The hard-climbing icon Dave Graham, 26, is manic, tweaky, and opinionated. He’s also best understood in person and in his element — with friends and at the rocks, where you’ll find him in a hoody and sneakers, waving his gangly arms to pantomime Beta. Graham’s lived on the road for eight years now, ever since leaving Portland, Maine, for France, Spain, Switzerland — wherever his quest for hard FAs leads him. Anyone who knows Graham is well-acquainted with his under-the-radar gypsy lifestyle, rapid-fire rants, and streams of consciousness (see his Pro Blog). It was in the Northeast’s Rumney, New Hampshire, that Graham first made breakthrough FAs like The Fly (5.14d; 2000) while still a teenager. To this day, an endless, contagious energy powers him to climb almost daily, and Graham’s remained on top with sends like his April FA of The Island (V15), in Fontainebleau... with a finger injury, no less, and in just three days.
The idea of a constant plan is nice. I like this modern, quite futuristic idea of the moving, breathing, living, liquid plan — very malleable and all relative to the weather, feelings, and sensations deep inside.

When I started climbing, Smith Rock was the shit, Chris Sharma had just been to Mount Charleston, Dan Osman was soloing [running] waterfalls in Masters of Stone, and where I was from, people climbed mostly in North Conway and the Gunks. Perhaps I started at the right time, because I feel I had a taste of the old school — the history that brought us where we are.

My crew in the Northeast was small but powerful. Our faction, dedicated to the quest of development, took things quite seriously. But the motto was, never think you’re that cool — you’re still just climbing rocks...in the woods'... with bugs... and everyone thinks you’re crazy. We humbled ourselves with this logic and, in turn, never had a limit on what we expected to achieve. This helped to improve and develop our vision.