If you’ve climbed a mountain or skied the backcountry you’re probably familiar with Fitz Cahall’s body of work. If not, take a few minutes to check out an episode of The Season and listen to a segment of his incredibly popular podcast The Dirtbag Diaries before reading through this interview. Do that and you’ll discover one of the most eloquent voices in outdoor media.
Your stories capture the essence of outdoor life because they’re created with an insider’s perspective. You’re able to bypass a lot of the well worn formats, the climbing epic or ski film for example, and say more about the subject’s motivation. So what’s your motivation? Are you more interested in speaking to a core audience (fellow athletes) or is there a desire to reach beyond the outdoor sports community?
It’s funny. I think Mark Twight said in “extreme alpinism” that there are two types of minds attracted to climbing and adventure. The first is the engineer’s mind. Calculated. Detail oriented. Efficient. The other is the artistic minds who come at climbing with a playful, creative, sometimes unprepared approach. I’ve always been the latter — for better or for worse the same is true in my storytelling. I sometimes struggle to read blow by blow by blow by blow — you get the point — accounts of climbing. The jargon, the minute details, I always found myself skimming them — they just never really lived up to how it actually felt to do the sport. But climbing writing by people like John Long, John Krakauer, my friend Kelly Cordes, Mark Jenkins it just leapt off the page for me because it was about people, about where they came from and where they were headed. The climbs were just vehicles for conveying those stories. So right from the start I avoided trip report style stories. I avoided the blow by blow. That said, I don’t ever want to have to explain “How they got the rope up there” in my writing, so I used simple jargon sparingly so a climber could understand what was happening, but my grandmother wouldn’t get lost in a story like “Help Wanted” about the climbers Disneyland employed to scale the Matterhorn roller coaster. I feel like I aim for a middle ground. I wanted a skier to appreciate and understand the overlap in climbing and vice versa. Our sports share so many emotions and lessons.
Tell us about your new project. How has The Season been received?
The Season is a 22-episode web TV project that follows five athletes (a rock climber, mountain biker, kayaker, snowboarder, boulderer) through a course of a single season in the northwest. Some of them are pros. Some aren’t, but all of them have captivating stories. It premieres on www.arcteryx.com and then people can download it from iTunes via our site www.theseasontv.com. We put majority of our money into our production and story design, so that it looked and felt unique. We stuck to our backyard — the Pacific Northwest. To give a sense of the story lines, our rock climber Matt Maddaloni designed a new piece of gear from scratch. He wants to climb this incredibly scary-looking, expanding flake on Squamish’s The Chief. The flake flexes so much that cams pop out. He could bolt it, but instead he decided to create a piece of gear called the anticam which pinches the flake. Hard to explain with words. So we followed him through that process from the engineering on his computer, to the building, to the testing, etc.
In terms of reception, we’ve had an enormous positive response. I wasn’t sure how it would do. I was proud of it, but it’s not like printing a magazine where you make a certain number of copies. You kind of just have to wait and see how many people start downloading and blogging about it. It’s done well in that regard. That said, I think people who want to see Chris Sharma work on a 5.15 are going to be disappointed. There is some amazing world class footage, but Bryan Smith, my co-creator and I give equal if not greater respect to story. There’s going to be talking in it….it’s not straight adventure sport porn. So just be warned. If all you want is climbing, this might not be the series for you. Fortunately, it’s free.
Music plays a significant role in your projects. You feature a lot of indie artists. How did you find them initially? Are they seeking you out now that your projects have so much visibility?
It’s a little of both. I’m really fortunate to work with a group that helps promote independent music acts and labels so I get a lot of music through them. Some people I know, or know through friends of friends. A few contact me. The music makes the show. I’d wanted to use just northwest music on The Season, but I didn’t have time to rally that.
Have you considered taking your storytelling on the road, along with a few bands, for live events?
That would be sick, but as of right now there are no plans for that. I’ve been working so hard lately, that I’m pretty excited just to be able to enjoy the upcoming climbing/biking season here in the northwest because I kind of missed out last year. That would be awesome, and there has been talk of creating a multimedia show; it’s just way on the back burner.
Is storytelling becoming more important than the adventure at this stage or has it always been primary for you?
Good question. One I’ve been grappling with recently. The last few years I’ve really had to put a lot of energy into my creative exploits — it’s the predicament of every small business owner. I missed going to Yosemite for the first time in a while last year. That said there is a time and place for everything and I’ve loved seeing the Diaries blossom and the Season come to life. Bryan has become a close friend in the process. My brother does our design work so it’s awesome to collaborate with him, so there are a lot of pluses. It is tough though — something a lot of go through. The other day I went out Index my local crag and got stomped on a route that I used to have wired. I was whipping every where on tiny wires and old pitons. I got frustrated and then I remembered that climbing is hard. That’s why I do it — to be pushed and to step up to that challenge. I love alpine rock routes — it can be intimidating to do that kind of thing out of shape especially after you used to be efficient, but I try to remember that I may just have to try hard, dig deep. I’d rather go and fall all over than not go. If I approach it like that it doesn’t take too many beat downs to get back to the point where it just feels like having fun.
That will always be a balance for me. If I’m climbing too much, I’m not writing, but also if I don’t climb, if I don’t maintain my relationship with the natural world, I won’t have anything to write about.
You often profile otherwise average people who find themselves driven, sometimes unexpectedly, to pursue adventure, risk, and extreme athletic performance. What common threads are emerging as you tell these stories?
Hmm…I would say that what I take away from the stories I encounter is — Don’t be afraid to surprise yourself. Whether that is in life or in climbing/adventure. Here’s a great non-climbing example. My good friend went to the dentist the other day. It was St. Patrick’s’ day. He was sick. No one likes going to the dentist. Going there sick is worse. He gets there and there are two cute girls working at the desk. They start chatting him up. My friend tends to be grumpy. They invite him out for the office party. He says no. He goes in. The hygienist asks him to come out. He tells her no. His dentists invites him to the party. He’s sitting there thinking “I’m sick. I’m tired. I’ll I want to do is go home, lie on the couch and watch T.V. but all these people keep asking me to go out.” So he decided to just go. He met this incredible, beautiful cool woman there. They’ve seen each other almost everyday since. Sometimes, you just have to surprise yourself, to step outside you comfort zone. We all struggle with this, but we are all capable of success. Sometimes, it’s just a simple as realizing that work, or sleep, or rest or comforts — they don’t make the world spin. If you go with out them for a bit, if you step outside of what feels normal, good things often come of that.
You appear to be making a living while not making mass market content (that’s a compliment). Are these vehicles viable from a financial perspective?
Yep. I won’t ever get rich doing this but I’m also able to pay my rent, drink beer, put gas in the car, pay for my health insurance (ouch) and save and donate a little money here and there. But it’s what I love and it makes me happy. And at this stage in my career I can’t really think of anything else I would want to do. I often get to do cool stuff for work, love the community I work with, get paid to think and am continually pushed.
So where is your storytelling career headed? Any plans to explore different media? Films? Novels? Games?
I think all those things are on the table, except the games. I hadn’t thought of that. Hmm…
You can also follow Fitz on Twitter @DirtBagDiaries.
