Rock V5 Role: How long have you been climbing?
Hank St.John: I think I am going on about 4 or 5 years now.
RvR: How did you get into it?
Hank: Went to the free climb at the wall at the
University of North Texas and was hooked immediately, although I had been and
avid tree and flag pole climber in my early days.
RvR: Have you ever competed in a legit indoor comp?
Hank: Nothing I would call legit, I have been to a
few college comps but I get bored filling out my score card about half way
through, I have a short attention span that way.
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| Photo by Jeline Guiles |
RvR: Do you prefer indoor or outdoor climbing?
Hank: I guess what I should say is outdoor but it
is all the same to me. The thing I like most about outdoor climbing is the
camping with friends’ part. I get about the same level of satisfaction sending
projects whether they be indoor or out.
RvR: The words of a true soul climber. What is
your favorite brand of climbing shoe?
Hank: 5.10 for sure. Although, I will take anything
that fits from the lost and found.
RvR: So you’re the one who's re-homing all those
lost souls.
Hank: Most of my climbing gear is either a hand-me
down, gift, or something I found. It’s almost like being sponsored, except I don’t
have to deal with the pressure.
RvR: I have herd the term "Hank Pants"
being thrown around gyms on multiple accounts.
Hank: While some practice the art of setting routes,
I set trends.
You see that Keller Wolfe has been wearing a tank top lately. He
got that from me.
RvR: Do you wear any of the major climbing brands
to send?
Hank: Well no, "Hank Pants" is actually
code for old brown polyester pants. I bought some linen pants from old navy and
thought they were awesome but I realized that butt sweat soaks through them way
to fast. Maybe I will find some Prana pants in the lost and found some day.
RvR: You’ve got to be careful, on a hot day butt sweat soaks through Mojos as well.
Hank: Maybe it’s a butt issue and not a pants issue.
RvR: How do you feel about climbing culture being lead into the main-stream media?
Hank: Well, I think as soon as Alex Honnold plummets
to his death that shit will be over and hopefully the gym will get less
crowded.
RvR: That darn Alex. Talks of climbing being an Olympic
sport will bring climbing to the masses in a different way; do you think the
Olympics will solidify climbing in pop culture?
Hank: I guess so; I don’t think that makes it main-stream
though, I don’t think pole vaulting or gymnastics is very main-stream. Whatever
interest popular culture has in climbing it will be a short lived fad just like
anything in popular culture.
RvR: Along with the progression of science and
tech, social networking and media, where do you see climbing culture moving in
the next 10 years?
Hank: I have no idea, I just hope I am able to still
be climbing 10 years from now, it has become such a big part of how I identify
myself I’m not sure what I would replace it with should I have to stop.
RvR: When climbing or training hard in the gym
what genre of music or artists do you prefer as background?
Hank: I would have to say hip hop, but for some
reason they are always blasting Katie Perry or Linkin Park at Exposure, I guess
after that abuse I could climb to anything.
RvR: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
What was the last concert you've been to?
Hank: There are plenty of house shows and small club venues around Denton
to see local music. But the last memorable show I went to was when Tom Waits
came to Dallas a couple of years go. I’m kind of a homebody.
RvR: Are there any upcoming shows or festivals you
want to see?
Hank: Well there is Lucian Freud exhibit at the Ft.
Worth Museum of Modern Art opening in a couple of days that I am super excited
for. Dude was a beast.
RvR: How do you exhibit Freud?
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| by Hank St. John |
Hank: Lucian was Sigmund Freud's grandson, he passed
away just recently. He was a painter, a great one at that.
RvR: I had no idea you had so much respect for the
arts, you must be an artist yourself. What mode do you create with?
Hank: Pen and ink almost 90% of the time
RvR: How long have you been drawing?
Hank: I have been drawing for as long as I can remember;
right now I am working on this big drawing of a mermaid with some kind of sea
plant growing out of her nipples.
RvR: Sincerely, I would love to see that when its
done. Where do you get your inspiration to draw?
Hank: I don’t know its second nature now. Everyone
filters the world around them and then re-constitutes the parts and expresses
it. Somehow I just do it through drawing.
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| by Hank St. John |
RvR: What do you enjoy more, drawing or climbing?
Hank: Damn, ummmmm, I think it’s climbing right now,
I obsess over it, I don’t really do that with drawing, both are important but I would rather go climb then sit down and draw.
RvR: Now readers in the climbing community will
see you for more than just the strongest soul climber in DFW!
Hank: Ha-ha, it’s funny, most people that I climb
with have no idea that I draw and I don’t have any idea what they do outside of
climbing and all of my artsy friends don’t really know anything about my
climbing life, it’s two different worlds.
RvR: Enter Rock Versus Role.
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| by Hank St. John |
Hank: It’s good though, when I get to the gym I just
want to nerd out on climbing.
RvR: If you could choose one song off the top of
your head that you want the readers to listen to what would it be and why?
Hank: Tom Waits "Don’t Go into that Barn" because
people should be weirded out by music sometimes, and not enough people listen
to the great Tom.
RvR: Thanks for your time and insight into the artsy
side of climbing culture and your other life!
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