Doug Heinrich has just about done it all and seen it all in ice climbing ⛏️ as both a climber and product designer 🧤.

Doug hails from Salt Lake City where he began climbing in the 1970s. He was an extensive route developer, including many mixed climbs in the Wasatch, competed at the X Games, and has been at the vanguard for product at Black Diamond almost from the beginning.

In this episode, we chat about:

🧊 The climbing scene in Utah, from early bouldering to the evolution of ice climbing, to the advent of sport climbing and sport mixed climbing
🧊 Lessons learned from Mugs Stump
🧊 The importance of humility
🧊 His inverted professional career
🧊 The evolution of Black Diamond and what most people don’t understand about the company
🧊 How passion projects lead to innovation, and why he’s excited about his new venture, Aniiu

Resources and links:

Doug’s not much for social media, but you should definitely check out his side project, Aniiu, which are focused on making highly technical gloves for all disciplines of ice climbing, including working with some of the world’s leading drytoolers. You can check them out at aniiu.com and follow them on IG @aniiu_gloves.

And for some behind the scenes into Black Diamond R&D and testing, here is a (sponsored, albeit interesting) article from Outside from 2014, with quotes from Doug.

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📸: Photos by Chris Noble (@noblefoto)

Credits:

Intro music by Hannah Noelle Enomoto (thanks, sis!).
This episode was edited by Andrew Salomone of salomonesound.com.
And of course, a big thanks to our sponsors, Aniiu Gloves and Furnace Industries!

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Leading From Behind the Scenes with Doug Heinrich