EP 259: Randy Leavitt — Developing 1000+ New Routes, the Anti-dirtbag Lifestyle, and Why the Best Day of Surfing Beats Climbing

Randy Leavitt is a climbing pioneer, prolific route developer, pilot, and surfer. We talked about training on the Dune Cracks with Tony Yaniro, inventing the Leavittation offwidth technique, his journey from mountaineering to sport climbing, bolting Jumbo Love and other famous routes, why money equals freedom, his passion for surfing, reflections from almost drowning, aging gracefully, and much more.

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Show Notes:  

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/randy-leavitt

Nuggets:

(00:00:00) – Intro

(00:01:12) – The Dune Cracks

(00:05:52) – Offwidth climbing

(00:09:17) – Traumatic hip belays

(00:14:35) – Bolting Jumbo Love

(00:20:01) – From mountaineering to sport climbing

(00:26:03) – Book of Hate

(00:31:11) – Planet Earth

(00:33:39) – The first cell phones

(00:39:47) – Money, freedom, & happiness

(00:42:45) – Surfing vs. climbing

(00:54:15) – The vision of new routing

(00:56:52) – A new area in Baja

(01:01:16) – Thinking ahead to 40

(01:13:44) – Almost drowning

(01:21:50) – Aging gracefully

(01:27:54) – Hallux limitus

(01:34:24) – Getting remodeled

(01:39:21) – Piloting

(01:49:55) – More route development

(01:53:36) – The Grand Canyon

(01:56:26) – Time

(02:00:06) – Don’t squander your days