Hey guys, what’s up?
My name is Kuba Lacina and I am addicted to climbing. I am also a YouTuber. I want to tell you everything about it, but for you to understand the idea behind my channel, I will first tell you a little story.
It all started in my home country, the Czech Republic. Yes, this is the place where people climb the sandstone towers using knots as shown. It wasn’t me. I started with sport climbing, like most people. I only discovered professional climbing when I moved to Manchester, UK.
At that time, I didn’t really know what to do with the whole trad climbing thing, so I spent A LOT of time toproping (what the fuck, right!?) and bouldering . I was always convinced that sport climbing was the only style worth doing. Fortunately, not having a car and the closest outdoor venues being bouldering and trad only made me reconsider my decision. After months I bought my own rack and with a few friends we started running. Looking back, we barely knew what we were doing and I still think we only succeeded a few times.
One of our first trad climbing trips was to Burbage North. It was raining in Manchester but when we entered
on the Sheffield side of the Peak District, the sun rose. Excited by the weather, we started on easier climbs and everything was going well. With my newly acquired confidence and ignorance, I found myself in great shape for Knight’s Move HVS 5a. Struggling through the first few backswings over the smallest nut I had on my rack, I quickly realized I was either going to complete the climb or break my legs. Somehow I managed to catch a break, placed a bomber camera and finished. I just climbed a rock with nothing but my body, some modern equipment and a lot of luck. Sitting at the top, all sorts of thoughts were running through my mind: I’m alive! Trad is awesome!
Having qualified as a professional mountaineer, I took the responsibility of educating myself very seriously. Every day
I spent a ridiculous amount of time watching trad climbing videos (I still do… :D), with people like James Pearson, Steph Davis, Hazel Findlay, Alex Honnold and countless others. I looked up to them, I looked up to them, but I couldn’t really relate to someone running E9 if I was barely running VS. We’ve all seen videos of professional climbers talking about their projects, right? “You grab these two tiny crimps, put your foot on the smallest thing and test for a sloppy gaston.” All this while your only equipment is a micro-camera five meters below you. Don’t get me wrong, I love these videos, but how many of us have the need and motivation to climb routes like these?
It got me thinking: what if I could inspire climbers like me? I’m starting to lead the trad but I don’t really have anyone to relate to in terms of the difficulty of climbing the trad. At that time, I was already putting a few climbing vlogs on YouTube, but I felt like it wasn’t going to be THE thing to get people to pursue their ticklists that seemed out of reach. I needed videos that would teach beta in a fun and relevant way.
This is how the concept of ClimbThroughs came to me. A video that basically walks you through the climb, gives you a beta of key moves, gear placements, and gives you a general idea of what to expect from the course. I always show the route both in first person and from a distance as needed, making it easier to find rest and equipment placements from the ground. I like to call CTs the climbing version of what we call WalkThroughs in the gaming world. In these videos, players play computer games, show their audience how to go through all levels, get bonus items, etc. The difference is that my version encourages people to engage in physical activity and step out of their comfort zone, rather than having them stare at a computer screen. That’s my ultimate goal, not only for people to have fun watching my videos, but for them to get the most out of it by going out and climbing the routes I talk about for themselves.
Now that you know why I do what I do, go see! In this episode dedicated to Every Last Rock,
I climb an iconic route in Stanage, The Left Unconquerable E1 5b. This convincing line with 3 stars
and 1890 recorded ascents on the UKC have been on my checklist for some time and mark my first E1 appearance.
And when you’re done watching the video, don’t be a stranger and let me know what you think!
Then turn off the computer, grab your gear and a few good friends, and head to the cliff.
See you there!
Cuba
Jakub is excited to climb! He runs a YouTube channel and makes great videos on Trad Routes! Check it out!