Sean McColl

This one is a Squamish Legend. First day outdoor climbing of my life - 11 years old. 3 guides (one being my coach), me and my parents. Finish some multi-pitch up the chief and have lunch on BellyGood ledge. After eating, 2 of the guides went to setup the rappel and the 3rd one showed us how to rappel. She slung the rope over a large boulder and was started leaning back on the rope. The rope worked itself up over the top of the rock and when it finally slipped over the top, it shot her backwards. She stumbled backwards a good 5-6 meters until going over the edge. (we are 320m (1000 feet) in the air). My dad dove for the rope, grabbed it as it started sliding through his hands, slowed her a bit, but couldn't hold on.

My mom (nurse) and one of the guides did a speed rappel, they got to her in under 5 minutes and a group of other climbers saw her fall and were already there. She had fallen 100 feet (30m) onto her back and landed on a small ledge 5m (15 feet) wide, destroying a small bush on impact. Over the next ledge, was 900feet (300m) of air.

She suffered only small cuts and felt good enough to walk in 30 minutes. We didn't let her, she was airlifted to the Squamish hospital and discharged shortly after her xrays were all negative.

• 1) I've redpointed 5.14d, V15 (took me more than 1 try) I've flashed 5.14b, V13 (first try of my life)

• 2) I had a huge "cracking" sound on my left knee. Took a few days of no walking followed by 1 month of climbing followed by 4 months of physio 3-4 days a week

• 3) I've never had an agent. As climbing is a relatively small sport, I have to find all my sponsors by myself.

• 4) My family has supported me since I was very young. It helped that at 12 years old, I was (at the time) the youngest person in the world to climb a benchmark climbing grade of 5.14a

• 5) If climbing goes to the Olympics, then the chances of staying in climbing for my whole life is possible. If not, I have a diploma in Computer Science so I might pursue that path.

I would love climbing to be in the Olympics because I've always dreamed of representing my country at that high of level. There's a lot of people that think that it might take a wrong turn if it ever became Olympic but I think it would just further grow the sport. Even now, climbing isn't a recognized sport in Canada, getting it into the Olympics would jump start that process. Yes - I think it would be good for the sport.

• To answer this blatantly: I'm an extremely competitive person.
• Fav sport climb: Dreamcatcher, Squamish

To answer it a bit further: I choose competition rock climbing because over the years, it's what is appealing to me. I love climbing outside as well, but with the world cup seasons being so long, I don't have enough time in the year to do everything. I've also always had the thought that "the rock isn't really going anywhere" but I won't be able to compete, train, travel and maintain this competition level my whole life. I've always thought that when I pull back from competing, outside climbing whether it be bouldering or lead will fill that void.

• Fav type of food: Sushi
• Climbing diet consists of lots of cereal, baguettes, vegetables, some protein, potatoes, pasta and rice. Add in whatever seasonal fruit is in the markets. (apple, nectarine, mango, orange)
• Yes
• Boxers
• Skratch One
• Scream & Shout, Mr.Saxobeat and It Is What It Is
• Fontainebleau
• DisneyLand Paris

• Mostly people are inspired that I've continued a sport this "far". Lots of questions about what's different from other sports, or how much money you can make, or if its in the olympics. People are usually impressed when I show them what I can do (like a front level, or a few one-arm pullups).
• I never expect people to know who I am, because I am completely against that. If people say "hey, are you Sean McColl", i say yes, ask them what their name is and shake their hand. I think of what I'd want if I met one of my sports heroes at the gym. Some ask a question or two others just watch. I'll have to be honest that it gets me into a lot of climbing gyms for free though :)

Yes a big one. I didn't know where to do it, I figured I'd put it on r/IAMA and then answer specifics and let the newer crowd learn as they went along! I even linked it from r/climbing... anyways...

• 1) Funny enough, I never even thought of the 1-5-9, the biggest reason is because none of the campus boards I've been on in the last year or so have been standardized. I've noticed more and more than they're all different, so doing 1-5-9 might be impossible, or maybe too easy. I like doing doubles because I find going up and down at the same time not only builds muscles but everything around those muscles like the fast twitch of being mid air and having to latch two hands at the same time. The training that I do is not only about what I do, but how well I do it and how seriously I take it. Re-read that last sentence, I mean it.

• 2) I had to read that a few times to understand what was going on, but I would say that I've never even tried it so don't really have an opinion on it. I understand he's trying to bring two different aspects together, but I don't combine fast and slow exercises. I focus on one or the other and harmonize them while I'm training actually bouldering training.

• 3) I strongly believe that competition climbing comes down to good decision making. Yes, you need a base of strength to physically climb the routes, but after that, I find I rely on my good decision making to climb so fast during lead. It's something I work on all the time. When I'm at the gym and I see someone who is doing a move differently than how I envisioned it, I try to figure out why they picked that way, sometimes I even ask them. It doesn't matter about their climbing level. Whenever someone points out a method or different way to do something, I take it in and add it to my vocabulary of climbing movements. I'm constantly learning and I hope I will never stop. I hope that made sense...

• 4) I've dabbled a bit in it, but not a lot. I don't do weighted stuff until I'm so strong I get pumped doing exercises I'm good at. I generally just make it hard enough not to add weight. Take for instance dead hangs, if I can do it with two hands, I'll go down to one hand before adding weight with two.

• 5) I don't actually train with the French National Team, I've been invited to a few of their training camps, but then not to their "official" ones because of media presence. I haven't had a coach since I was 18 or 19, but I take exercises from all sorts of sources. French, Austrian, Canadian programs and some I just make up because I thought it was hard to do. I'm always in a constant stage of change, always looking for a new way to train. I always do core things like bouldering, lead, circuits and ab training but always looking for other random things to try. I don't want my body to get used to training, I always want to be pushing it. The way I train is by far not the most number of hours in the gym. There are many climbers that train many more hours than me per week, I feel that maybe they don't try as hard, or are just so ingrained in a rhythm of training that they've lost sight of why they started it in the first place.

• 6a) Fav boulder problem in the USA. = Right Martini (Hueco Tanks)

• 6b) Fav boulder in Squamish (V11 - V12) = Summoning Sit

Glad you like my blog, it's comments like that that make me continue to write like that. I know that sometimes I ramble, I try to keep that part to a minimum...

• Java for OO
• C for procedural

Cheez-its White Cheddar

I think the fact that she suffered only mild scratches and bruises saved me on this one.