Interview with Jack Osbourne

It’s this weird addiction, the better you get the smaller the holds you pull on, and [then] you get over roofs you never thought you could get over. I always want to up the ante and see how far I can push myself. I’ve never experienced anything like that. I surfed on and off since I was 13, and there is that awesome two-minute rush when you ride a wave, but it’s two minutes too short. The thing with climbing is you get to spend five days on a wall.

Have there been moments when your passion for climbing waned? There was a bit of an epic night in the Valley when we did East Buttress. We were in two teams of three and the first team went up about an hour before us. It was about 95 degrees that day and we had about a liter of water for each of us--we were doing it light and fast. It was absolutely epic; I collapsed at one point because I was so dehydrated as we walked down the Yosemite Falls trail. The whole time I was like “Fuck this, I didn’t get into climbing to die.” But I woke up the next morning and I was happy because I knew I had been pushed to the limit of my physical endurance. Situations like that raise your bar on what you can deal with. Now I’m like, ‘that was piss compared to an epic on El Cap.’

Do you find climbing applies to other aspects of your life? It’s strange, I have something that inspires me and for the longest time I didn’t.  If I have a shit day, and I’m feeling down or thinking everything sucks in my life, it doesn’t because I always have climbing and no one can take that away from me. It just brightens my day knowing that I can go out or train in the gym. It’s my escape and knowing that I have that makes it so much easier.

Now I heard you were on a four-day-on, one-day-off training schedule before the Valley. Where do you usually climb?Mainly outdoors, everyone I climb with is pretty much from England, and I don’t really know many American climbers. When I’m in the U.S., I usually go to the gym with a buddy of mine who is kind of a climber.

You have been dabbling into ice climbing too, on the Mer de Glace in Chamonix. Sounds like your visit was adventurous. I had tonsillitis, but I didn’t want to puss out on the team. We were going to do a 10-pitch Grade 4, but weather conditions got really bad. So we did single-pitch ice climbs in Chamonix. It was something that I wasn’t so into because it seemed a bit repetitive, but I’m going to try it again, and get in form for a good winter season.

What have you taken from your experiences in the Valley and what do you hope to do with climbing in the future? I’ve climbed everything, but Granite kicked the shit out of me. Yosemite totally demoralized me. When you are used to climbing faces and someone puts a crack in front of you, it’s like, ‘What is this thing?’ You have to bump yourself down two grades. I can lead 5.10b sport and I couldn’t lead more than 5.9 trad. I want to go back to Salathe next year, and I want to free more of it. My goal for the end of the year is to be consistently leading 5.10b trad. 

Have you taken your mom or dad out climbing? No, they are petrified of climbing.

For more on this story see Climbing Magazine No. 245, page 36.