EP 105: Brent Barghahn — How to Retire Before Age 30, Extreme Unicycling, and How to Free Climb Big Walls By Yourself

Brent Barghahn has rope soloed ‘The Nose’ in a day, freed multiple routes on El Cap, and is a former engineer at Black Diamond. We talked about how Brent combined van life and “house hacking” to effectively retire at 28-years-old, about motocross and extreme unicycling, cutting his teeth on hard trad routes in LCC, and his setup for redpoint rope soloing.

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Show Notes:

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/brent-barghahn

Nuggets:

0:05:41 – Living in the BD parking lot, using van life as a way to save money, and a snapshot of Brent’s life 2.5 years ago

0:09:40 – My (Steven’s) stint living in a van in my employer’s parking lot

0:10:59 – Brent’s urban van life tips, stealth camping, and choosing van life as a financial tool

0:16:27 – Two different van life ethos

0:17:16 – What Brent’s life looks like now, house hacking, and how Brent “retired” at 28-years-old

0:35:21 – Extreme Unicycling, welding, and his charge account at the local hardware store

0:43:37 – Motocross, and similarities between action sports and trad climbing

0:46:01 – How dangerous climbing stacks up to motocross, and rope soloing The Nose in a day

0:49:04 – Getting hurt every year, quitting motocross, and discovering climbing

0:51:58 – How Brent improved so quickly in climbing, and why he loves technical granite climbing

0:57:38 – Patron question from Christoph: How do you train for hard trad climbing specifically?

0:58:50 – Patron question from Christoph: How does his preparation for hard trad redpoints differ from sport?

1:00:11 – Finishing climbs after a failed flash/onsight attempt

1:01:08 – Brent’s formative years trad climbing in LCC

1:05:48 – Why Brent chooses rope solo free climbing for some of his ascents, and his first rope solo NIAD (Nose in a day)

1:13:27 – Brent’s rope solo free climbing setup, and freeing ‘Father Time’ on Middle Cathedral via rope solo

1:23:31 – Brent’s take on big wall free climbing ethics, groud up ascents, his stance to stance philosophy, and the “Affect Minimal Parties” ethos

1:33:39 – Brent’s biggest aspirations in the Valley

1:34:46 – Brent’s go-to shoes for technical granite, and how he is training for ‘Magic Line’

1:42:24 – Choosing Flagstaff as a home base

1:45:15 – How Brent decides when to go on trips vs. stay local, and finding meaningful “work” now that he is “retired”

1:49:21 – Brent’s blog and other sedentary rest day activities

1:54:22 – What’s next