EP 296: Dave Thompson — Early FAs in Leavenworth, Applying Your Strength on the Wall, and Personal Agency

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

Steven Dimmitt

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4.2 • 576 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2026

⏱️ 107 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dave Thompson is a 5.14 and V14 first ascentionist, alpinist, and coach for Evoke Endurance. We talked about his early climbing in the North Cascade mountains of Washington State, doing the first ascent of some of the best hard boulders in Leavenworth (Beautification, God is in the Details, The Teacup), how he got so strong, how to apply your strength on the wall, the challenges of endurance training in climbing, and more.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey friends, as you know, I've been collecting nuggets from the world's best climbers for the past six years, and I finally took the time to synthesize all of that great advice and put it together into the ultimate resource for climbers who want to improve and unlock their full potential in climbing. I made a free masterclass with some of the best
0:22.1	nuggets I've learned along the way. I'll tell you more about it later in this episode.
0:27.2	Enjoy the show. Hello friends and welcome to the Nugget Climbing podcast. My guest today is
0:34.1	Dave Thompson. This was a fun one for me because Dave is a bit of a local
0:38.8	legend here in Washington State and did the first ascent of some of my favorite hard boulders
0:43.7	here in Leavenworth, beautification, and God is in the details, and the teacup, which, as many
0:50.9	of you know, is one of my ultimate life list dream boulders.
0:54.8	Dave Thompson is a lifelong student of climbing and alpinism.
0:58.5	He's climbed many 514 routes and V14 boulder problems, including many first ascents.
1:04.2	And he's a coach for evoke endurance.
1:07.6	One of my favorite podcasts I've ever done was with Scott Johnston a few years back, episode 169.
1:15.5	Scott is the founder of Evoke Endurance, and that was probably the best episode I've ever done on
1:21.5	endurance training for climbing.
1:23.8	So go check that one out if you haven't listened to it.
1:26.9	But back to Dave Thompson.
1:28.8	This is from his bio on Evokes website. Dave successfully coaches alpinists, rock climbers,
1:35.0	mountaineers, competition climbers, and mountain runners in their respective endeavors. He has keen
1:40.7	knowledge and curiosity regarding the physical and mental training necessary for
1:44.8	his athletes to achieve their mountain goals.
1:47.6	When Dave is not coaching, he is climbing, training, and establishing new routes and
1:53.3	Boulder problems.
1:54.1	He is always seeking to understand and implement what is most effective for his athletes
	...

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