EP 182: Carlos Tkacz & Steph Letourneau — Lessons From 7 Trips to Rocklands, Being Good at Being Consistent, and Writing Novels

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

Carlos Tkacz returns and is joined by his partner Steph Letourneau for a sitdown here in Rocklands. We talked about their diet habits, lessons from their 7 trips to Rocklands, learning to try harder, comparison games, respecting the difficulty of climbing, being good at being consistent, balancing your carbon footprint, making the most of a climbing trip to South Africa, writing novels, and much more!

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• Leo Franchi, Michael Roy, David Lahaie, Robert Freehill, Jeremiah Johnson, Scott Donahue, Eli Conlee, Skyler Maxwell, Craig Lee, Mark and Julie Calhoun, Yinan Liu, Renzollama, Zach Emery, and Brandt Mickolas

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Carlos's Previous Episode:

EP 58: Carlos Tkacz

Show Notes:

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/carlos-and-steph

Nuggets:

0:03:36 – Breakfast and food habits

0:06:24 – Trading climbing days with your partner

0:08:48 – Resting more to climb harder

0:11:01 – 7 trips to Rocklands apiece, and how to make long flights better

0:13:12 – Teaching and going back to school

0:19:01 – Why Carlos and Steph keep coming back to Rocklands year after year

0:21:23 – Steph’s experience on her first trip to Rocklands, and why both of them prefer bouldering to trad climbing

0:28:01 – Describing Rocklands’ style, Carlos’ first 8B ‘Monkey Business', and learning to try harder

0:33:10 – Steph’s lesson in trying hard, practicing her yell in the car, and getting hyped on Adele

0:37:21 – Carlos' experience watching a guy yell in Thailand, Coach Carlos, and asking if people want feedback

0:39:50 – Steph’s send of ‘Ghost in the Darkness’ 7C/+, and trying ‘Caroline’ 7C+

0:43:02 – Carlos’ tick list from the trip, sending ‘Airstar’ 8B, and reconnecting with the joy of climbing

0:46:16 – What helped Carlos change his mindset, and sending ‘Into the Void’ 8B

0:50:01 – Sending ‘Airstar’, and drawing inspiration from “the kids”

0:52:36 – Favorite Rocklands films

0:57:21 – Struggling with comparison games, respecting the difficulty of climbing, and doing your best

1:07:35 – Climbing is centralizing, and mental energy as a finite resource

1:09:42 – Unpacking my feelings about not progressing quickly enough, and our American obsession with speed

1:12:21 – Being good at being consistent

1:14:12 – Dopamine hits vs. building relationships with climbs

1:19:22 – Growing as a climber in Rocklands, and the stories we tell ourselves

1:22:13 – My shift in mindset in Rocklands, and redefining a lifetime worth of climbing

1:24:47 – Steph talks about how every season in Rocklands is a completely different experience

1:27:02 – Getting the most out of the experience in South Africa, and learning about the place and its history and politics

1:35:27 – Taking breaks from climbing to have other experiences

1:41:53 – Planning the whole year around their Rocklands trips, and doing two 12-week training blocks

1:45:47 – Teaching

1:55:41 – Flying, carbon footprint, and how our brains make shortcuts

2:06:29 – Being a park person, and how we’ve impacted nature

2:09:26 – Steph’s thoughts on climate from a physics perspective, and trying to be carbon neutral on balance

2:16:59 – Offsetting CO2 emissions

2:20:44 – How they fit their 12-week training blocks into a school semester

2:23:27 – The Training Trip, and building a community in Vegas

2:28:59 – Nesting and baby fever

2:33:04 – Training Weight, and the commitment to family

2:36:16 – Carlos’ new book list

2:40:31 – Speculative fiction

2:42:09 – Carlos’ latest book projects, and Steph’s first novel

2:45:59 – Carlos’ horror film

2:48:19 – Steph’s new book project, and where to find her first book

2:49:54 – Publishing a book

2:53:04 – The feedback Steph got from her publisher

2:54:58 – The Day You Became A Better Writer by Scott Adams

2:56:23 – Having a family, ‘Sky’ as the final boss of the 8Bs, and making the horror movie

2:58:24 – Enjoying the process

2:59:40 – What’s next?