Designed by Disaster

We knew we wanted to do a big climb, but nothing too crazy. We were going to work our way up to it. We did one single pitch climb to check it out one day, and that was it. And then we jumped on this 1500-foot spire. So it was a pretty short on-ramp to the Dolomites. It was just slow going. We were tired. The sun was going down, and around that time, I remember some fog started rolling in. And I literally bled him up with this tiny, like, glow of the horizon last light. There was more fog coming in. There was lightning starting to come in. All of our supplies were gone. It was like this really ominous feel. We got onto the shoulder, and we, at that point, felt kind of proud of ourselves. And, yeah, we said this phrase that I never say on climbs anymore, which is, we're home free. We did the repels, and we got to the top of this snow goalie. And we're like, wow, there's no more repels. Like, we looked around for other anchors. I mean, we thought we were in the right spot. We tried to pull our rope on that last repel, and it got stuck. So we had that problem of also not having our ropes. I went first, and I plunge-stepped into the snow. As soon as he started going, he hit this firm patch of snow. And then that's when, you know, the ---- hit the fan. I didn't go through all my slides, but I went through a lot of them. And I picked out about 80 of them. We have four boys. Each kid, before they were born, we hoped was going to be a girl. But no luck. Growing up with three brothers was basically controlled chaos. I feel bad for my parents having to deal with this. And my family adventure was definitely rewarded. My grandparents started taking us into the Wind River Mountains at a young age, right? So if you were five years old, you were able to go on these 10-day self-supported backpacking trips. Letting them know that it was OK. The bear's not going to eat you. We can get across this creek. We can climb this mountain. And we'll be together. Danny was always looking for an opportunity to create his own identity in the family. He was always off climbing something, trying to get me to follow him. Mike, come up here, you know? One of the things I remember about Danny, the more responsibility you gave him, the more responsible he became. That's basically how we've acted as parents. When Danny said he was going to climb the Dolomites and he's going to take his brother Mike with him, I had no idea what the Dolomites were. But we didn't worry that he would do something crazy. I think if I'd had the picture of the Dolomites before he left on the trip, I would have been very critical of him doing that trip. What were we thinking as parents to let you guys go there? When I first thought I would go back and give it a shot, who would I want to climb it with me? Timmy just came up as like, he's someone who I feel like understands this is so much more than just a climb. Timmy has been described as a force of nature. I wouldn't argue with that. He's had speed climbing records and he's been an incredible rock climber. We're in the Refugio Brentei at the base of the Gruppa di Brenta. It's really cool. I have a lot of memories of being here with my brother and a little bit intimidating. Yeah, coming back and there's lots of snow and everything's really big. The walls are huge, you know, it's like, yeah, it's energizing. The Graffer route on the Campanile Basso is this legendary climb that happened in like the 30s, right? And so right away, you have this thing that's like 90 years old of history that people have been climbing and it's an adventure climb. That's really about 1,500 feet total, but you get the shoulder at about 1,200 feet and that's where we got to 30 years ago. All right, let's see where we go with this. At least it's cold. Nice, Danny. I can feel that with both Danny and I that we have a little bit of nerves around the climb, right? Because as soon as you leave the ground, you're entering into a contract that says, this may not end well. This speaks to Danny. Danny's here with his younger brother, Mike. They've never been to this area before. They meet this random team of Germans who go, hey, you should try this other more obscure line, right? There's the easy trade route that's just adjacent, but they're going to go for a more adventurous line. And then they have this wild experience on this Campanile Basso. He just went and just sailed down this thing. The noise faded away, the light faded away, and he just like faded into the dark. And I was like, holy ----, I might've just lost my brother right there. I remember trying, trying, trying to use my hands to stop myself, digging my fingers in the snow. I was going faster and faster. I was like, wow, this is bone breaking speed. And then I kept going faster and faster. And then it was, this is like die speed. There was some color change coming up. It got darker. And I was like, I'm going over a cliff. This could be it. That triggered this thought process around, it's not going to hurt at all. I'll just die and it'll be over. No big deal. But immediately following that was this horrible wave of suffering realization for my parents and my girlfriend at the time. And that overwhelming feeling was just incredibly intense. I hit at a shallow angle, but I hit my helmet, my backpack in my right shoulder, and then found myself down in this deep moat. And I was conscious. I was alive. And that triggered this incredible emotional release of like, I can't believe I'm alive. If you would have hit any other way, you probably would have died. That feeling of being given a second chance. I wish you could bottle that. I wish we could all experience that because that was like literally the happiest seconds of my life. We could all do with like having a bottle of that around once in a while. That's hard earned wisdom. When you are near death or you suffer catastrophe, you have an experience that never leaves you. For a long time, I just simply thought I should have had something with me for that kind of situation. I just assumed that I would go buy something and like have it next time. The thing that really galvanized me into action was reading that American Alpine Club puts out the accidents in North American mountaineering. They do the statistics and slips on snow was the number two cause of accidents and death. So I was thinking, this is kind of ridiculous. Like that's how I almost died. It really just kicked me in the pants. Like nobody gets this like you do. Like this needs to be addressed. I just, I felt like the world needed this and I was just going to figure out how to do it. And that was kind of where the whole ball of yarn started unrolling, right? So back in the 90s, to move around in the mountains, you kind of had two choices. One was a stiff, heavy lug sole boot with a stiff, heavy metal erector set thing called a crampon. And then you have your running shoes or, you know, your approach shoes of the time and there was nothing in between. I just was like, let's just try something really simple. Like, I just want something that folds down, fits in your pocket, you know, compact, but when you need it, boom, it'll work. I think for Danny, it's this old Irish engineering idea of make it, break it. Yeah, that's the very first prototype. And it was just trying to figure out what can I make small, compact, but I learned a lot from it. As you can see from the piles, it was a very iterative process. He built prototypes, he tested them, broke them. Then I started playing with this spring steel design. And then I started to put a lot of structure on it. How can you make something like break down side supports to lock out a foot in? You just keep evolving it until it's right. Yeah, I think it was about two and a half years of prototyping to end up with the KTS crampon as it is today. If it hadn't been for some friendly intervention from one of my friends, I'd probably still be back there iterating. There I was going, yeah, but I'm going to go make another iteration of this. And he just stopped me and he's like, like, I would buy this right now. That was just the perfect, like, kick in the pants there to be like, you know, you've got to get out of your iteration and, like, get on with it. I'm Joe Bolling from KTULA in Flagstaff, Arizona. I'm going to show you about our product, which is the new concept in footwear traction systems. Just within the first year or so, we sent some pairs over with the Banegas brothers. Then I got the message towards the end of their trip. It's like, hey, by the way, we lent your KTS crampons to Lapka Gelu Sherpa, and he set the speed record on Everest with them. Like, what? Man, we were so stoked about that. He invented the device that created its own category. He basically designed portable, flexible traction that bridged the gap between regular footwear and these heavy mountaineering boots. And that allowed people to be faster and therefore safer in the mountains. On an overcast day, I'm belaying as he climbs up and away. Danny, don't whip while the rock is wet and you may slip, climbing Campanile Basso away. Yeah, buddy. You know, 30 years ago, I was 22, and I thought I was a pretty experienced climber, but I'd never even done anything like this. I was young and stoked. Coming back now, 30 years later, I've done a lot of alpine rock climbing, and it's like, no, this thing is still badass. All right, Jimmy, off the lane. OK. That's pretty fun. And I think about Mike and I doing this, and especially him, who I think that that was more pitches that he'd climbed in his entire life. It really stuck with me, like, wow, yeah. I mean, even today, like, this is the real deal. I led this long section of crack climbing, which was really fun, and got to this stance, and then Danny launched around the corner into the crux pitch. And I could tell he wanted to concentrate, too, because I was talking to him, and he goes, hey, you know, maybe it's better if you don't talk, right? So I could tell that he was feeling rattled by the climb. It was a big day, and then we got hammered by weather up on top. Like, we were at the shoulder, and it didn't look like we were going to get to the summit, because it started raining. I had to decide, like, we're going to go up. And then it stopped raining, and Danny grabs the ropes and launches up the first 60 meters. And I belayed Danny up. We untied from the ropes, and then we were going to scramble up to get to the true summit. And I was like, Danny, after you. They say if you ring the bell on the summit of the Campanile Vaso... That is classic, dude. ...you are now truly a climber of the Dolomites. I don't know why I have tinnitus. I think the thing that will stick with me is that it was like coming full circle. So the proper descent is to go use this via ferrata, which has cables and ladders, to come down from this notch, instead of go down the couloir, where we had the accident. All right, Jimmy. And then we find out now that there's so much snow, you can't safely go that way. Now the safest way is to go down the snow gully, where we had the accident. I realized, like, it is still really serious. We ended up repelling most of the snow gully on the rock, and ending up where we were 30 years ago, which I wasn't expecting at all. Well, it's cool to actually bring the product, right, that I made, it's inspired by the success, and go to that same place and have it with us. Basically being in there, I feel like, you know, with the KTS, I feel like I'm introducing this baby to its mother or something. And it worked. Like, on a personal level, you know, there's definitely something about revisiting a place where you were really, really lucky. This is the place where it all began for him, with Cthulhu. This is the origin story for it. He had an experience, he realized he could do something about it, he created that thing, and now he's run with it for decades. By Danny re-experiencing that climb, he can put that in the perspective of his life. He can see that it led to good things happening. I think that's a gift.