can have that round. often

466
00:43:29,020 --> 00:43:31,520
Robert
Oh, wow. Talk about a bargaining chip.

467
00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:31,960
Dick and Natalie
Never fails.

468
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:33,670
Robert
That's incredible.

469
00:43:33,670 --> 00:43:36,570
Dick and Natalie
for Or just the bathroom. Yeah.

470
00:43:36,570 --> 00:43:36,770
Robert
Yeah.

471
00:43:36,770 --> 00:43:37,080
Dick and Natalie
Well, now they have bathroom down in the lower, the lower campground has a bathroom now.

472
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:41,830
Ari Grode
Yeah.

473
00:43:41,830 --> 00:43:41,970
Dick and Natalie
I don't know if you know that.

474
00:43:41,970 --> 00:43:43,260
Robert
Oh, amazing. No.

475
00:43:43,260 --> 00:43:45,220
Dick and Natalie
On the east side. east side. Yeah. They opened the lower campgrounds.

476
00:43:45,220 --> 00:43:45,480
Ari Grode
Oh.

477
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:46,580
Robert
Yeah. yeah

478
00:43:46,580 --> 00:43:49,190
Dick and Natalie
Yeah. So yeah they're reserved campsites. So, i yeah, we have, we have a season pass, which is camping and climbing, but it doesn't apply to the reserved campsites.

479
00:43:49,190 --> 00:43:56,870
Ari Grode
Okay.

480
00:43:56,870 --> 00:43:57,190
Dick and Natalie
So you have but they have their bathroom down there, which will really help the east side campers in the 24.

481
00:43:57,190 --> 00:43:58,070
Ari Grode
Yeah,

482
00:43:58,070 --> 00:44:03,190
Robert
Gotcha.

483
00:44:03,190 --> 00:44:03,370
Dick and Natalie
I'm sure.

484
00:44:03,370 --> 00:44:04,590
Robert
Yeah. I mean, that'll help the the brave souls that are doing the 30-minute canyon crossing during the 12, too.

485
00:44:04,590 --> 00:44:10,150
Ari Grode
and no kidding.

486
00:44:10,150 --> 00:44:11,190
Robert
You never know. So that's it.

487
00:44:11,190 --> 00:44:12,470
Dick and Natalie
Hmm. that that's

488
00:44:12,470 --> 00:44:14,290
Ari Grode
I'd be kind of curious to hear, you know, you talk about like, you know, adding new routes and a couple of things that allowed so many people to

489
00:44:14,290 --> 00:44:22,620
Robert
Go ahead, Ari.

490
00:44:22,620 --> 00:44:37,870
Ari Grode
you know, get to a hundred or or whatever the progression was, was there any, like a couple of impactful moments that kind of happened throughout the years that like people went like, aha, that kind of changed the game.

491
00:44:37,870 --> 00:44:52,820
Dick and Natalie
That's an interesting thing to think about. mean, was pretty impactful that pros showed up. Well, I think when the people started doing that that trick was with the carabiner where they could just switch it back and forth, that was I think that was pretty good.

492
00:44:52,820 --> 00:45:21,860
Dick and Natalie
The thing I think that was impactful in a different way was we started having to make some rules about you have to clip the first or second bolt on every support route. You have to put enough ah gear in to keep from ground fall, which That's all a matter of opinion on some of that stuff. But you you can't just run up like some people would do and throw a sling on a horn right next to the bolt, next to the anchor, and say they did it fine. But they really sold the rack.

493
00:45:21,860 --> 00:45:22,570
Robert
Right, right.

494
00:45:22,570 --> 00:45:37,520
Dick and Natalie
that That didn't affect very much, but I think it did make it make it safer. I can tell you what affected things was when you wrote up that. They put it on 24-hour website. Dick wrote,

495
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:48,150
Dick and Natalie
dick wrote Basically, this is what we do. these These are all of our tips. And I was still competing pretty hard. I was like, don't tell them everything. You just told my competition what we do.

496
00:45:48,150 --> 00:45:50,100
Ari Grode
Ha ha ha.

497
00:45:50,100 --> 00:46:02,240
Dick and Natalie
I did tell about taping and out now gloves. For some people, for us, gloves are huge. ah We climbed up to 10C with gloves on.

498
00:46:02,240 --> 00:46:04,200
Dick and Natalie
Fingerless gloves, you know, that...

499
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:05,070
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

500
00:46:05,070 --> 00:46:24,420
Dick and Natalie
tips are gone, saves your hands. oh but on a tape But a lot of the stuff we talked about, stashing, stashing your water um and your trad and having a like cards with all your trad beta, little things, but mainly how we go about things.

501
00:46:24,420 --> 00:46:31,700
Dick and Natalie
ah Some things aren't on there that we tell people.

502
00:46:31,700 --> 00:46:42,870
Dick and Natalie
You don't want to have use the restroom very much if you can help. And the women, Natalie said she'd climb out the top sometimes to top out to go to the bathroom because there's just too many people in the bathroom.

503
00:46:42,870 --> 00:46:43,680
Robert
No.

504
00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:43,930
Dick and Natalie
But other but things, you don't want to run around with a wag bag either.

505
00:46:43,930 --> 00:46:47,620
Ari Grode
Oh wow.

506
00:46:47,620 --> 00:46:47,920
Dick and Natalie
and so So try to take care of those things.

507
00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:50,350
Robert
no

508
00:46:50,350 --> 00:47:03,750
Dick and Natalie
And eating, the right thing, i would tell what we did for you. I've never cramped up. We've never really bonked or cramped up, either one of us, in almost 20 years now.

509
00:47:03,750 --> 00:47:17,270
Dick and Natalie
Because we we weren't eating pizza and we weren't eating you know you know just weird stuff. We weren't eating all carbs. we were chugging energy drinks. you know We do a five hour energy around one or two o'clock.

510
00:47:17,270 --> 00:47:37,720
Dick and Natalie
But other than that, we weren't doing a lot of the stuff that other people were doing. But other than that, that that' probably helped quite a bit. At least the new people, it helped them a lot. The people that have been around for a while, they we all just kind of came to the same conclusions about how to and where to start and what to do.

511
00:47:37,720 --> 00:47:49,600
Dick and Natalie
I think the main thing people don't understand say, yeah, I can eat a bagel with with peanut butter while I'm belaying. I'm not going to sit down. And it's so hard to start again if you sit down for very much very long.

512
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:49,680
Ari Grode
Oh, absolutely.

513
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:50,570
Dick and Natalie
It's so hard.

514
00:47:50,570 --> 00:47:53,440
Robert
Oh yeah. Body in motion stays in motion. Don't you dare put your butt on the ground.

515
00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:56,890
Dick and Natalie
Great. Trail shoes made a big difference to a lot of trail shoes on easy routes because then people could run, literally run up the hill and get on a route.

516
00:47:56,890 --> 00:48:03,200
Robert
oh yeah.

517
00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:03,470
Dick and Natalie
You didn't have to sit down.

518
00:48:03,470 --> 00:48:04,080
Robert
Yeah.

519
00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:12,160
Dick and Natalie
And I remember when your friend of ours was just going nuts because her partner was taking her shoes off after every climb, just going nuts.

520
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:13,550
Robert
Oh my goodness. Yeah.

521
00:48:13,550 --> 00:48:27,620
Dick and Natalie
ah You know, and she was going hard. She wanted to go, you know, do a lot of routes. And so, so That's, I think after a couple of years, if you're somebody that returns, you got to find the right partner.

522
00:48:27,620 --> 00:48:38,280
Dick and Natalie
A lot of people, you'd see them show up with different partners and sometimes it's because yeah one of the partners was was just a jerk or they just didn't have the same motivation.

523
00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:51,480
Dick and Natalie
that That's huge. You gotta to have somebody that wants at least similar things. Like Natalie and i I'm willing to let her go as hard as she wants, as many routes as she wants. And I just wanted to, I may be sitting out while I get the hard routes that I wanna do.

524
00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:57,830
Dick and Natalie
So we we can be compatible without doing the exact same agenda.

525
00:48:57,830 --> 00:48:58,040
Dick and Natalie
It was interesting how Rob and Basia figured their stuff out like that.

526
00:48:58,040 --> 00:49:02,750
Robert
Yeah.

527
00:49:02,750 --> 00:49:02,760
Robert
Oh, yeah.

528
00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:03,230
Ari Grode
Yeah. but

529
00:49:03,230 --> 00:49:05,160
Robert
You talk about dialed. My goodness.

530
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:05,380
Dick and Natalie
Oh, God.

531
00:49:05,380 --> 00:49:07,320
Robert
i yeah I do think that...

532
00:49:07,320 --> 00:49:09,060
Dick and Natalie
Their spreadsheets, oh my God.

533
00:49:09,060 --> 00:49:36,280
Robert
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And i we we were... that two years ago already when they were first trying to the 50 or whatever it was uh we were cleaning a bunch of routes because that was the year we were doing a lot of trad so we kept running into them like the days leading up to the the comp and everything and they were talking to to us about their spreadsheet and it was just mind-boggling to think about how quickly they were supposed to be moving over some of these routes like for 24 hours it was it was incredible

534
00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:42,870
Dick and Natalie
Well, I videoed them on some of those routes just because I was interested. And they never looked hurried.

535
00:49:42,870 --> 00:49:42,950
Ari Grode
Yeah.

536
00:49:42,950 --> 00:49:55,660
Dick and Natalie
And when they were doing trad routes, they're putting the gear in. When they're doing sport routes, they're clipping the appropriate number of bolts. I even had a post about it. I said, you don't have to do all these stupid tricks to try to gain a few seconds.

537
00:49:55,660 --> 00:50:24,180
Dick and Natalie
And here are the guys with all the records, and they do it the right way. They do it the the safe way, and and and they do it by the rules. So, yeah, it was we watched them do... went over on Kindergarten Boulder, a trad route. He just floated up it, no hurry, came down, they're talking. in And I think I saw a picture of his, I don't know if he sent it to me or it was opposed, his spreadsheet one time. it was It was mind blowing to see all the different colors on it.

538
00:50:24,180 --> 00:50:25,200
Ari Grode
Yeah. Yeah.

539
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:25,520
Robert
uh,

540
00:50:25,520 --> 00:50:36,710
Ari Grode
I, I, I climbed with him, um, a few times since I've moved to Colorado and we've done some gym sessions and it, like you said, it's like, he's so fluid at climbing.

541
00:50:36,710 --> 00:50:44,770
Ari Grode
Like, you know, the five 10, him climbing a five 10 looks the exact same as climbing a five 12. It's just, he's not moving incredibly quick, but he never stops. And it just all the way up to the top.

542
00:50:44,770 --> 00:50:45,720
Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

543
00:50:45,720 --> 00:50:47,720
Ari Grode
Yeah.

544
00:50:47,720 --> 00:50:59,220
Dick and Natalie
All those guys I think what you see about those climbers, and I've seen the pro climbers that I've had the fortune to watch climb, is their footwork is impeccable.

545
00:50:59,220 --> 00:51:08,120
Dick and Natalie
I mean, it's just like you never see them scratching the toe scratching to try to get their foot on a hole. They just place it on the hole, just like, oh.

546
00:51:08,120 --> 00:51:10,660
Ari Grode
Yeah, they save ah save a lot of money on re-souls, huh?

547
00:51:10,660 --> 00:51:27,670
Dick and Natalie
Oh. I just had to find a little piece of rubber to stick on the toe my TC pros because they're not in one car. I wish they had they had a blunt nose ah version that has an extra inch of rubber on the nose.

548
00:51:27,670 --> 00:51:33,180
Dick and Natalie
Always wear it out. So are you doing the 12 and the 24 this year, both of you guys?

549
00:51:33,180 --> 00:51:34,960
Robert
No, not this year. We did,

550
00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:37,190
Ari Grode
we We did that. Was that last year we did that?

551
00:51:37,190 --> 00:51:38,500
Robert
yeah we did the 36 last year and we did, was the final tally?

552
00:51:38,500 --> 00:51:42,460
Ari Grode
Yeah.

553
00:51:42,460 --> 00:51:43,960
Robert
Was 109?

554
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:44,100
Ari Grode
We tied Jeremy's

555
00:51:44,100 --> 00:51:45,300
Robert
nine

556
00:51:45,300 --> 00:51:47,130
Ari Grode
ah ah

557
00:51:47,130 --> 00:51:47,750
Robert
individual tread.

558
00:51:47,750 --> 00:51:49,800
Ari Grode
trad trad in the 12 record. We both got 100 trad routes each.

559
00:51:49,800 --> 00:51:50,000
Dick and Natalie
Oh, nice.

560
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:51,920
Robert
so yeah the day The next day was brutal.

561
00:51:51,920 --> 00:52:00,390
Ari Grode
um And then it was an absolutely pitiful, pathetic attempt at the 24 after that. So I don't know if we'll ever do the 36 again.

562
00:52:00,390 --> 00:52:01,930
Robert
Yeah.

563
00:52:01,930 --> 00:52:02,340
Ari Grode
At least I don't know if I will.

564
00:52:02,340 --> 00:52:03,240
Robert
I think, I feel like we we did it to our best ability and that's good enough for me.

565
00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:08,240
Ari Grode
Yeah.

566
00:52:08,240 --> 00:52:11,840
Robert
That's what I'll say. So I think we're 24 is for now.

567
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:13,690
Dick and Natalie
That's the same conclusion we came to. We did it first year there was a 12.

568
00:52:13,690 --> 00:52:16,200
Robert
Yeah.

569
00:52:16,200 --> 00:52:17,480
Dick and Natalie
We did them both.

570
00:52:17,480 --> 00:52:17,700
Robert
Okay.

571
00:52:17,700 --> 00:52:17,790
Ari Grode
Okay.

572
00:52:17,790 --> 00:52:20,770
Dick and Natalie
And yeah, we were like, been there, done that.

573
00:52:20,770 --> 00:52:21,180
Robert
that

574
00:52:21,180 --> 00:52:32,060
Dick and Natalie
and And it wasn't horrible doing the 24 because we didn we didn't try hard in the 24, even though we ended up doing okay. But we found out the 12th show was a lot of fun. You know, you don't have to worry about lights.

575
00:52:32,060 --> 00:52:32,390
Robert
Yeah.

576
00:52:32,390 --> 00:52:34,430
Ari Grode
Yeah. Oh, so fun. It was so fun.

577
00:52:34,430 --> 00:52:39,530
Robert
12 is a great day of cracking. It's just like a, ah ah just a jam packed mega day.

578
00:52:39,530 --> 00:52:41,280
Dick and Natalie
No lights, no check-ins. You can socialize a lot and everybody yeah everybody has a lighter mood about them.

579
00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:45,300
Robert
Yeah.

580
00:52:45,300 --> 00:52:58,340
Dick and Natalie
And I think... That's another thing when you see what what changed. When they made the qualifications, for instance, 100 routes, all of a sudden, people weren't hanging out.

581
00:52:58,340 --> 00:53:11,340
Dick and Natalie
They were getting serious. People were moving fast. That changed a lot. So when you showed up somewhere... You know, first thing you're asking is how many laps. that That's always the first thing you ask, how many laps.

582
00:53:11,340 --> 00:53:21,200
Dick and Natalie
But it used to be, they're sitting there will m there didn't used to be a rule until we put it in. If you're not tied in with your shoes on, you're not in line. That helped.

583
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:21,890
Ari Grode
Yeah.

584
00:53:21,890 --> 00:53:21,920
Dick and Natalie
So people can't say, hey my partner's over going to the bathroom and say, sorry, we're going.

585
00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:22,270
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

586
00:53:22,270 --> 00:53:27,310
Robert
Yeah,

587
00:53:27,310 --> 00:53:27,430
Dick and Natalie
you know Or or they they're just sitting around and you show up and they say, well, we're next.

588
00:53:27,430 --> 00:53:31,570
Robert
yeah. No.

589
00:53:31,570 --> 00:53:35,470
Dick and Natalie
They say, no, you're not. you don't You're not tied in with your shoes on. And you're not being a jerk.

590
00:53:35,470 --> 00:53:35,580
Robert
no

591
00:53:35,580 --> 00:53:48,420
Dick and Natalie
you're just You're just saying, that you know take your rest. We'll be done pretty soon. oh Little things like that help move it along. But any more Most of the people now have serious intentions. They want to come back.

592
00:53:48,420 --> 00:53:58,900
Dick and Natalie
And to come back, you've got to work hard. And so the weights aren't near as bad. And it's not near as frustrating as it used to be, having people just sitting around. They were just there for the party.

593
00:53:58,900 --> 00:54:04,400
Dick and Natalie
And they got in They only wanted to do it once. So they didn't care if they were clogging up around. you know they didn't

594
00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:04,850
Ari Grode
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

595
00:54:04,850 --> 00:54:06,980
Dick and Natalie
know

596
00:54:06,980 --> 00:54:33,550
Robert
ah dick you recently mentioned about like one of the biggest tips for horseshoe hell is finding the right partner to climb with obviously you two have both had like been climbing and together for such an extended period of time and like most not most but a lot of climbers don't necessarily get to experience like climbing consistently with the same person for so long like can you talk about how hell has helped like develop your partnership as climbers and like beyond it.

597
00:54:33,550 --> 00:54:34,340
Robert
And then also like what makes it so successful as well for you guys.

598
00:54:34,340 --> 00:54:40,930
Dick and Natalie
Well, okay. Kind of a little story here.

599
00:54:40,930 --> 00:54:42,380
Robert
Okay.

600
00:54:42,380 --> 00:54:43,960
Dick and Natalie
We were both married to different people when we first did help.

601
00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:45,120
Robert
Oh, gotcha.

602
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:46,000
Dick and Natalie
Okay.

603
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:46,600
Ari Grode
Oh.

604
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:58,630
Dick and Natalie
A lot of people we know know that. Okay. But... um It went along that, Natalie ended up getting a divorce. She moved to Arizona and we would still do the 24.

605
00:54:58,630 --> 00:55:14,310
Dick and Natalie
And then I moved to Vegas and I ended up with a divorce. And we're still doing the 24 together. then Then we started dating. Okay. We knew we were compatible because if you climb with someone doing the 24,

606
00:55:14,310 --> 00:55:26,680
Dick and Natalie
I mean, pretty raw sometimes. you know You've seen each other have some pretty hard times. and And you see how supportive you are and you see how um how well you get along.

607
00:55:26,680 --> 00:55:39,290
Dick and Natalie
um If you have this, you're understanding when they're having a bad patch or understanding if you're not getting exactly what you want. Plus, you know you're cooperating with each other and and support.

608
00:55:39,290 --> 00:56:01,330
Dick and Natalie
And it doesn't take very many years of doing the 24 together to to know that your you're a pretty good match. And so you know when when I finally asked her to marry me, we had two weeks from then until we were married in a video in Vegas. And from then on,

609
00:56:01,330 --> 00:56:12,640
Dick and Natalie
That's when we started living in Vegas. And then we were just, our climbing was mainly an awful lot of classic trad routes, multi-pitch trad.

610
00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:41,240
Dick and Natalie
The 24 is a little different for us. That's not our favorite kind of climbing at all. you know But Natalie is super good at that type of endurance. And i I enjoy it well because the software I put into it, I enjoyed supporting the community. and um We just like doing it together because of the people you run into, our friends. We have so many friends down there. and Now, the volunteer group is a whole different group. we're in the vol We volunteer every year for the 24 after doing the 12.

611
00:56:41,240 --> 00:56:51,950
Dick and Natalie
So the last three years, I guess, we've we've done the 12 and the volunteer afterwards. So now you have another whole group of friends.

612
00:56:51,950 --> 00:57:04,720
Dick and Natalie
so um Yeah, I think the way it was at the 24, it probably helped our relationship grow for sure. You know, we've seen people break up.

613
00:57:04,720 --> 00:57:15,910
Dick and Natalie
We've seen some things. yeah we see You see people that that we've seen see dressing down their partner in front of everybody, stuff like that.

614
00:57:15,910 --> 00:57:19,100
Dick and Natalie
I mean, just just awkward. Like awkward, like you don't want to be there.

615
00:57:19,100 --> 00:57:20,050
Ari Grode
Huh.

616
00:57:20,050 --> 00:57:39,240
Dick and Natalie
You don't want to be there long enough. But I think when it's over, you you find out if there if the partners are still friends. ah Yeah, we I think the 24 had a lot to do with our relationship. And we...

617
00:57:39,240 --> 00:58:17,490
Dick and Natalie
you know like they said it just developed along the way kind kind of we became close friends first let's put it that way you know and uh you can't if you have a partner well you know you got to be good friends in the to compete like that together and come out of it still feeling good good bad or indifferent because we've had some bad years especially when my some of my problems i've had with my spinal cord injury has come up that I just couldn't go, you know? And so you just have to back off and let her keep going. And I had to back off. And those are the years where she understands and I understand, but I still try to support her and she tries to support me.

618
00:58:17,490 --> 00:58:22,160
Dick and Natalie
It's worked out great. so regret um No or no regerts.

619
00:58:22,160 --> 00:58:42,450
Ari Grode
her No regrets. Yeah. So you guys have, ah you know, you've, you've touched on this a little bit, but you know, you've been coming for 20 years or will be 20 years, I guess here ah this year, but you know, what, what's the main thing that's kind of kept you coming back? You know, you just mentioned like, it's not your favorite style of climbing, but like why come back every year?

620
00:58:42,450 --> 00:58:58,900
Dick and Natalie
The people it's, it's our, all of our friends. We see these people once a year and it's like, we just saw them yesterday. i mean, we wouldn't miss it. Even if we were both crippled, we would still go, we would be there, um, to support our friends and to see our friends.

621
00:58:58,900 --> 00:59:23,400
Dick and Natalie
Um, it's like, it's like extended family, you know, we, we messaged with them a little bit during the year and, um, It was a a good well ah good number of our friends actually visited us when we were in Vegas. um now Now they visit us for overnight because you know nobody comes to Kansas City to climb. They're usually on their way to somewhere that's actually cool.

622
00:59:23,400 --> 00:59:37,900
Dick and Natalie
so But we're right in the middle of this of the country now. So we see we see our friends you know passing through. Yeah, care if you're ever going to the East Coast, like if you're going to the Red or something, let us know. You can stop by and...

623
00:59:37,900 --> 00:59:42,070
Dick and Natalie
you know if you're going yeah Do you live in Boulder?

624
00:59:42,070 --> 00:59:44,110
Ari Grode
I live in Denver, or just just west of Denver.

625
00:59:44,110 --> 00:59:53,990
Dick and Natalie
Okay. i you It's a nice stopping point. And we just had some friends here at this past weekend that stopped overnight. And then he went on to Chattanooga. It's a good stopping point.

626
00:59:53,990 --> 00:59:54,720
Ari Grode
Oh, cool.

627
00:59:54,720 --> 01:00:05,200
Dick and Natalie
He stopped and spent the night, have some coffee and hang out and go to dinner and then drive the next day. And so we've we've become that, those people. Well, we were those people in Las Vegas.

628
01:00:05,200 --> 01:00:06,930
Ari Grode
Okay.

629
01:00:06,930 --> 01:00:14,610
Dick and Natalie
we We really enjoyed having a lot of visitors. It wasn't, you know, um I mean, it wasn't an Airbnb. Nobody paid us to come, but we actually enjoyed having company.

630
01:00:14,610 --> 01:00:18,070
Robert
yeah

631
01:00:18,070 --> 01:00:46,940
Dick and Natalie
And i feel like it, you know, you just, get to have a lot of experience, different experiences with different people, different type of people. Um, I had some friends from, um, when I lived in Arizona that were actually, I'd climbed with them once in Arizona, they were Canadians and they came through. Um, we have friends that brought their family who spoke French and, you know, we had them for awhile. So, uh,

632
01:00:46,940 --> 01:00:55,150
Dick and Natalie
We're people, people, people persons, whatever you want to call it. We just like people. So I wordle with jared Jeremy every day. yeah ah

633
01:00:55,150 --> 01:00:55,310
Ari Grode
Oh yeah?

634
01:00:55,310 --> 01:00:57,410
Robert
Nice.

635
01:00:57,410 --> 01:01:25,840
Dick and Natalie
Yeah, so some of those people, you know, like, you know, I got pretty close with a lot of the people that started it, like Andy and stuff like that when I told them I'd write the software for them. like Because my my job at the time was writing software for managing swim teams. I said, I can modify that to, you know, I've got some of this have already written that, you know, taking the competitors' names in, and I just have to change the way swim meets are scored with the way competition is scored.

636
01:01:25,840 --> 01:01:38,270
Dick and Natalie
Even the first year that we had it running, Andy came up with my portable up to the crag and I had to make ah a change to the database while he let somebody else belay Natalie.

637
01:01:38,270 --> 01:01:39,970
Ari Grode
you

638
01:01:39,970 --> 01:01:41,010
Dick and Natalie
but Those are the types of things you remember and and the friends you make.

639
01:01:41,010 --> 01:01:43,740
Robert
Yeah.

640
01:01:43,740 --> 01:01:57,070
Dick and Natalie
an you know it's yeah Some of our best climbing friends are definitely from Arkansas. or we meet in Arkansas, let me put it that way. that Sometimes I don't even know where they're from.

641
01:01:57,070 --> 01:02:12,750
Dick and Natalie
you know There's people like a name right now. I don't know where they live, but I know I'm going to see them at the end of September and we'll all be hugging out. And and sometimes they'll move around. You won't even know anything about their lives other than what you see on Facebook or Instagram.

642
01:02:12,750 --> 01:02:20,050
Dick and Natalie
Then you find out you know quite a few things change and it's great just catching up. And you know what it is, the vibe down there is incredible. I mean, it's just, even even though we aren't headbangers in the and the dance-offs they have down there in the field.

643
01:02:20,050 --> 01:02:26,490
Ari Grode
Oh, yeah.

644
01:02:26,490 --> 01:02:27,860
Robert
ah

645
01:02:27,860 --> 01:02:40,610
Dick and Natalie
Although we did go down there last year and sit up next to this, day oh Jeremy kind of got me to do that, stand up next to the cage and bounce around for a little for a few minutes.

646
01:02:40,610 --> 01:02:44,790
Dick and Natalie
That's always quite a great, actually we do it just go for the beer, that's the truth. I mean, I think

647
01:02:44,790 --> 01:02:46,920
Ari Grode
It is pretty good.

648
01:02:46,920 --> 01:02:47,680
Robert
Yeah.

649
01:02:47,680 --> 01:02:59,890
Dick and Natalie
The other draw is just like, that's our climbing home. It's our where we cut our teeth climbing teeth. um You know, we have history there. It's a familiar place. We just like to be there.

650
01:02:59,890 --> 01:03:12,210
Dick and Natalie
There again, I feel like even if even when it's not the 24, we like to go to Arkansas. We like, you know, course we climb, but we also like to hike there. There's just lots of things to do there.

651
01:03:12,210 --> 01:03:21,230
Dick and Natalie
um And it feels like our home away from home. It's four and a half hours, but it's our local, it's our, what we call our yeah our local crag, as opposed to five miles that it was to Red Rock.

652
01:03:21,230 --> 01:03:26,420
Ari Grode
Okay.

653
01:03:26,420 --> 01:03:28,250
Ari Grode
Still some good sandstone though.

654
01:03:28,250 --> 01:03:38,120
Dick and Natalie
oh Oh, yeah, wait we went to Yosemite. We've climbed some ah limestone in in Vegas and ah yo Yosemite granite and, uh-uh, I want sandstone.

655
01:03:38,120 --> 01:03:39,300
Ari Grode
Yeah.

656
01:03:39,300 --> 01:03:41,030
Dick and Natalie
We're spoiled.

657
01:03:41,030 --> 01:03:41,640
Robert
Yeah, it's hard to beat the reins for sure.

658
01:03:41,640 --> 01:03:43,020
Ari Grode
but Maybe.

659
01:03:43,020 --> 01:03:46,630
Robert
it's a I think it's the closest thing to an outdoor gym I've ever been climbing on.

660
01:03:46,630 --> 01:03:49,790
Dick and Natalie
Yeah. Oh, oh yeah. Yeah. I think that's what it's like when we get down there, even though I don't mind when Natalie talks about climbing the crappy routes.

661
01:03:49,790 --> 01:03:55,100
Ari Grode
but

662
01:03:55,100 --> 01:04:14,370
Dick and Natalie
I mean the crappy sixes and sevens and stuff like that. But once you get up to the nines and stuff like that, even the North 40, they're pretty enjoyable to climb. From nines and up are pretty enjoyable. And you can have a good day. You feel like youve got a decent workout and they aren't as crappy as some of the lower grade routes.

663
01:04:14,370 --> 01:04:22,620
Ari Grode
Yeah, it'd be kind of funny to, it's funny to think about because there's some routes that are really enjoyable, like to climb. And then there's some routes that are really unenjoyable to climb during hell that, you know, are really enjoyable climbs like ah but Dancing Outlaw, for example, like great, great route, but I hate climbing it during hell.

664
01:04:22,620 --> 01:04:27,210
Dick and Natalie
oh Yes. Yeah.

665
01:04:27,210 --> 01:04:27,290
Dick and Natalie
was like, oh, yeah. I don't know how to.

666
01:04:27,290 --> 01:04:30,310
Robert
Oh,

667
01:04:30,310 --> 01:04:30,830
Ari Grode
Yeah.

668
01:04:30,830 --> 01:04:35,590
Robert
got it. Although I think some of that might change a bit because now it's one lap, right? So it's like the ones that were like brutal on that second lap, you don't have to worry as much about, but now it's like the gimmies.

669
01:04:35,590 --> 01:04:35,850
Ari Grode
yeah

670
01:04:35,850 --> 01:04:41,030
Dick and Natalie
Yes.

671
01:04:41,030 --> 01:04:43,540
Robert
You're like, oh man, we only get one lap on that. That's a bummer.

672
01:04:43,540 --> 01:04:46,090
Dick and Natalie
Yeah. Oh, that's like Webster's. nothing

673
01:04:46,090 --> 01:04:46,400
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

674
01:04:46,400 --> 01:04:46,570
Ari Grode
Yeah.

675
01:04:46,570 --> 01:04:47,120
Robert
You get six laps.

676
01:04:47,120 --> 01:04:47,850
Dick and Natalie
Webster's is such a joke.

677
01:04:47,850 --> 01:04:50,760
Robert
You don't have to move. yeah.

678
01:04:50,760 --> 01:04:58,840
Dick and Natalie
I mean, I I said, why why isn't oh but why isn't Jihad two routes?

679
01:04:58,840 --> 01:04:59,130
Robert
yeah

680
01:04:59,130 --> 01:05:11,250
Dick and Natalie
you know yeah If you do the direct start to Jihad, it's like a Boulder problem. But if you do the regular one by starting on learning to fly, you know it's a 10B. I say, come on, Webster's is two grades and it's a one move, one move.

681
01:05:11,250 --> 01:05:12,710
Robert
yeah that's three if you do the trad version too you know yeah yeah

682
01:05:12,710 --> 01:05:16,190
Dick and Natalie
What the hell?

683
01:05:16,190 --> 01:05:26,800
Dick and Natalie
That's true. People have abused the hell out of that. right that that was as always I've been trying to get rid of that. Make it one.

684
01:05:26,800 --> 01:05:31,450
Dick and Natalie
but However they want to climb it, just make it one grade. And that's it.

685
01:05:31,450 --> 01:05:32,990
Ari Grode
Yeah, that's a funny one. Maybe, ah you know, you mentioned like that moment where Andy had you make a change to the software mid event.

686
01:05:32,990 --> 01:05:40,210
Robert
Yeah.

687
01:05:40,210 --> 01:05:49,070
Ari Grode
You know, I'd be curious to hear, do y'all have any like, or both of you have any like favorite moments from hell you'd like to recount?

688
01:05:49,070 --> 01:06:06,600
Dick and Natalie
I have a favorite moment. i know what it is. Early, i would say in the earlier second, third, maybe fourth year, I can't remember what year it was, but we used to have the award ceremony in the upper level of the barn.

689
01:06:06,600 --> 01:06:09,230
Dick and Natalie
I don't know if you've ever been up there. Yeah.

690
01:06:09,230 --> 01:06:13,990
Ari Grode
Uh, we, the only time I've ever been in the barn was when they did that main event race and they had, yeah, they, you had to go in the barn.

691
01:06:13,990 --> 01:06:17,330
Robert
the obstacle course race.

692
01:06:17,330 --> 01:06:18,850
Ari Grode
You had to like crawl through that like tunnel system they've got in there.

693
01:06:18,850 --> 01:06:20,950
Dick and Natalie
Oh, the video box. Okay.

694
01:06:20,950 --> 01:06:21,080
Ari Grode
Yeah.

695
01:06:21,080 --> 01:06:23,370
Dick and Natalie
So you've been up there. I mean, it didn't used to be that, the you know, it was just the upper level of a barn a long time.

696
01:06:23,370 --> 01:06:28,820
Ari Grode
huh. Uh huh.

697
01:06:28,820 --> 01:06:40,300
Dick and Natalie
that In fact, at the end of it was like a door that would open, I guess way back in the day, they'd throw hay out of it or something. But anyway, that's where they had the awards.

698
01:06:40,300 --> 01:06:55,640
Dick and Natalie
And what they did was all of these sponsors would donate stuff and they'd put them out on a table. And then Andy would read off the winners and you would just go up and grab whatever you want off the table.

699
01:06:55,640 --> 01:06:55,770
Robert
ah

700
01:06:55,770 --> 01:07:15,630
Dick and Natalie
But he didn't read them from like, okay, we're going to start with elite and go down. He wanted it to be random because he wanted it to be for every man. Maybe that's one of the reasons why we love this competition so much. I could never win a competition where the hardest climb, the one that can climb the hardest climb wins.

701
01:07:15,630 --> 01:07:51,060
Dick and Natalie
this climb this competition is for every every man because there's like a bunch of different ways you can win heck you can win something if you have the best haircut or know whatever so anyway he liked that random thing and uh he called i can't remember i don't even remember who won what but jeremy won something and he was up there perusing the table and uh dick and i won something right after Jeremy and we all, we knew what we wanted and Dick grabbed a backpack and I grabbed a rope and Jer goes, he would, that was what he was deciding between those two things.

702
01:07:51,060 --> 01:07:52,250
Robert
This.

703
01:07:52,250 --> 01:07:59,660
Dick and Natalie
need just stop I think, I think I thought for sure she was going to say something else.

704
01:07:59,660 --> 01:08:02,450
Ari Grode
That's so funny.

705
01:08:02,450 --> 01:08:09,450
Dick and Natalie
She was I stepped in the bed next to Tommy Caldwell. Oh, that was pretty cool too.

706
01:08:09,450 --> 01:08:10,000
Robert
a

707
01:08:10,000 --> 01:08:21,460
Dick and Natalie
Yeah, and into yeah we were in a cabin with one of those lofts with the twin beds up there. And yeah, there were those pretty I was kind of a fan girl. I won't lie.

708
01:08:21,460 --> 01:08:23,270
Dick and Natalie
Yeah. my i

709
01:08:23,270 --> 01:08:24,340
Ari Grode
Who's not of Tommy Caldwell?

710
01:08:24,340 --> 01:08:28,140
Robert
Probably the best night's sleep Tommy's ever had.

711
01:08:28,140 --> 01:08:47,080
Dick and Natalie
good It was funny because that year he was on his phone constantly with his now wife all the time. But for me, the year in Natalie won everything, that award ceremony, I sent you a video of that, that award ceremony was, man, couldn't have been better.

712
01:08:47,080 --> 01:09:02,640
Dick and Natalie
That was pretty cool. But I also felt good that I was like 60, I don't know, 68 when I won the most five nines. ah And that's after my, injury and and rehab where my first year I was desperate on 5'7".

713
01:09:02,640 --> 01:09:12,610
Dick and Natalie
So i like three or four years later, maybe it was five years later to do that. That was my proudest moment. wow Happiest moment it was when she won every day. That was my day.

714
01:09:12,610 --> 01:09:15,470
Robert
yeah all good

715
01:09:15,470 --> 01:09:22,820
Dick and Natalie
yeah she'll stop Hopefully. Sorry about her. Oh, she stopped.

716
01:09:22,820 --> 01:09:27,630
Dick and Natalie
That was Ozzy? Yeah. We've got two Cairn Terriers, the Toto Dogs, Oz and Munchkin.

717
01:09:27,630 --> 01:09:29,440
Robert
yeah nice

718
01:09:29,440 --> 01:09:29,640
Dick and Natalie
So yeah, they're, but yeah, those, of all the things, those as far as performance-wise, we've had,

719
01:09:29,640 --> 01:09:43,500
Ari Grode
Ah.

720
01:09:43,500 --> 01:09:56,510
Dick and Natalie
kind of hard to say other than that. It's just kind of fun. It used to be fun. It'd be great. They used to have arm wrestling up in the loft. They had slacklining, and they had also they had a push-up contest.

721
01:09:56,510 --> 01:10:09,850
Dick and Natalie
and Some of those things, there's just too many people, you can't do it anymore. It was kind of fun that way. But the funniest thing about that award ceremony one year was they had all this stuff and everybody picked it up.

722
01:10:09,850 --> 01:10:20,450
Dick and Natalie
And all that was left was like third place wreck. And Amy Johnson walks up to Sarah, oh, we forgot one of the prizes. It was this full-size crash pad. So third place wreck got this giant crash pad that would have been one of the first pick-offs it had was pretty funny.

723
01:10:20,450 --> 01:10:20,910
Robert
a

724
01:10:20,910 --> 01:10:24,880
Ari Grode
Uh,

725
01:10:24,880 --> 01:10:30,210
Robert
That's awesome.

726
01:10:30,210 --> 01:10:31,350
Ari Grode
that's hilarious.

727
01:10:31,350 --> 01:10:34,740
Robert
it's awesome

728
01:10:34,740 --> 01:10:48,100
Ari Grode
So, you know, now that we're coming up on, we've, we've alluded to a lot of the changes they're making this year, you know, the one route, you know, curious, where, where do you think, how do you think the event will progress over the next five or so years?

729
01:10:48,100 --> 01:10:52,500
Dick and Natalie
Well, I think it would

730
01:10:52,500 --> 01:11:10,010
Dick and Natalie
They're going to have to wait and see how everybody responded to this. I think the the qualification standards are pretty stiff. It'll be interesting how many people re-qualify. I don't think the cycle will be any different. It'll just be like if if it's harder to re-qualify and they and they fine tune those.

731
01:11:10,010 --> 01:11:32,170
Dick and Natalie
um I think we're phasing ourselves out, I think. But I know. Every year, but and't know every year People are you know saying, oh, I didn't get in on the lottery. So as long as there's people that aren't getting in on the lottery, there's going to be new. But I do notice every year they say how many people are new.

732
01:11:32,170 --> 01:11:47,370
Dick and Natalie
And it seems like about 50% of the people are new. So we have their they base set of people that are kind of teaching the new people what's going on. And I think after you learn what it's all about, I think Usually you want to do it at least once.

733
01:11:47,370 --> 01:12:09,140
Dick and Natalie
oh you know And I've known several volunteers that are volunteering only so that they can get in so they can do it the next year because they've tried in the lottery several times and couldn't get in. ah I hope it stays up as as long as the the ranch keeps supporting it. you know there They've got their business agenda and hopefully it makes money for as long as it makes money for them, I think they'll they'll keep doing it.

734
01:12:09,140 --> 01:12:13,790
Dick and Natalie
And I don't know anything about that part of it. Especially if they start watching ating adding some of these things that they're talking, you know, it would be amazing if you didn't have an e-bike, but you could use a mountain bike during the comp, you know, but then you would go across the canyon real real fast.

735
01:12:13,790 --> 01:12:29,720
Robert
Yeah,

736
01:12:29,720 --> 01:12:30,730
Dick and Natalie
That would make some of those things interesting.

737
01:12:30,730 --> 01:12:31,320
Ari Grode
I

738
01:12:31,320 --> 01:12:38,550
Robert
yeah there might be some people that go across the canyon a little too slow though if they're on a mountain bike. you know They might take a couple of spills here and there, so who knows?

739
01:12:38,550 --> 01:12:38,630
Dick and Natalie
I've been always worried out there now that they have cows and some other animals, I'd be worried on those mountain bike trails of running into some animal.

740
01:12:38,630 --> 01:12:47,190
Ari Grode
wouldn't... Yeah.

741
01:12:47,190 --> 01:12:54,290
Dick and Natalie
It's just, but I'm not a mountain biker. I like to have two intact clavicles. Are you guys mountain bikers?

742
01:12:54,290 --> 01:12:56,020
Robert
but i will I will do it in like on certain trips or something like that, but I don't um don't mountain bike regularly.

743
01:12:56,020 --> 01:13:00,960
Ari Grode
and i wouldt yeah

744
01:13:00,960 --> 01:13:02,220
Dick and Natalie
No.

745
01:13:02,220 --> 01:13:02,440
Ari Grode
Yeah, same here.

746
01:13:02,440 --> 01:13:02,940
Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

747
01:13:02,940 --> 01:13:05,870
Ari Grode
Same here.

748
01:13:05,870 --> 01:13:06,830
Robert
Yeah.

749
01:13:06,830 --> 01:13:11,230
Dick and Natalie
Hopefully it stays the same. as As long as you intend to keep coming, I guess it'll it'll it'll stay high.

750
01:13:11,230 --> 01:13:13,130
Robert
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's it's funny, we ah like, I've got some friends here in New York that they used to joke around like, man, Rob never shuts up about horseshoe hell.

751
01:13:13,130 --> 01:13:21,750
Ari Grode
Yeah.

752
01:13:21,750 --> 01:13:25,930
Robert
And then they finally came last year and they're like, and they're like, now we don't shut up about horseshoe hell. And like, they love it, like they're hooked.

753
01:13:25,930 --> 01:13:27,030
Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

754
01:13:27,030 --> 01:13:39,290
Robert
So it's like, it's like you said, when you get newbies that are shown the ropes and they like enjoy the experience, like all of a sudden everyone's bought in for for life. So I think it'll keep going for a long time, if I had to guess.

755
01:13:39,290 --> 01:13:52,600
Dick and Natalie
yeah we we had We had some friends from Vegas that showed it up at night, like early in the early, like 1 in the morning, maybe 11 at night, something like that, and came to our cabin.

756
01:13:52,600 --> 01:14:03,730
Dick and Natalie
And they'd never been to HCR. And they had all these dreams of what they're going to do Two strong, young climbers. Oh, we're going to climb all these right ten blah, blah, blah, blah. I said, yeah, OK, great.

757
01:14:03,730 --> 01:14:20,980
Dick and Natalie
And so we gave them a quick walk around before it started. And they crushed. They crushed, they did all these onsite and everything. And at the end I said, well, how'd you like it? He said, well, I don't know, was pretty rough. and And I talked to him later and he said, well, on the way back, we were planning, how are we gonna do a different next year?

758
01:14:20,980 --> 01:14:20,990
Robert
Oh.

759
01:14:20,990 --> 01:14:21,090
Ari Grode
Mm-hmm.

760
01:14:21,090 --> 01:14:25,990
Dick and Natalie
So it's kind of like type two fun, then it almost becomes type one fun. You know, it's like, it's like two fun, like, oh man, I don't know, that was really rough.

761
01:14:25,990 --> 01:14:30,090
Ari Grode
Yeah.

762
01:14:30,090 --> 01:14:35,020
Dick and Natalie
and But you're so happy you're so happy what first when the sun comes up.

763
01:14:35,020 --> 01:14:35,030
Robert
oh

764
01:14:35,030 --> 01:15:03,310
Dick and Natalie
And then you're so happy when you have your beer. Then you're so happy when you eat something good that tastes good. but Those three things, I think. Whenever you watch these shows on TV about survival stuff, and they talk about how good food tastes when they're in that state, I think the 24 puts everybody in that state where you appreciate your sleep, you appreciate your beer, you appreciate yeah you know there're your your pizza when it's over.

765
01:15:03,310 --> 01:15:03,490
Dick and Natalie
I think

766
01:15:03,490 --> 01:15:09,090
Ari Grode
Yeah, that post-competition beer is is maybe the best beer of the year.

767
01:15:09,090 --> 01:15:15,580
Robert
yeah The post-competition nap is one thing that i look forward to on my schedule year in and year out as well.

768
01:15:15,580 --> 01:15:15,690
Dick and Natalie
i

769
01:15:15,690 --> 01:15:16,420
Robert
That is absolutely exhilarated.

770
01:15:16,420 --> 01:15:18,100
Dick and Natalie
i am a hard I have a hard time.

771
01:15:18,100 --> 01:15:19,390
Robert
Oh

772
01:15:19,390 --> 01:15:28,930
Dick and Natalie
I've always had a hard time Well, when I wrote software, which they ran my software for like eight or nine years, um I had to go to work as soon as I was done.

773
01:15:28,930 --> 01:15:30,210
Robert
ah no, that's brutal.

774
01:15:30,210 --> 01:15:31,330
Dick and Natalie
Because i was I was the person that had to deal with any of the problems, so I couldn't take a nap.

775
01:15:31,330 --> 01:15:34,920
Robert
Yeah,

776
01:15:34,920 --> 01:15:35,500
Robert
yeah.

777
01:15:35,500 --> 01:15:41,790
Dick and Natalie
But after after luke took over, I was just so hyped up, I i had a hard time taking a nap. And that looked pretty easy, but I was just kind walking around.

778
01:15:41,790 --> 01:15:46,150
Robert
Yeah.

779
01:15:46,150 --> 01:15:46,490
Robert
Yeah.

780
01:15:46,490 --> 01:15:48,900
Dick and Natalie
I'd sleep well that night, though.

781
01:15:48,900 --> 01:16:09,000
Ari Grode
Yeah, that's a funny comment you made earlier about the ah you know how how you go from suffering mode to what can we do better. the the delta and The delta for Rob and I between when we finish and celebrate to like when we start talking about what we could do better the next year is usually about like two minutes on the walk back down to the to the trading post.

782
01:16:09,000 --> 01:16:09,540
Robert
yeah

783
01:16:09,540 --> 01:16:15,030
Ari Grode
We're already like, well, I don't know. We could probably shave a little bit of time if we did this next year.

784
01:16:15,030 --> 01:16:15,410
Robert
And then without fail, the next, the next year, we're already doing something completely different strategically.

785
01:16:15,410 --> 01:16:19,960
Dick and Natalie
yeah you

786
01:16:19,960 --> 01:16:21,720
Robert
So it doesn't even matter. Different goals.

787
01:16:21,720 --> 01:16:22,230
Dick and Natalie
like you you you pick up You pick up pointers from let's seeing other people.

788
01:16:22,230 --> 01:16:24,840
Robert
Yeah.

789
01:16:24,840 --> 01:16:25,410
Dick and Natalie
You say, oh, I never thought about doing that.

790
01:16:25,410 --> 01:16:28,600
Ari Grode
Right, yeah.

791
01:16:28,600 --> 01:16:30,740
Dick and Natalie
that That was a really good idea. you know

792
01:16:30,740 --> 01:16:31,570
Robert
yeah

793
01:16:31,570 --> 01:16:32,170
Dick and Natalie
There are too many of those aha moments out there, but every once in a while you'll see one and and make note.

794
01:16:32,170 --> 01:16:39,030
Ari Grode
if

795
01:16:39,030 --> 01:16:42,290
Dick and Natalie
I think when people started climbing in trail shoes, that was one of them. Like, why?

796
01:16:42,290 --> 01:16:42,990
Ari Grode
Yeah, oh, for sure.

797
01:16:42,990 --> 01:16:48,930
Dick and Natalie
Let me go see if I can climb with some cruisers on and instead of my TC pros.

798
01:16:48,930 --> 01:16:49,070
Ari Grode
Yeah, if you could...

799
01:16:49,070 --> 01:16:49,130
Dick and Natalie
Or some different ways people manage their ropes. Like some people had laundry baskets or IKEA bags or, you know, we some of that kind of gave us the idea that why don't we just put it in a tarp and just like, we don't have to keep stuffing it in a backpack that way.

800
01:16:49,130 --> 01:17:07,230
Robert
Yeah, i brought a

801
01:17:07,230 --> 01:17:18,990
Dick and Natalie
We just grab it and we go, we don't have to keep rolling it back up in any perfect way. Also you're, you know, you pull the rope, it's in the tarp, you pull up the tarp, the four corners of the tarp and you go to your next route and it's already laid out.

802
01:17:18,990 --> 01:17:21,550
Dick and Natalie
Like you don't have to reflake or you know, so yeah, just little things like that.

803
01:17:21,550 --> 01:17:25,380
Ari Grode
Yeah. Yeah.

804
01:17:25,380 --> 01:17:36,530
Dick and Natalie
i think one of the biggest thing for us as far as yeah you don't realize at first, um, doing two laps in a row, each person doing two laps in a row, you don't alternate people that alternate.

805
01:17:36,530 --> 01:17:41,060
Dick and Natalie
It wastes so much time unless it's a hard route. There's no reason to alternate. You do two laps.

806
01:17:41,060 --> 01:17:41,120
Ari Grode
yeah

807
01:17:41,120 --> 01:17:42,960
Robert
Doesn't matter anymore.

808
01:17:42,960 --> 01:17:54,490
Dick and Natalie
Yeah, now we're got that's what that's what's so good. Yeah, now all this all these these fine crossover strategies that everybody had. um We're moving to the next route. What difference does it make if you have to untie and retie?

809
01:17:54,490 --> 01:18:05,320
Dick and Natalie
re We're going 30 feet to the next route. That's true. Some of those strategies are obsolete now. Yeah, that's true.

810
01:18:05,320 --> 01:18:05,960
Ari Grode
Hehehehe.

811
01:18:05,960 --> 01:18:11,100
Robert
yeah I feel like we just became fluent and then they changed the language on us, but that's part of the fun, right? Figuring it all out.

812
01:18:11,100 --> 01:18:14,720
Dick and Natalie
Yeah. I think it was good that they changed them myself.

813
01:18:14,720 --> 01:18:15,570
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

814
01:18:15,570 --> 01:18:15,740
Dick and Natalie
I just feel like it's kind of a passing of the torch, so to speak.

815
01:18:15,740 --> 01:18:19,140
Robert
A nice little challenge.

816
01:18:19,140 --> 01:18:31,880
Dick and Natalie
um You know, Dick's always been the oldest one in the competition. um is that it think, a

817
01:18:31,880 --> 01:18:31,970
Dick and Natalie
who am I trying to think of? um Oh, no, they're not in new anywhere close. No, no, no.

818
01:18:31,970 --> 01:18:37,300
Robert
What about whiskey and tequila?

819
01:18:37,300 --> 01:18:37,700
Robert
Okay.

820
01:18:37,700 --> 01:18:48,500
Dick and Natalie
ah Who am I thinking of? In um from Columbia? Yeah, Carpowitz, Carpowitz, Jim Carpowitz. No, they're 10 years below me. are Are they? Okay, 60. So I'm in my 70s.

821
01:18:48,500 --> 01:19:01,120
Dick and Natalie
Right. So even when you were we start when we started you were in your 50s. And you were still the oldest one. Their combined age was what it was their combined age more than our combined age. I've got 16 years on her.

822
01:19:01,120 --> 01:19:04,710
Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

823
01:19:04,710 --> 01:19:30,000
Dick and Natalie
Rob DeCray. Yeah. They were two sixties and we were at the time. Yeah. right That's, that's right. Um, so Dick's always been the oldest one and I've been one of the older ladies, although there have been a few ladies my age or older that have climbed in it. And we just kind of feel like, you know, maybe most everybody else was in their twenties when they started. Now they're having, you know, having kids and all that stuff.

824
01:19:30,000 --> 01:19:35,350
Dick and Natalie
And it's kind of like time to pass the torch to uh,

825
01:19:35,350 --> 01:19:43,950
Dick and Natalie
the the kids that have learned to climb in the gym from the time they were four, and now they're on the climbing team, then they are going to be crushing it. So...

826
01:19:43,950 --> 01:19:44,280
Robert
Yeah.

827
01:19:44,280 --> 01:19:44,800
Ari Grode
Yeah. Yeah.

828
01:19:44,800 --> 01:19:47,350
Dick and Natalie
well

829
01:19:47,350 --> 01:19:47,980
Robert
Yeah, there's going to be some, I feel like that just across the board, not to go on too big of a tangent, but it's like this whole year, i feel like has been to like a very, don't like big display of what the the product of gym climbing can lead to.

830
01:19:47,980 --> 01:20:03,700
Ari Grode
yeah

831
01:20:03,700 --> 01:20:04,070
Dick and Natalie
oh

832
01:20:04,070 --> 01:20:04,570
Robert
Cause it's like last year was Olympics and then this year is not Olympics.

833
01:20:04,570 --> 01:20:07,040
Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

834
01:20:07,040 --> 01:20:10,070
Robert
So everyone that was training hard their entire life for that is now just unleashed on the world.

835
01:20:10,070 --> 01:20:11,530
Dick and Natalie
Right.

836
01:20:11,530 --> 01:20:22,160
Robert
And it's like, you know, 70s had records like, Brooke rabbit is doing like everybody's just Hamish is going off and it's like, yeah I'm sure somebody like in the next three, four years are going to do something hell that's going to be like mind boggling.

837
01:20:22,160 --> 01:20:35,430
Dick and Natalie
We just see that. um We see the kids that I've been training. you know In the two years, give an example of like one girl, I've had her for two years.

838
01:20:35,430 --> 01:20:50,220
Dick and Natalie
She couldn't do any chin-ups at all. Couldn't do one chin-up. Now she cranks off eight on offset with the upper one being a pinch. you know and And she can she can do you know like, she adds 30 pounds and cranks off four or five pull-ups.

839
01:20:50,220 --> 01:21:00,180
Dick and Natalie
And their finger strength and the stuff they can do the dinos they can do the man, this blows you away. I mean, it's just...

840
01:21:00,180 --> 01:21:16,300
Dick and Natalie
um I'm glad um I had something to do with some of their progress, but I'm dumbfounded by ah how strong they are and what they can climb at their ages, you know like 11 and 12 years old. It's just, we we have 16 kids on our team.

841
01:21:16,300 --> 01:21:30,380
Dick and Natalie
And when we show up after our warmup, which is extensive, when we show up down in the bouldering area, it pretty much everybody kind of clears out because they see these kids come in and run up, you know, the V6s and the V8s.

842
01:21:30,380 --> 01:21:35,350
Dick and Natalie
And then pretty soon it's like, hey, but we got the bowling area to ourselves.

843
01:21:35,350 --> 01:21:35,920
Ari Grode
Yeah.

844
01:21:35,920 --> 01:21:43,990
Robert
Yeah, maybe that's the next real change we need to tell Jeremy is like, we need to like up the minimum age requirement to compete in hell just so like we all still have a chance.

845
01:21:43,990 --> 01:22:00,600
Dick and Natalie
yeah yeah right now 18 most of the most of the kids on our team. I mean, they're under 16, most of them. under sixteen most of and but One year they did have it where they they had some climbing team show up and that was a disaster.

846
01:22:00,600 --> 01:22:14,320
Dick and Natalie
Those kids didn't. Oh, man, their parents were bringing them food. They were trading off belayers. They were projecting routes. They were doing everything wrong. They they came for a crying day. Yeah, and so they finally had to say, no, 18.

847
01:22:14,320 --> 01:22:17,740
Dick and Natalie
and we just can't We just can't have that happen again. That was a whole disaster.

848
01:22:17,740 --> 01:22:17,930
Robert
yeah

849
01:22:17,930 --> 01:22:18,840
Ari Grode
Yeah.

850
01:22:18,840 --> 01:22:22,380
Robert
I'm sure they also saw some outfits that they probably didn't need to see anytime soon either as well.

851
01:22:22,380 --> 01:22:23,200
Dick and Natalie
Oh, that's the other thing.

852
01:22:23,200 --> 01:22:23,380
Robert
So yeah.

853
01:22:23,380 --> 01:22:26,180
Dick and Natalie
It is not child friendly there at all.

854
01:22:26,180 --> 01:22:26,910
Robert
Yeah, no, there's a couple.

855
01:22:26,910 --> 01:22:28,270
Dick and Natalie
Yeah, I would not bring,

856
01:22:28,270 --> 01:22:29,100
Robert
Yeah.

857
01:22:29,100 --> 01:22:34,680
Dick and Natalie
yeah That's another thing. child They'll probably say, okay, boomer, but there's a lot of us i didn' know yeah that I didn't approve of.

858
01:22:34,680 --> 01:22:37,100
Robert
Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah.

859
01:22:37,100 --> 01:22:45,500
Dick and Natalie
I don't want to look up and see that and at all, especially if there's a little kid next to me. But that's me being an old fuddy-duddy, I guess.

860
01:22:45,500 --> 01:22:45,920
Ari Grode
Haha.

861
01:22:45,920 --> 01:23:03,250
Dick and Natalie
Well, I'll tell you what really probably makes us realize, i mean, when we're hanging out with our friends, lot of our friends are 20 years younger than us. But I think what makes us realize sometimes how much older we are is the after party and, you know, all of that stuff going on.

862
01:23:03,250 --> 01:23:15,870
Dick and Natalie
You know, they have lights and people are wearing giant heads and bumping into each other. And we're like, let's get some chairs and go to the far part of the ranch and look at stars.

863
01:23:15,870 --> 01:23:18,240
Dick and Natalie
It's just not our thing. So we definitely feel our aches.

864
01:23:18,240 --> 01:23:19,270
Robert
Yeah.

865
01:23:19,270 --> 01:23:19,730
Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

866
01:23:19,730 --> 01:23:32,080
Robert
No, you're certainly not the only ones. I mean, we go in there and we try to go enjoy the concert and like we always get to the edge of the mosh pit and I've always just left scratching my head like, i don't think this this part right here.

867
01:23:32,080 --> 01:23:36,760
Robert
don't think that one's me. I don't know. i don't quite know how to ah attempt to enter that that circle. So I stay out of that one as well.

868
01:23:36,760 --> 01:23:38,530
Ari Grode
the

869
01:23:38,530 --> 01:23:38,620
Dick and Natalie
Yeah.

870
01:23:38,620 --> 01:23:40,850
Ari Grode
The idea of someone stepping on my toe after I've been in climbing shoes for 24 hours is motivation enough.

871
01:23:40,850 --> 01:23:41,970
Dick and Natalie
We used like, used to go to.

872
01:23:41,970 --> 01:23:43,140
Robert
yeah

873
01:23:43,140 --> 01:23:43,850
Dick and Natalie
That's right.

874
01:23:43,850 --> 01:23:45,680
Robert
Thank you.

875
01:23:45,680 --> 01:24:02,260
Dick and Natalie
When they headed up in the pavilion, it was great for us because we'd go down in the field where they now have the band now. And we'd go down in the middle of that field and and just sit there and look for shooting stars while the noise was up the hill. Now it's it's down there in the field.

876
01:24:02,260 --> 01:24:08,370
Dick and Natalie
But I think that's one of the reasons if some people show up, they come for the party atmosphere, and yeah they which is you know more of a festival for some and more of a climbing competition for others, which is what it was always meant to be.

877
01:24:08,370 --> 01:24:15,130
Ari Grode
Yeah.

878
01:24:15,130 --> 01:24:17,320
Ari Grode
yeah

879
01:24:17,320 --> 01:24:28,880
Robert
Well, this either way, i mean, obviously we all have our thoughts on how much we do or don't enjoy the after party, but I can confidently say like this conversation has been incredibly enjoyable for both Ari and myself.

880
01:24:28,880 --> 01:24:43,640
Robert
Like this was so fun to sit down and i don't know, like obviously we've climbed together a little bit throughout the years at hell and had little conversations here and there, the wee hours of the night, but getting to like sit down and actually hear it, like start to finish what your experience has been like, it's been awesome.

881
01:24:43,640 --> 01:24:43,740
Dick and Natalie
Oh,

882
01:24:43,740 --> 01:24:46,060
Robert
So can't thank you guys enough for doing this.

883
01:24:46,060 --> 01:24:46,690
Robert
This is a blast.

884
01:24:46,690 --> 01:24:48,410
Dick and Natalie
I appreciate it. Oh, thank you.

885
01:24:48,410 --> 01:24:48,480
Ari Grode
Yeah.

886
01:24:48,480 --> 01:24:49,430
Dick and Natalie
We enjoyed it.

887
01:24:49,430 --> 01:24:52,790
Ari Grode
Yeah. so we're We're stoked to see guys in not too long now, few weeks.

888
01:24:52,790 --> 01:24:52,870
Dick and Natalie
Oh, for sure. it's true Yep. Part of the family now. yes

889
01:24:52,870 --> 01:24:56,760
Robert
Yeah, we have a month, right?

890
01:24:56,760 --> 01:24:57,750
Robert
Yeah, right?

891
01:24:57,750 --> 01:25:00,630
Dick and Natalie
All right. Stop by our cabin. Yeah. ah Do you have a cabin when you're going down there?

892
01:25:00,630 --> 01:25:01,680
Robert
Absolutely.

893
01:25:01,680 --> 01:25:03,540
Dick and Natalie
or do you have a place you're staying?

894
01:25:03,540 --> 01:25:06,240
Robert
We stay like five minutes ah away at a cabin.

895
01:25:06,240 --> 01:25:07,240
Dick and Natalie
Okay. If you need a bathroom, knock on our door.

896
01:25:07,240 --> 01:25:07,280
Ari Grode
Yeah. Like a air but it's like an Airbnb, not too, not too far.

897
01:25:07,280 --> 01:25:12,300
Robert
Yeah.

898
01:25:12,300 --> 01:25:13,090
Robert
appreciate Appreciate that.

899
01:25:13,090 --> 01:25:13,460
Dick and Natalie
You know where we are, don't you?

900
01:25:13,460 --> 01:25:15,350
Robert
We might take you up on that.

901
01:25:15,350 --> 01:25:17,630
Dick and Natalie
You know where we are, right?

902
01:25:17,630 --> 01:25:21,540
Robert
If you're behind the volunteers cabin then, that what you're saying?

903
01:25:21,540 --> 01:25:24,370
Dick and Natalie
we're We're next to her you know where the Red Bull 10 We're in the right-hand side of that cabin.

904
01:25:24,370 --> 01:25:26,980
Robert
Yeah, yeah.

905
01:25:26,980 --> 01:25:27,220
Ari Grode
ah Okay, cool.

906
01:25:27,220 --> 01:25:28,200
Robert
Okay, amazing.

907
01:25:28,200 --> 01:25:32,190
Dick and Natalie
We're kind of grandfathered into that because of all the software work he did for free. yeah so yeah That was an agreement when they bought the ranch too.

908
01:25:32,190 --> 01:25:36,120
Robert
Love that.

909
01:25:36,120 --> 01:25:36,380
Robert
Nice.

910
01:25:36,380 --> 01:25:36,930
Ari Grode
Oh yeah?

911
01:25:36,930 --> 01:25:37,230
Dick and Natalie
He would keep the 24 and we got that cabin.

912
01:25:37,230 --> 01:25:39,010
Robert
Yeah, written in stone, that's awesome.

913
01:25:39,010 --> 01:25:41,170
Dick and Natalie
What happened was after Tommy stayed with us,

914
01:25:41,170 --> 01:25:46,390
Robert
Yeah, we've never figured out how to get a cabin on the premises, so we always just try to get the closest Airbnb we can find.

915
01:25:46,390 --> 01:25:47,830
Dick and Natalie
ah

916
01:25:47,830 --> 01:25:48,030
Robert
cause

917
01:25:48,030 --> 01:26:06,630
Dick and Natalie
what happened was after after tommy stayed with us um he offered to pay us because we we paid for the cabin that year. And then we just kind of approached the Johnsons at the time and said, you know, um at the time I was running the software and that's when they accomplished the cabin. And it's been that way ever since.

918
01:26:06,630 --> 01:26:06,930
Dick and Natalie
So it's been good.

919
01:26:06,930 --> 01:26:07,430
Robert
Love that.

920
01:26:07,430 --> 01:26:08,210
Dick and Natalie
Awesome.

921
01:26:08,210 --> 01:26:08,900
Ari Grode
Nice.

922
01:26:08,900 --> 01:26:09,900
Robert
All right, all right, we gotta get on our