Episode 93: Being Good Climbing Partners with Scott Pagel and Tyler Algeo
A good climbing partner can be your greatest asset. If you dispute this, it's because you've never had a great partner, and you're just going to have to trust me.
This episode could easily have been categorized as a Not So Average Joe episode. This is because both of these guys still don't quite understand what their capable of, and it's unlikely they would have reached their current level without the other on the belay.
I've worked with both Scott and Tyler for quite some time, and I'm damned proud of the work we've done. We all sat down together in Cincinnati to discuss the ins and outs and ups and downs of being climbing partners. What it means, how to recognize it, and how to cultivate it. We walk through a season that for both of them has been paradigm shifting.
They are two opposites who have built something that both can stand on to reach further, and are eager to continue learning and improving. While Tyler is the more analytical of the two, both analyze every detail of their climbing days and talk it over. This paragraph from a recent email speaks volumes:
“What we’ve recognized is that this couldn’t have been better for Scott the ‘performer’, a hyper-extrovert loving living in a cabin with 8 people continually refuelled and recharged by an awesome group. In stark contrast there is me the major introvert. By the end of the week Scott was unstoppable and I was completely shattered. Fast forward ONE rest day (the same amount of time we took throughout the trip) during which I ate a bunch of comfort food and had some hardcore introvert time I felt like I was at 100% and should be crushing rocks on Monday. Meanwhile Scott reported a fair bit of soreness Monday. Seems like (given how physically fresh I feel), that I was mentally/emotionally depleted throughout the week rather than being physically depleted. At the end of the week I was feeling really tired of trying hard and eager to go back to being a weekend warrior and only having to try really hard once a week. ”
The following videos are comparisons made by Tyler, the "thinker" of he and Scott on recent big sends. If you aren't doing this at least occasionally, you definitely should be.
Both Tyler and Scott started their training journey with our Climb 5.12 program.
Joy Black is a strength and climbing coach specializing in working with pregnant and postpartum climbers.