Big Wall Climbing and Ultrarunning with Thomas Bukowski

Wild Ideas Worth Living

REI Co-op

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4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2026

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2022, Thomas Bukowski took a risk that felt personal and professional by applying to The North Face athlete development program and pitching himself as a climber worth betting on. As a queer athlete from Hong Kong who found climbing later than most, he has long carried the feeling of being an outsider, then watched that narrative shift when he earned a place on The North Face climbing team. Since then, he has chased fear into major climbs in Argentina, Alaska, and Pakistan, and in 2024 he pushed into trail running by running the 211 mile John Muir Trail in four days.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I have to say the first like couple of years climbing, I feel like I really had to work on fear management.
0:07.7	I really had to be like, okay, like that was cool, but like gosh, I was just terrified most of the day.
0:13.6	And like if I keep staying terrified most of the day, I'm just not going to have that great of a time.
0:17.9	And so for me, it's really important to be like, why am I doing this? Am I excited to do this? Am I not too tired? Whatever it is, you know? And when I'm like, okay, I'm really excited to do this, then I think you can push through a lot of discomfort or fear. And also you can rationalize and go like, okay, this is a bit scary or whatever, but I have this goal that I'm working towards.
0:43.1	In 2022, Thomas Bukowski had a wild idea to apply for a spot in the North Face's athlete development program.
0:51.7	Pitching himself was scary, but Thomas has built a career around facing
0:55.5	his fear head on. As a queer person from Hong Kong who started climbing relatively late in life,
1:02.5	Thomas has always felt like an outsider in the industry. But the pitch worked, and two years
1:07.4	later, Thomas was offered a spot on the North Face's prestigious climbing team.
1:12.5	Since then, he's faced his fears on some incredibly challenging routes in Argentina, Alaska, and Pakistan.
1:19.8	Thomas's desire to push himself out of his comfort zone has spilled into the rest of his life, too.
1:25.5	In 2024, he brought it to the sport of trail running
1:28.3	when he ran the 211-mile John Muir Trail, which usually takes people two to three weeks
1:34.2	in just four days. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an RIEI Co-op Studios
1:41.8	production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-Op MasterCard.
1:49.7	Thomas Bukowski, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
1:53.4	You've done a lot of things.
1:54.5	Like, you run, you climb, you're North Face athlete.
1:58.1	How did you get into climbing?
2:00.4	Yeah, I didn't grow up very athletic.
2:04.8	You know, I think the stereotype probably fit was kind of the nerve on a computer kind of thing.
2:09.7	But I had this kind of wild opportunity to go to a boarding school in Norway.
	...

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