Episode 26: Risk Taking in Mountaineering and Business with Guest Steve House

03/07/25 • 65 min

Steve House is a former professional alpinist and mountaineer guide. Steve is currently the founder and CEO of Uphill Athlete.
As a professional climber, Steve climbed some of the most difficult mountains around the world and in 2006, Steve was awarded the Piolet d’Or (the Golden Ice Axe) award, which is the highest honor in the world of professional mountaineering.
With mountaineering being an inherently risky sport, host Rick Prince discusses the element of risk with Steve as it pertains to mountaineering and business. Unsurprisingly, there are quite a few takeaways with respect to mountaineering to business.
Questions covered in this podcast include:

1. Please tell us about your background as an alpinist and how you decided to start Uphill Athlete.

2. In most all sports, there is an element of risk. However, I can’t think of any sport with more at stake than high alpine mountaineering. How has being an alpinist shaped your perception of risk?

3. According to various sources, approximately 90% of start-up’s fail within the first 5 years, with 10% failing within the first year. Of the climbs that have been attempted, are there any that have this high (90%) of a failure rate?

4. What are some key lessons that you learned about risk that you’ve taken from climbing that you have applied to your business?

5. Regarding risk, what are some common mistakes that you see athletes and business owners make?

6. How do you assess risk? Specifically, deciding if a risk is worth the effort?

7. Appreciating the risk of a situation and going for it any way involves getting over one’s fear. As it relates to climbing, how did you get over the fear of certain situations that had a high risk factor?

If you could leave our listeners with one or two nuggets of advice with respect to assessing and managing risk in their athletic and business endeavors, what would they be?

1. Please tell us about your background as an alpinist and how you decided to start Uphill Athlete.

2. In most all sports, there is an element of risk. However, I can’t think of any sport with more at stake than high alpine mountaineering. How has being an alpinist shaped your perception of risk?

4. What are some key lessons that you learned about risk that you’ve taken from climbing that you have applied to your business?

5. Regarding risk, what are some common mistakes that you see athletes and business owners make?

6. How do you assess risk? Specifically, deciding if a risk is worth the effort?

If you could leave our listeners with one or two nuggets of advice with respect to assessing and managing risk in their athletic and business endeavors, what would they be?

Previous Episode

Episode 25: Starting and Successfully Growing an Online Coaching Business with Guest Alli Felsenthal

In this episode of ‘All Things Endurance,’ host Rick Prince chat with Alli Felsenthal, owner of Runwithalli – a run coaching business. If you’re an aspiring coach, or an existing coach, you will be hard pressed not to come away from this podcast with valuable pieces of advice. Alli goes deep into how she started and scaled her running coach business, discussing a wide range of topics such as athlete retention, bringing on other coaches, the importance of goal setting and structure, among many other topics. So if you’re in the coaching business, this is one podcast you won’t want to miss!

1. Please tell us a little about yourself – when did you get into running and coaching?

2. How did you decide to take the leap to starting your own business? Did you do it as a side gig at first, or did you go full time immediately?

3. You have a pretty substantial background in business and sales. How did you leverage this knowledge when starting up your coaching business?

4. What were some of the biggest challenges that you faced when starting up your coaching business, and also when scaling it to a full-time business?

5. Getting paying athletes is always a challenge for new coaches. What advice or strategies do you have for new coaches, and for those looking to continue scaling their coaching practice?

6. What were some of your biggest mistakes when building your coaching practice?

7. Pricing is another issue that a lot of coaches get stuck on. How did you determine your pricing?

8. Where do you see Runwithalli in the next 5 years?

Next Episode

Episode 27: The Evolution of Triathlon Training with Guest Matt Hanson

In this episode, host Rick Prince chat with professional triathlete and coach, Matt Hanson. Matt is a six-time Ironman champion, and also a six-time Half Ironman champion. In 2024, Matt finished 5th overall in the Ironman Pro Series.

As both an accomplished triathlete and triathlon coach... as well as a former professor of exercise physiology, there is perhaps no one better to discuss the evolution of triathlon training than Matt.

In this podcast, Rick and Matt discuss many topics including how training has evolved over the years, how technology has played a role in this evolution and some common mistakes that triathletes make in their training.

Questions covered in this podcast include:

1. Could you tell us about your background, both academically and as a professional triathlete?

2. Could you give an overview of how triathlon training has evolved over the years?

3. Of the three sport disciplines, is there one that has evolved the most with respect to being triathlon-focused vs. training as a stand-alone sport discipline?

4. You are also a coach, have you found that any athletes push back against a modern triathlon-focused program versus a more old-school triathlon program?

5. What are some of the biggest changes in the sport with respect to training and racing from the days of Dave Scott to today?

6. How has technology played a role in the modernization of triathlon training?

7. There is a saying in bike racing “Train your weakness, race your strength.” Does this also hold true for triathlon? Meaning, do you overly focus on your weakest sport discipline, or do you focus on your strength?

8. What are some of the biggest training mistakes that you see triathletes make with respect to their training?

9. If you could give one piece of advice to our listeners with respect to triathlon training, what would it be?