RunOut #31: How Paige Claassen TKO’d Shadowboxing

Climbers who are both really good and genuinely humble are an increasingly rare breed, it seems, which is all the more reason to stop and pay attention to climbers like Paige Claassen when they do something noteworthy lest it be drowned out in all the Insta-spray. Over the years, Paige has amassed an impressive ticklist of hard sport climbs, including Algorithm, a 5.14c/d at the Fins, Idaho; Necessary Evil (5.14c) at the Virgin River Gorge; and Odin’s Eye (5.14c) at Flatanger, Norway. Her most recent tick is Shadowboxing, which, at 5.14d, is one of Rifle’s hardest rock climbs. Paige took this one down shockingly quickly. After just a few weeks of making consistent two-day trips from Boulder to Rifle along with her climbing partner Neely Quinn, Paige managed to send Shadowboxing in under 12 tries total. You’re listening to the RunOut podcast. This is Andrew Bisharat, and I’m here as always with my co-host Chris Kalous. And for today’s episode, we recently sat down one morning, pre-climbing, to chat with both Paige and Neely, who you likely know as the voice of the Training Beta podcast and visionary behind the Training Beta empire. One interesting theme that emerged in this conversation that I wanted to draw your attention to is to notice the stark difference in attitudes toward redpointing that are embodied by Neely and Paige, respectively. Paige’s approach is self-assured, positive, self-confident. Neely is often filled with doubts. And yet both are successful climbers in their own ways—not in spite of but arguably because of their climbing partnership. It’s interesting to consider which side of that positivity spectrum you fall on, and whether climbing with someone falls on the polar opposite side of that spectrum might help you succeed. See what you think after listening to this. Without a continuance of ado, here’s Paige Claassen and Neely Quinn.