On this episode, I have the opportunity to sit down with Brandon Pullan on his way through Thunder Bay. Likely many if not most of you will have heard of Brandon before – he’s an alumni of kinesiology at Lakehead, spent 5 action packed years living in Thunder Bay and doing heaps of climbing in the region, and has gone on to do a whole lot more. Brandon now lives in Canmore, and is the Editor in Chief of Gripped Magazine, as well the author of a number of fantastic books, on top of continuing to do a whole bunch of awesome climbing and developing across the country. As you’ll hear, Brandon has roped up and hung out with a ton of legendary climbers, including Sonnie Trotter, Tommy Caldwell, Will Gadd, Barry Blanchard, Jim Elzinga, Marc-Andre Leclerc, David Smart and Cedar Wright. He also mentions Sarah Heuniken, who it turns out is another graduate of Outdoor Rec at lakehead, and has gone to be one of the leading ice and mixed climbers in the country. After we finished recording this already lengthy interview and were chatting over some beers, more and more interesting things kept coming up and I had to turn the mic back on – to hear about the infamous story of bolting at the Centennial Park Bluffs, all the times Brandon met Fred Beckey, and the time that Cedar Wright rope-gunned him up Yamnuska, check back soon for a follow up episode, because those were all stories that are way too good not to share. So with that, enjoy my conversation with Gripped Editor, author, and prolific first ascentionist, Brandon Pullan.

You can find Brandon on Instagram @brandonpullan and Gripped Magazine @grippedmagazine.

You can also check out his book The Bold and Cold @theboldandcold.