KAYA Climber Stories
Meet the Climber: Ethan Salvo
Ethan Salvo dreams big, tries hard, and has dedicated his life to climbing. Learn more about his new life in Squamish, B.C., how an injury has shifted his climbing mentality, and what he hopes to achieve this coming season.
KAYA:
Thanks so much for joining us, Ethan! Would you mind giving our readers a bit of background about yourself?
Ethan:
I’m Ethan, I’m 19, and I’m originally from Markham, Ontario. I’ve been climbing for four and a half years. Right now I’m living in Squamish B.C., dirt bagging it pretty hard out here in my van and having a good time…and I like rock climbing a lot.
KAYA:
Alright, let’s get right into it. Tell us about your experience with Lucid Dreaming (V15)?
Ethan:
Oh, boy. Interesting story. I was going a bit insane throughout COVID and watching lots of climbing videos, I’m sure we all were. I’d been looking for something hard to train for to stay motivated, and I realized Lucid looked my style and has a pretty sustained wall angle similar to my home wall. I got the dimensions of the holds and the distances between them from a friend and made a rough skeleton of a simulator. One day I ran into this company online, Render Climbing, that had 3D scans of the holds. I reached out and got copies of the grips.
I trained on the simulator for a year and a half, saved a bunch of money, quit my jobs, and started driving to Bishop, California. After all that I couldn’t get through the Canadian border because they thought I wouldn’t return.
After that tough blow, I moved out here. It’s still been on my mind… I reset the Squamish Athletic Club wall and put the Lucid holds on it. Bishop is just a day's drive now, so I’m hoping to get down there this winter when I’m feeling fit to see what it’s actually like.
KAYA:
Do you expect to have issues at the border again?
Ethan:
Their main concern is me not coming back home. Renting a place in town would help a lot so I’m working towards that and am maintaining a really steady job. I’m honestly not too too worried about traveling right now. There’s so much around here to keep me busy. I‘d be quite happy being here for the better part of the next year.
KAYA:
What are you doing for work?
Ethan:
I’m doing wood finishing and painting for homes. It requires very fine attention to detail and each job is a little different. It’s mentally tiring and pretty stressful when working on $10 million homes. You get one shot and can’t mess it up. I’ve been treating it as headspace training for climbing highballs or not punting post-crux. It’s nice though, I can work a 10-hour day, take some time to chill, and then still go have a full session on a project and hang out with homies.
KAYA:
Marc Bourguignon also mentioned in his interview that he didn’t feel super pressed to travel. It would seem that Squamish living is just that good! Tell me about life in Squamish.
Ethan:
Town life is pretty chill. Everything’s super close, I’m at a cafe right now and could be at Dreamcatcher in about 15 minutes, which is crazy. But it also feeds this local mindset of, “Oh, it’s nice today, but it’s not perfect conditions so I’ll just chill.” Temps do matter so much here and because it’s so close it’s really easy to wait around for the right time.
Climbing-wise, I tried The Singularity (V14/15) the minute I got here this season and put 15 to 20 days on it this year. Then I injured my pinky finger A4 pulley and haven’t been back on it since. The boulder really breaks down to two moves, but not in a very physical way. They’re the most low-percentage, body-position-dependent, power-technical moves I’ve tried. And they’re back to back. It’s super weird but really, really fun, interesting climbing.
I’ve been trying to diversify my climbing as I get the finger back healthy. I’ve been tying in on a rope and trying things I wouldn’t have been terribly psyched on in the past. It’s been nice to explore different styles of climbing, especially here. There’s so much good sport and trad climbing it seems dumb for me to only boulder all the time.
KAYA:
How has that impacted your relationship with climbing?
Ethan:
Living here has matured my climbing outlook and appreciation. I’m more focused now on climbing really really good stuff as opposed to going to hard projects that I’ll flail on for a year or two and then send. It’s nice to have those goals, but it’s good to switch it up cuz trying the same projects all the time isn’t very fun.
My first month and a half here I was going a little crazy in the boulders. I’d try four different V14s on the same day, twice a week. It didn’t feel sustainable. There’s so much really good climbing right beside the hard climbing I’m flailing on, so there’s no excuse not to get on it all. When the finger injury happened, I was forced to slow down and enjoy easy fun climbing, because I couldn’t do anything else at the time. Since then, my outlook has really changed.
KAYA:
Are there any easier climbs or routes that have stood out to you that you maybe wouldn’t have otherwise climbed on?
Ethan:
Down in the Howe Sound, there is this boulder that climbs over the water, Majestic (V6). I’d get invited all the time but was always like, “Oh, no, I’m gonna stay and try the proj.” When starting my recovery I finally went to Majestic and it was one of my favorite climbing experiences ever. I climbed it barefoot and it was very involving climbing with amazing rock in a stunning location. It was a really good hang with a bunch of homies just chilling on the boats. It was eye-opening, like, “Damn, that was way more fun than climbing my project.”
Sending hard and crushing projects is satisfying in a very personal way, but those moments with all the homies having a good time on good stone are special.
I’ve also been running a lot of laps on Summer Vacation (V0), it climbs awesome jugs the whole way up and then has a fun little toss out on some cool sloper dishes.
KAYA:
We saw you tried Cobra Crack (5.14b), right? Do you know how to crack climb?
Ethan:
Nope! Before I tried Cobra Crack, the extent of my knowledge of crack climbing was having followed my friends up on a 5.9 called Penny Lane and a 5.10 called Jabberwocky. My friend invited me up to Cobra and I thought it’d be cool to try on top rope. I was at the base of the cliff watching Tom Randall’s video on how to finger lock, which was very helpful [chuckles]. It’s really different than face climbing and more fun and involving than I’d expected. The whole time you’re putting your body and feet in crazy positions, and since you’re in the crack, you can pull your body so close to the wall. It’s weird and got me psyched enough to order some flatter climbing shoes.
KAYA:
Have you been developing or hunting for new boulders at all?
Ethan:
I’ve been really stoked about exploring the alpine. I’ve spent a lot of time on Google Earth scoping and have found five or six spots I think could be really good. I’m doing as much research as possible before going in terms of the approach and the quality. Most of the developed stuff is within a 30-minute drive from town, so if you’re keen to go a little bit further there’s definitely a lot of rock out there. The challenge is mainly finding the time off work and the crew right now.
KAYA:
There’s a culture and history in Squamish of developers being very underground, low-key crushers. Has that had any influence on you since moving to Squamish?
Ethan:
Yeah, I’d say so. It’s been cool getting to know the people you’ve always heard rumors about. They’re really totally normal people living in town with a job and a family, just hanging out. They just happen to be super good at rock climbing.
It’s made me rethink my relationship with and approach to climbing. Keeping certain things more low-key has been good. It’s nice to go to a boulder on my own, try it for a bit, make progress, and enjoy that for myself. That’s when I get insight into why these people are super low-key. It’s a very personal thing.
It’s been funny to meet them and realize there are way more low-key people than you would’ve thought who have done way more ridiculously hard, very impressive things than you would’ve ever imagined. When I first got here, it was really confusing to me as to why people don’t know how much hard climbing there actually is here, how much has been going down, and how much is still left. Over time, I’ve learned to appreciate it. If you’re wanting to go do this stuff, you should be doing it for the right reasons, and you should be putting some effort in to learn and appreciate the history and the area.
KAYA:
Thanks so much for chatting with us, Ethan! One last question: Are you going to attend the Squamish Rampage?
Ethan:
I’m definitely going! I’ve always heard about it but never been here for it so it’ll be fun to participate!
Thanks for having me!
