brian@carolinacrossfit.com
Occupation:I am a recently retired commercial kitchen contractor. I’m currently a student.
Certifications(s):Crossfit Level 1, Open Water Scuba
Why did you start CrossFit? I had been rock and ice climbing for more than a dozen years. I wanted to become more well-rounded in order to take my climbing skills to bigger mountains. I had read about these crazy workouts that some high-end alpinists out in Salt Lake City were doing, and that led me to look into CrossFit. Paul has given me not just the physical ability to go after bigger objectives, but the mental wherewithal to make it happen.
Define “What is CrossFit?” It’s a way to work out that actually works, never gets old, and manages to suck only in the best ways.
Favorite WOD: Anything with running, knees to elbows, deadlifts, or rope climbs
Least Favorite WOD: Snatches
Favorite Food or Meal: Maybe a wood-fired pizza or any meal at Salsa’s in Asheville. I would really like a slice of key lime cheesecake with strawberry puree right now. Truffles, toffee….mmmmmmm. I love good espresso.
Something other members wouldn’t know about you:I probably tell more people about my private life than most. I’m proud of who I am and the stuff I do. I am a devout humanist
What do you do outside of CrossFit:I am a nursing student. I also climb rock, ice, and mountains. I like to ski them too. I’m in the process of learning how to combine skiing with mountaineering without dying in an avalanche. My life plan involves figuring out how to be on a mountain as much as possible, given that I grew up in the Midlands of SC.
Biggest accomplishment you think can be attributed to CrossFit: I am currently able to pick up 480 pounds and run a sub-6 mile. On top of that, I can still climb almost as well as I ever have, even though I train way less for it than I ever did before. Last year, I got on a climb at 14,000 feet that would’ve made me poo my pants a few years ago. Though it beat me that time, I’m going back…
What/who inspires you?Watching videos of guys and gals skiing down impossible faces. Reading about climbers who go right up to the edge of the possible and sometimes fall off. Watching Robby B crush another WOD. Watching Marie get her name on the leaderboard.
A quote that inspires you:
“Death plays a huge role in why men climb, in the way they climb and why some of them eventually quit climbing in the high mountains. Alpinism often means high risk and the loss of life. Your friends may die up there in the clouds, in storms, swept away by avalanches, or cowering under a volley of stones. Perhaps they’ll freeze to death alone at the bottom of a deep, dark crevasse or sit down to rest and never get up again. This is the long fall, where the sky is rose and the mountains have never been as beautiful as they are today. Life bleeds away from a head injury, unnoticed. It’s about climbers dying doing what they love and spectators speculating, judging, and maybe having the last word. Alpinism is the story of men and the risks men take: the ones they are equal to, the ones they barely get away with, and those risks that kill them. It is about obsession – the danger and the glory, the addiction of going harder, higher, longer. Sometimes we get away with it, we survive when others do not.” – Mark Twight
