Kai Lightner: The Last Six Years

04/15/25 • 47 min

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Kai Lightner is no stranger to the spotlight—or to this magazine. He’s been climbing since he was six, when he joined the climbing team at a gym in North Carolina. Four years later Lightner won his first national title, and the wins just kept coming.

In 2016, while still in high school, Lightner wrote an essay for Alpinist 55 about learning how to trad climb from Doug Robinson. A few years later, as a sophomore in college, he appeared on this podcast, in conversation with Paula LaRochelle. He had recently taken a step back from climbing and would soon found the nonprofit organization Climbing For Change.

A lot has happened in Lightner’s life since that last conversation. He spoke up about his struggles with eating and bodyweight as a competition climber, opening up a bigger conversation. Through Climbing for Change, he’s been at the forefront of initiatives aimed at making climbing more diverse and inclusive. He traveled to Jamaica and helped build the country’s first climbing wall. Lightner even tried trad climbing again, though he says it’s still not really his thing.

And, last year, Lightner climbed his first 5.15.

In this episode, Lightner discusses the last six years, reflects on the importance of community and connection and considers the value of forgiveness.

This episode is brought to you with support from the American Alpine Club.

Host: Abbey Collins

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

Guest: Kai Lightner

Nonprofit: Climbing for Change

Subscribe to Alpinist Magazine

And, last year, Lightner climbed his first 5.15.

In this episode, Lightner discusses the last six years, reflects on the importance of community and connection and considers the value of forgiveness.

This episode is brought to you with support from the American Alpine Club.

Host: Abbey Collins

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

Guest: Kai Lightner

Nonprofit: Climbing for Change

Subscribe to Alpinist Magazine

Previous Episode

Babsi Zangerl on Learning, Growing and Flashing El Cap

Last year, Babsi Zangerl did something no one has ever done before—she flashed a route on El Capitan. Thousands of feet of hard climbing with no falls. Her partner, Jacopo Larcher, came really close, taking just one fall during their ascent of Freerider.

Zangerl has been a climber for over two decades, since she was a teenager at a climbing gym in Austria. But what, and how, she climbs has evolved over that time—she spent her early years as a professional boulderer.

Zangerl first visited Yosemite fifteen years ago with her friend Hansjörg Auer. She was getting more serious about ropes after sustaining a serious back injury while bouldering. Since that first trip in 2010, Zangerl has returned with Larcher to free climb many of the valley’s classic routes, including Zodiac, Magic Mushroom and the Nose.

In 2018 the pair climbed the North Face of the Eiger. In 2022 they freed Eternal Flame on Pakistan’s Nameless Tower, a trip Larcher wrote about in Alpinist 82. And their list of accomplishments just keeps growing.

In this episode, Zangerl talks about the beginnings of her climbing career in Austria, her partnership with Larcher, learning the ropes from Hansjörg Auer and much more.

This episode is brought to you with support from the American Alpine Club.

Host: Abbey Collins

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

Photos of Basi Zangerl by Jacopo Larcher and Jonathan Faeth

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Next Episode

Dawn Hollis: Flipping the Script on Mountain Relationships

Dawn Hollis has been obsessed with mountains since she was a small child growing up in Suffolk, which she describes as being “a really flat part of the UK.” Her first glimpse of more elevated landscapes came at age nine on a family trip to Wales. The trip sparked a lifelong passion for being in, and studying the history of, these wild places. Later, Hollis had a school teacher who had climbed Everest, and further encouraged her love of mountains.

As an adult, Hollis found a niche in researching humans’ relationships to mountains and how it has changed over time. Her book “Mountains Before Mountaineering” draws on years of PhD research, and calls into question common beliefs about how peaks were viewed before the eighteenth century.

In this episode, Hollis talks about the challenges she’s encountered as she upended the belief that mountains were generally feared or avoided during this time. She says our appreciation for mountains pre-dates the modern era—even if historical texts theorize otherwise—and continues to evolve to this day.

This episode is brought to you with support from the American Alpine Club.

Host: Abbey Collins

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

Guest: Dawn Hollis

Book: Mountains Before Mountaineering

Subscribe to Alpinist Magazine