Dancing With Risk

None of this is safe.

Photo of Will Gadd by Klaus Fengler

“None of this is safe. That's the first key to managing risk. I call it risk engagement. We're going to make choices about what kind of risks we want to engage with. Are those choices reasonable for you or not? To an outsider they're all way too risky. We're dancing with risk.”

- Will Gadd

Will Gadd wrote the bible of ice and mixed climbing, so without getting blasphemous, that makes him the bible author of ice. Anyone can go down Niagara Falls; Will was the first to go up it. Three time X Games gold medalist and Ice Climbing World Cup winner. The first or one of the first on multiple mixed climbing grades. Almost as an aside, he paraglides – a secondary pursuit in which he set the world distance record. Twice.

He was my inspiration to start ice climbing. There are a number of greats that made huge contributions to ice – Jeff Lowe, Ueli Steck, Marc-André Leclerc, and Dani Arnold come to mind – but Will is the greatest ice specialist of all time between his competition wins and first ascents. He has been on top of the ice climbing world for decades where he influenced countless climbers including me. It is my honor to bring you Will Gadd.

CD: Any firsts that got you hooked?

WG: I grew up visiting the mountains with my dad (a Parks Interpreter and author of books on the Rockies etc.) and mom, and that definitely instilled a love of being outside in wild places. My first big mountain was Mt. Athabasca when I was 8, big glaciated peak, still remember how blue those crevasses were inside when we jumped over them, the dark, cold, and finally sun on the summit with great people. Amazing trip.

CD: Do you recall a time when you survived something that wasn’t obvious you were going to?

WG: There’s a lot of death and injury in mountain sports. There is also a tremendous amount of life and joy. I grew up with both, and I think that has helped me survive as long as I have. I went to a lot of funerals and wakes as a kid. Really knowing how hazardous these sports are has helped me survive for sure, and those funerals continue. I think many mountain sports people are, with respect, somewhat delusional about how high hazard these sports are. I’m working on a book about high hazard environments, and gathering some good data on accident and fatality rates for that project. Long story short, if I almost die I have really fucked up, and I work very very hard to avoid that fate. But, if I do these sports long enough, I will get killed doing them. That’s a hard realization. I’ll also die anyhow, so for me I’ll do these sports, but be realistic about the true hazard level.

CD: Your climbing cues are so clear and organized — is that just for the sake of students like me to be able to follow, or does ice climbing have to be regimented to be safe?

WG: Thanks, glad to hear that the videos helped! That’s why I did them. I do a lot of teaching and enjoy it a lot, I learn new things every single time I teach, and that’s something that I love. I don’t really think about my climbing very much to be honest, but when I teach I try to make the basics clear and understandable so people can learn and enjoy the sport however they do it. And yeah, falling off is not a good idea, about 25-50 percent of ice falls result in minor to severe injury.

CD: Any personal breakthroughs that weren’t as famous as your big firsts?

WG: I think surviving my career so far is my most important accomplishment. I’ve lived mountain sports for decades, from paragliding to kayaking to skiing to rock and ice and alpine climbing. No one day or accomplishment is all that important to me, it’s the sum of it, the experience with good people and learning about the mountains that matters most to me.

CD: How do you train for ice climbing?

WG: 90 percent of training for any sport should be doing that sport, then activities close to it, and so on. Ice climbing is rock climbing with poky bits, and rock climbing is ice climbing without whacking things, and using your hands… It’s all the same in some fundamental ways from a physical perspective, so I climb mostly. I also do some PT/shoulder work, some basic strength exercises not to get any stronger but to stay strong enough so that when I deadlift my snowmobile on the way into a climb I don’t hurt myself, but even lifting the snowmobile is training for doing that again. I also do some mobility work regularly, as I’ve gotten older that matters more, range of motion decreases or is more easily limited by injury, etc. etc. So strength maintenance/PT twice a week generally, with some specific exercises 3x. And I’m about as strong as I ever have been, tied my old record for weighted pullups last week, and I set that at 22! But I don’t need to be stronger, just stay strong enough if that makes sense.

CD: What do you eat?

WG: I eat anything, but favor whole foods except when I’m moving on big missions, then I eat a shit ton of relatively simple carbs and more fat. I don’t think what you eat matters very much if it’s basically good quality. The human body is incredibly adaptable to run on anything from pure protein and fat like the Inuit did to primarily carbs, as those in agrarian societies did. Everybody tends to focus on exact parameters of diet and training, but after decades of trying every diet and training system out there I’ve come to the conclusion that eating enough regularly and doing the same for training matters way, way more than the specifics. I’ve seen so many athletes obsess over their diet or number of sets or whatever; the best tend to obsess over getting better first...

CD: How important is beauty?

WG: Very. I love the aesthetics of mountains, mountain people, and mountain gear. And really any outdoor setting, always something powerful to see if you stop to see it.

CD: I mostly (only?) care about things that are hazardous, but people die in mountains. How do you reconcile that?

WG: Ha, see above, but danger/hazard should be a spice, not the main meal. Adrenaline is a shitty drug in high doses (think about almost wrecking your car or a near miss, that cold and clammy/nauseous/speedy feeling is too much adrenaline), so a little is nice but too much sucks. I try to avoid big doses of fear/adrenaline, not a good thing to me. And I hear you on the tension, and think recognizing that and embracing it is important. Ignoring it doesn’t end well, we have to dig into that tension and find whatever answers are appropriate for us.

CD: What’s next?

WG: Working on the book above, and I still love moving in the mountains so I’ll keep doing that until I don’t. Some more science/sport projects too.

CD: Do your daughters think you’re cool?

WG: Ha, no parent is cool all the time in the eyes of their kids, that’s our job sometimes ha ha! But I do think we respect each other, and they have been managing risk their whole lives so they do a pretty good job of it as teenagers. We have this “bumps and bruises/hospital/death” hazard system we use together, works well to give them freedom to explore because they are good at seeing and planning for hazard. And that’s the goal: to do things that are personally meaningful, whatever they are, and favor the outcomes we want. Nothing cool happens in life if you don’t try, listen to the world, learn, adapt, and do better. So we try to live that on family adventures from backpacking to paragliding, and so far so good, but it’s a lifelong journey for everyone. What I do is really high hazard so I hope they do something different, but if they do find their own mountain paths then I hope they love every day of it.

CD: Thank you Will. I’m so grateful for your taking the time to answer 25 years’ worth of questions from an ice climbing fan. Thank you readers for reading. Want to take the next step? Lesson one: use your feet.