69 | Ordinarily Extraordinary Part I w/ Evan Wisheropp

The Climbing Majority

Today, we are sitting down with Evan Wisheropp, a part-time professional photographer with a full-time passion for climbing.

Evan's climbing journey began like many of ours—in a gym. From there, he explored various climbing disciplines until he found his true passions: desert offwidths and route development.

Off-width climbing, takes Evan to Indian Creek and Moab, Utah, every year to tackle massive desert offwidth splitters. His latest project, The Cleaver, a 13b offwidth roof Evan spotted while scouting…. After several failed attempts, he handed the first ascent to the Wide Boyz but returned the next season to redpoint the route and film a short documentary about the experience.

When he is not suffering up desert offwidths Evan spends his time climbing and developing new routes in the Northwest region of California. He began developing routes back in 2014. Since then, he has created an impressive 475 routes. Over the past nine years, Evan has personally invested nearly $60,000 to develop the limestone crags of Northern California. Many of these areas remain largely unknown to the public, offering hundreds of cleaned, bolted classic routes with only a handful of ascents.

This conversation is split into two parts. First, we’ll journey back in time to explore how Evan became the climber he is today. We’ll dive into three traumatic climbing accidents that shaped his progression, his relationship with trad gear, and his perspective on taking risks. Our conversation reminds us how dangerous climbing can be, but more importantly, how we can learn and grow from our mistakes and still recover a deep passion for climbing and the outdoors.

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Resources
Evan's Instagram
Evan's Youtube
A Climbers Guide to Northwest California
Evan's Photography

Chapters

1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. Early Climbing Experiences (00:02:22)

3. Climbing Accidents (00:08:56)

4. Reflections (00:29:54)

5. Closing (00:40:31)