A sit down with Tahoe's golden boy: Sam (the Keech) Keechler
Sam is a recent graduate from Cal Poly SLO who grew up in the Reno area. He’s well known to have ventured into the deepest holes in Tahoe and done practically everything. I met up with Sam one day in Yosemite (when he casually flashed Athletes Die Young) and asked if he would do an interview with me and he obliged.
If I remember, you started off as a comp-kid, but now exclusively climb outside. How was this transition and what pushed you towards it?
I did start out as a comp-kid! The transition wasn’t too hard since I was never phenomenal at competition climbing... Starting at 15 years old, I was very late compared to the other competitors who started when they were 6. Luckily, I had legendary coaches who wanted to inspire the team kids to have meaningful experiences outside as well. I watched so much climbing propaganda and realized that climbing videos showed more outdoor climbing than indoors, so I split my time between indoor and outdoor bouldering. It just made sense growing up in Tahoe to take advantage of both. I also eventually realized that having a bad comp day was uncomfortable and sometimes borderline not even fun, whereas every single day outside can be a good day (even if it means walking away from your project and looking at a beautiful lake, or random forest animals, or a moonrise on a night sesh).
Although the strengths of gym climbing and outdoor climbing don’t always correlate, competition training taught me how to try hard, REALLY hard. It also taught me to appreciate complexity of movement, and that 99% of the time you’re not sending it’s because of the beta, not your strength level. Climbing outdoors felt way hard at first, but eventually you learn that a hold can be a little better 3 crystals to the left, and that indoor footholds are jugs, or that some climbs are just made for you.
Some valuable coach’s names to mention who introduced both indoor and outdoor climbing to me:
Dustin Sabo - put up classic FAs in Bishop and Tahoe in the 2000’s,
Shannon Joslin - authored the incredible Yosemite Bouldering Guidebook
Flannery Shay-Nemirow - routesetter and forerunner up to world cup level
Eric Wolff - still seems to send 5.13 every day down in Vegas!
Diego Mendoza - still passes on training tips to this day.
Kyle O’Meara - The coach who had the most impact on my outdoor climbing. He invited this young noodley teenager outdoors outside of team practice and showed me his perspectives on outdoor bouldering.
Another most motivating person is my old teammate Stefan Fellner - two age groups below me but he was a phenom so we were able to vibe off each other’s try hard and have those secret competitions that make training way more fun. Though we were neck and neck for a moment, he’s gone on to win youth sport climbing nationals and bouldered V14. Would be cool if I could catch up to him again someday.
Nowadays, what does training mean to you? In terms of frequency and actual activities? Do you spend times of the year training exclusively or are you getting outside year-round?
It’s hard to say since the last two years have been so weird. I’ll give my current and previous training.
Context: I quit indoor climbing since I was working remote from climbing areas during COVID. I got all the outdoor climbing I’d been craving and deprived from for years going to college in a “climbing desert”. After a year of one-day-on-one-day-off sessions and miles of hiking, my body threw a fit and blew up my hamstring (3 months), tweaked some fingers (1 month), and subluxed my shoulder/micro-tear on my rotator cuff (1 month). I’m taking it a little easy and not training so much at the moment so that I can enjoy functional arms and legs for a bit.
As for times of the year dedicated to training - I think that’s a good idea. It’s always happened naturally for me getting busy with school or being on the youth team. I don’t think I can train the hardest if I’m making weekend outdoors trips and I don’t think I can climb the hardest if I’m training mid week. It’d probably be a good idea someday to pretend outdoor climbing doesn’t exist for a whole year, but maybe that’s too hard...
Before the latest shoulder thing the most current training I was doing was one-day-on-one-day-off following Yves Gravelle’s style weightlifting with a 20 mm edge (I’m up to 161 lbs 1RM, 145 lbs BW) with some curls some days and weighted pull ups other days, and front levers (for tension) and TRX (I think it’ll help with “max span” moves). I’ll either not climb on the wall at all, or climb for 30 minutes AFTER training. The focus is to improve finger strength since I’ve never trained it so I do the finger training straight after warm up. So 4 days a week, 2.5 hr sessions, usually one tired day for fun climbing at a new gym on the weekend.
My favorite training program that I’ve gotten the most gains from is very focused, and what I used the most the last few years. Two-days-on-one-day-off, warm up, give 3 focused goes on the gym project (for the psych), then 1 hr campus boarding (A-Day) or weighted pull ups (B-Day), then 4x4 on the Moonboard, then abs, then stretch, all before work. About 3 hr sessions.
It seems like you’ve done everything in Tahoe. What makes that area so special/unique compared to other areas you’ve climbed in?
Tahoe has THEEE best versatility of any climbing area I’ve been to (including western states, Font, Albarracin). You can climb Yosemite cold cuts at Lost in Space, British style-skrittly goodness on the East Shore, or RMNP-like crimp megas on the East Side or at the Buttes. You can find every hold type from diorite knob jugs to granite tufas to cow belly slopers. Sharp rock, slick rock, chockstone holds that wiggle. If you’re injured, you usually get to just go pick a boulder that doesn’t use that body part. If the conditions are bad, you just shade seek. It’s all there. Sometimes it’s hard to decide and you just start driving and see which shore of the lake has clouds for shade. It’s also cool that there are so many sub-areas with different parking and hikes so it always feels like you’re exploring. And even more special when there’s only one or two double-digit boulders at each area, so it really feels like you’re the hero of the day when you can put the hardest lines of the area down.
Top 3 favorite areas in Tahoe and why - go!
Coldstream Canyon - backcountry feel, beautiful erratic blocs, and jugs in all the right places.
Platinum Boulders - nice walk, good shade for summer, and you get to see that “Kirkwood Red” when the sun sets.
Lost in Space - small selection but has insane rock quality with gymnastic movement.
It seems like a lot of your outdoor sends are done solo (i.e. you don’t normally have a climbing partner). Do you prefer climbing alone versus with others? How do you manage the logistics of having to do everything on your own?
**Laughs** - managing the logistics of doing everything on my own… the reason I climb alone is often because the logistics are easier. It’s a bit draining to me to coordinate with others who might even show up late, bail, or not even want to try the same climbs. I like mixing up solo and social climbing, but I definitely like to be solo when I’m trying hard. Time constraints are looser, I have more focus on the rock, and I look less vain when I re-watch videos of myself over and over to refine my beta. I also like to give up quick and go to a plan B project at a different area if it feels like one is for sure not going that day (which sucks if you recommend doing that after your friend already hiked pads all the way out there). I definitely like climbing with a crew once in a while for the social aspect. I do crave that sometimes. And it’s good for taller boulders or ragged landings but usually that’ll just be for a volume day on mods.
The actual logistics of bouldering alone. Knowing your max load to carry:
I would carry 2 Organic Big Pads + half pad + blubber + a Makita fan up to 20 minutes when I knew I needed all of them. If I didn’t absolutely need all the pads I would take the minimum amount. For 40 minute hikes I’d leave one of those Organic Big Pads in the car. Often when I get to a new boulder I would work the top first, because if the top is harder than like V5 and feels sketchy with my amount of pads then I leave for a roadside plan B proj. If the top goes I work the moves individually. If I’ve only brought 1 pad I would pad certain sections at a time for working the moves and try to find easier sections that didn’t need pads at all. Or if the ground is flat and my heels can take a ground fall from the height, that’s also fine for no pads. Take test falls on a move before really going for it too. Boulders with a single crux move are good for being solo. An extra bright light makes solo night sessions feel better. And earphones for music so that you can’t hear the subtle leaf crunches of the bear or chipmunk that is 10 ft away from you. A camera so you can re-watch your fail footy and spray beta at yourself instead of letting someone else with a different body-type spray at you.
I know you recently started working full-time. How has the transition been and how do you see it impacting your climbing career?
Right now I’m rolling with the career because I’ve gotten soooo much time outside in the past year. I’m ready for the comfort of plastic holds and staying in one place for a while. I’m sure after about a year I’ll go stir crazy again and wish I lived closer to outdoor climbing areas like I did when I could work remote (which was the best scenario in my life for climbing). So far it is definitely impacting my climbing.
Sedentary life makes your body shut down for 8+ hours in the day, it’s like the opposite of staying fit, especially when it’s all in a row unlike spread out classes on a college schedule. Also my wrists ache from the keyboard. My shoulders hurt from imperfect height desks. I think I have a lot to learn in order to mitigate these things so that it has no effect on my climbing. I probably need to accept more prehab and stretching is needed. Also, it’s ridiculous to fit in all my climbing goals into only 3 weeks of vacation a year, so I also have yet to figure that out too. Projecting doesn’t make sense because I won’t be able to put in 10 sessions on boulders like I did when I lived closer because 10 sessions over weekend trips is a full season. I’ll deal with it all next time I’m feeling stir crazy for a bigger chunk of climbing outdoors… The good thing is that living further from the good rocks gives me more incentive to train indoors, I’ll probably hit a stronger peak than if I needed to be disciplined to stay away from outdoor rocks.
How do you see your growth trajectory in climbing? What are your short/long term goals in climbing?
I think I’m still getting stronger. I’ve reached a point where my body has adapted to a lot of my training, so I’m trying new things that seem easy but I’m seeing quick gains just from doing random new things. We’ll see how much that continues. I also figure that living in one place for a while and having more free time than being an electrical engineering student in college, I should be able to train better, more efficiently, and start moving the needle up a little faster.
My short term goal is to send 100 boulders V10 or harder. I just ticked #93 #94 and #95 this weekend, so the brain chemical release is imminent. I think that sending your first of a grade is hard to take points for since any one person could say it’s downgraded, whereas if you do 100 V10s, OF COURSE SOME ARE SOFT. But the funny thing is some people will argue that certain boulders are soft whereas others will argue that those same boulders are hard for them for the grade. It’s only then that you start to see that there really are different styles and it doesn’t make sense to downgrade someone else’s send if they fully believe it is the grade that they took. Everything would be V0. So once you do 100 V10s it’s easier to claim that you’ve done 100 V10s. Oh and I threw some V12s in there just to make sure I didn’t just do 100 V9s… Another short term goal is to get my first 8B which goes directly against what I just said, but it’ll still be a good step up to see some progress. I’ll probably only get to do my first of the grade a few more times in my life so I plan on cherishing it.
Long term goal… seems wrong to say it but it would be cool to climb V15 someday. When I first started climbing it was the limit of the grade scale, so it would be cool to have a moment where I could feel the feeling of “if I was this strong when I started climbing I’d be one of the best in the world” and ignore that technological advancement of gyms is half the reason we can train harder. But I’m also sure that by the time I get there V18 will exist and V15 wouldn’t even matter much anyway. I’m sure when I feel old and decrepit (you know, 30) I’ll be ready for a sport climbing phase since it’s easier to gain endurance with base strength. Maybe I can get my first 5.13 and maybe 5.14. Then I’ll descend into madness and trad dad-ness. Got my life all planned out.