How did you get into climbing?
My uncle Raymond Holland. When I was 5 years old, he took me for a walk in the foothills. He literally pulled me up a 20-foot waterfall with a piece of webbing. I always retain all these memories of wanting to interact with the mountains and climb. And it’s still like that now, even though I don’t mountaineer or engage in alpine climbing: if I want a mountain interaction, I don’t necessarily climb, I’ll go for a mountain run. I still like to be at elevation and I still like to breathe the clean air and be in that environment

How old were you when you did your first roped pitch?
About 12. My uncle and I did a 5.6 crack, with hexes and stuff

It sounds like the mountains of New Mexico are really in your blood too.
Exactly. I’ve done some 14ers in Colorado, the Crestone Needle and the Crestone Peak, and those are important things to me, even If I’m not doing them for a record or athletic performance. I don’t view it the way I view my rock climbing now, but I’m very aware that my relationship with the outdoors is what motivated me to become a rock climber. When I’m too old to physically rock climb, that’s what I’ll do. Ill still do 14ers, I’ll still go hiking, I’ll still do mountain runs. It’s a pyramid: in the beginning I hiked and trad climbed. Then you go into rock climbing, then performance rock climbing, then more easy rock climbing when I’m really old. When I’m older than that, I’ll still be running. And when I can no longer run, I’ll go hiking, just all the way until I die…on a continuum.

Do you have a dog?
No, I have three cats. One of my cats walks with me around the neighborhood. Walking’s human. Everybody in Europe walks, and we’re always thinking that’s why they live long and why they don’t get fat. I think it’s more than that: I think walking calms you down. It’s human. It’s something you can always do, even when you get old.

I’ve noticed when it’s winter and I talk Clyde for a walk out in the midday sun, I have a lot better of a day. It’s a simple ritual.
Or just go for an easy run. It’s like, ‘OK, now I’m enjoying this, instead of suffering.’ I think what changes today, in regard to climbing, instead of climbing to promote your athleticism, climbing fits into the rest of your life, and if the climbing is doing something to destroy you, whether physically or mentally, psychologically, you shouldn’t be doing it. So you should be finding a way to climb that renders you more content and healthy. During my earlier years, like a lot of younger climbers, I sacrificed my overall health for climbing performance. That’s what changed for me; that’s what keeping me wanting to train and climb now.

Was facing an eating disorder part of this? I know you wrote pretty openly about dealing with bulimia.
Yeah, that was when I was 19, and also during the sport-climbing era, when things were lower angle and you didn’t need as much muscle so you couldn’t eat as much. But I see kids going through it now, too.