Daniel Woods is the current and eight-time U.S. National Bouldering Champion. Photo by Adam Walker/ Sanuk
Daniel Woods got into rock climbing the way a lot of boys do: the Boy Scouts.
“My dad was the scout leader,” the now 25-year-old Texas native says. “One of our activities was rock climbing, and ever since I have been hooked. The feeling it gave me was natural, so I rolled with it and started to climb almost every day.”
Turns out, ditching soccer practice and drama club was the best move he could have made. Woods is now one of the elites in his sport, the current and eight-time U.S. National Bouldering Champion who’s continuously beating out a roster of more experienced climbers with his unmatched fluidity and style on the rock. He’s tackled some of the most technically difficult climbs in the world, scaling a whopping 57 V14s and nineteen V15s (many of them first ascents), including a line he put up in Rocky Mountain National Park called “Hypnotized Minds” that has yet to be repeated.
Woods is a beast, a serious contender at any competition he enters and a reason for other climbers to worry.
Not that that calms his nerves.
“When I am about to try and send an outdoor project, I get the butterflies,” he says. “I think it’s normal to feel flustered before you are about to push your limits. I try and use this pressure in a positive way, though. You can do many great things with adrenaline!”
Case in point: this summer’s Psciobloc Masters Series, a climbing competition that pits some of the world’s top climbers against each other in a Ninja-Warrior-style race up a 50-foot course above a pool of water. Sound like a rush? It is, both to compete in and to watch. And that’s the idea—to help promote rock climbing to the mainstream and get more people stoked on the sport.
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“I think competition climbing can get big,” says Woods. “It is just easier to access a gym and train for an event rather than go into the mountains. But these two are different activities in a way. Competitions are the sport form of climbing, while the outdoors is the lifestyle and spiritual side of climbing.”
And the Psciobloc Masters? Woods came in second, not that it did anything to dampen his attitude toward climbing—he’s quick to remember that he can’t always be at the top of his game. Staying stoked on climbing is more important to him than medals and prestige.
“It isn’t a sport to me; it is my way of life,” he explains. “I have learned so much about the world and myself through climbing. I would not trade it for anything. Climbing is not a battle with the rock, but a battle with yourself. The rock just presents the test in which you need to overcome.”
If Woods sounds poetic about climbing, it’s easy to see why he might be. Bouldering is often considered the most difficult form of climbing, but it’s also the purest.
“All you need are a pair of shoes, a chalkbag, and a motivated crew to go session with,” he says. “Of course, you can just walk up the backside to the summit, but it’s fun to find a pure line with just enough features to make it possible. I like to see what my body and mind are capable of. Bouldering is kind of hard to explain. It’s best to go and try it for yourself.”
And that’s one piece of advice sure to give us a few butterflies.
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