I was thinking I could play some songs.

Minneapolis, 2018.

Professional Rock Climber, two-time World Cup winner, Alex Johnson, was begrudgingly at a Taylor Swift concert.

I was like, oh my God, I don't want to be here at all.

There's like a bunch of teenage girls and like moms, and I just like start putting them back. So I don't want to be here. It feels so weird.

But I like promised this friend and she did us a huge favor and so I'm just like swaying in the

crowd like what nosebleed seats back and forth. And then I remember like watching Taylor Swift on

the stage and somehow remembering she had this album that was called

1989. She was born in 1989 and so was I. And I was like, damn, we're the same age. We're

both like about to be 30. After competing on the international bouldering circuit for the better part

of a decade, she felt burned out and had taken a three-year break from competition climbing.

She'd found an outdoor project to throw herself at, and her chosen challenge, the swarm of

V-13 V14 and the buttermilks outside of Bishop, California, had been shutting her down. That summer,

she'd been hanging with friends, coaching climbing, just kind of drifting. Oh, why do I feel so, like, washed up? And she's just, like, out here selling out

stadiums. Huh, that's fucked. Maybe I shouldn't feel this way. Maybe being 30 means I'm, like,

not done, and I have, like, all this more to give. And then it was, like, really eye-opening.

And I texted a friend of mine. And I and I was like hey I'm thinking of doing this

this friend happens to be Christina Wilson who won season 10 of Gordon Ramsey's Hell Kitchen

and she's like super successful and like a total badass and I was like you know I'm thinking of doing

this and she was like fuck yeah dude you totally should like never give up on your dreams and I was like

cool okay that's all I needed and so it was like, fuck yeah, dude, you totally should. Like, never give up on your dreams. And I was like, cool, okay.

That's all I needed.

...