I used to say if you're a rock climber, you don't need a shrink.

You don't need a therapist because when you're climbing, the past doesn't exist, the future doesn't exist.

You're just in the present.

All of that background noise in your head is blown away.

And it made sense to me in a world that maybe mirrors what's happening right now.

And for me, climbing became a fountainhead, became a way to make sense of the world.

Alex, I'm curious, other than 8A, how much news do you consume?

Not that much, but I do read the New York Times morning email thing every morning.

So I basically get a sense of the headlines, and then occasionally I'll click on something to

like read deeper. But I try not to read that much news because there's kind of a limitless

barrage of stuff getting thrown at you all the

time.

This last year, between all the executive orders, emergencies being declared, when there aren't

really emergencies, it's kind of hard to keep track.

Here's one bit of good news that I think most climbers don't even know, but in January of

2025, Congress, you know, move, saved climbing in national parks

and national forests, 30% of the total climbing routes in the U.S. Yeah, the Park Act. Yeah, it's part of the

bigger bipartisan Explorer Act, which did all kinds of things to help people getting outside and

protect access to public lands.

Yeah.

You know, I actually did an event with my local congresswoman to talk about the Explorer Act.

The truth of it is, like, I don't think most climbers or really like just the smallest margin of climbers even knew that we almost lost climbing in wilderness and in many national

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