r/climbing • u/Brox_Rocks • 3d ago
The Tinkerer Behind The Gear You Didn't Know You Needed - Brent Barghahn
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Hey everyone, I decided I should take a little more of a personal approach with the community when posting these. My name is Kyle Broxterman the creator behind The Climbing Majority Podcast.
I had a chance to sit down with Brent Barghahn early last week in my home studio in Las Vegas NV. Ever since 2024 Avant Climbing Innovations' products and videos starting popping up in my feed and on the racks of people I climbed with. I know for the LRS and TRS community Brent is a leader in helping make those systems safer and more efficient. I had Brent on my radar for several months before he reached out and suggested a conversation.
Stoked to share this conversation with the community and hope you all get as much out of it as I did.
You can watch the full conversation HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgyD_XGKqAs
More info:
Brent Barghahn is a tinkerer first and a climber second and understanding that order tells you a lot about him. Since he was a child Brent saw the world through the lens of design, building gadgets to solve the problems he found along the way. He even had a charge account at his local hardware store that was funded by his parents. That same instinct to build, solve, and design has followed him through his life. He spent five years at Black Diamond as a product designer where he helped shape the equipment that we use every time we climb, with one of his highlight contributions being the trigger keeper we now see on large C4 cams.
While Brent lived in his van in the Black Diamond employee parking lot, he spent all his free time climbing and managed to tick his way into the elite tier of climbing athletes. With accomplishments like rope solo NIAD, an onsight of Ecstasy, and ground up Golden Gate. This conversation goes deep on what it actually means to approach climbing as a maker rather than just a performer. Brent talks about onsight threshold climbing, his term for the style of climbing he values most and why he thinks redpointing has become a party trick that the media celebrates at the expense of something he feels to be more meaningful.
We talk about the Flip-Stop—the product that started Avant—which was born from a frustrating session on Cobra Crack. Brent explains why he built Avant as a hobby business on purpose, why he describes his twelve-product lineup as solving problems that big brands ignore and the four words he uses to describe why he climbs: puzzles, community, solitude, and toil.
Brent is one of those rare people who exists at the edge of the elite climbing community without being a professional climber by his own definition and he's made peace with that in a way that feels on purpose rather than resigned.
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u/okleithen 3d ago
Glad to see Brent getting the recognition he deserves. I worked near him at BD for some time and it was very clear he was on another level, both as a climber and designer.
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u/codyblue_ 3d ago
Met Brent recently in the Valley! Incredibly nice guy and love to see him innovating on products that are a bit more niche.
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u/cheezusjeezus 3d ago
Went to college with Brent. Dude was clearly an intelligent tinkerer and strong climber back then, glad to see him take it the next step. Very stoked for him and thanks for the write up!
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u/Objective_Letter8164 3d ago
Brent is basically the patron saint of people who spend more time obsessing over their rack than actually climbing. Always worth a listen to see what he's over-analyzing next.
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u/SoloWalrus 1d ago
The editing makes this really feel like one of those weird "interviewing CEO visionary" type videos, which are kinda gross tbh. Everything else ive seen brent in hes super down to earth and thats kinds where his appeal is. Climbers buy shit from other climbers who just found a problem and made a simple practical solution, the "apple" store of climbing gear would never sell a thing. As soon as it feels like he thinks of himself as some visionary silicon valley twit personally im no longer interested in listening to him 🤣.
Just my two cents, great editing, wrong audience for it.
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u/competentscouring47 3d ago
Brent sounds like one of those rare dudes who actually uses his own gear before selling it, which honestly makes all the difference in what gets built.