Joel Benk (a prominent member of the newer generation of local crushers!) had a very cool idea to record a conversation about some Rockies bouldering history and development. We had a great chat, covering quite a swath of topics. Joel asked some really interesting questions, and we talked for nearly five hours, yet just scratched the surface of things! A lot gets lost in translation between my brain and my mouth, but Joel did a great job of editing my rambling!
There are so many more people, places, climbs, and stories that deserve the spotlight. The following names in particular stand out as those who have come up time and again in what I’ve heard, read, or seen of Alberta’s bouldering timeline. Some I’ve never met, and some I’ve gotten to know well:
Brian Greenwood, Charlie Locke, Urs Kallen, Jack Firth, Bill Stark, Jeff Marshall, JD LeBlanc, Richard Conover, Jason Holt, Kevin Wilson, Lev Pinter, Scott Milton, Seth Mason, Simon Villeneuve, Dan Archambault, Chris Fink, Dung Nguyen, Greg Tos, Marcus Norman, Randy Coleman, Daren Tremaine, Ryan Johnstone, Rich Castillo, Knut Rockne, Jake King, Lloyd King, Greg Cornell, Dominic Orsler, Kyle Marco, Evan Erickson, Adam Currie, Trent Hoover, Scott Eveleigh, Mark Eveleigh, Eric Sethna, Jared Gillis, Mark Derksen, Morgan Dunnet, Dan Anhorn, Sean Peters, Jake Tiger, Sam Carr, Rauth Clement, Loic Fujinaga, Matt Lucas, Jon Moir, Sandro Sandrin, Tristyn Butler, Bradley George, Hunter Lee, Josh Muller, Zac Robinson, (and Joel himself, of course). . .
I’m sure there are many important people I’ve missed in this list!
I hope we did some justice to some of the story of Alberta bouldering, and that this is the first of many more episodes!
If you have any important or interesting corrections or additions, it would be great to hear them!
