Onsight Tokyo Kyra Condie | Mountain Hardwear

onsight tokyo

It’s not too often that you get to qualify for the global competitive stage of your sport for more than a year. For Mountain Hardwear climber and USA Climbing team member Kyra Condie, it was the opportunity to dial up the help and guidance of Josh Larson, head coach of USA Climbing.

Kyra Condie in middle of a bouldering competition, holds on to the wall, thinking about next placement

BACK IN THE GAME

“When I realized competitions weren't going to happen in 2020, I think I just felt really realistic about the whole thing. I knew that it was completely out of my control and there wasn’t much I could do to change it and that I was going to just have to go with the flow on things. And so I don't think there was really a grieving process. I was still going to be climbing, I was still going to be training the next year, no matter what, whether it happened in 2020 or 2021.”

Birds eye view of Kyra on the gym floor, looking up with chalk bag in hand

“Having another year to prepare meant more time to train, more time to develop strengths and work on weaknesses. I'm able to get really fast times on the speed wall now, and I don't know if I would have had time to do that if I only had the rest of 2020 to train.”

COMMUNITY BUILT

“Living in Salt Lake has really helped me because I can train with so many people and that's really changed my mentality. I used to avoid climbing with people because it would stress me out. But I've learned to use the people around me to my benefit and also to each other. I think training with a bunch of people, you can bring motivation, you can teach each other things and there are just so many ways that you can motivate and help each other.”

Kyra sitting on the ground of the gym, taking a break, wearing her custom champion tee

the champion tee

Ever since she was young enough to write, Kyra has been keeping a journal. Inspired by her drawings and sketches, the Mountain Hardwear Design Studio created a custom shirt for Kyra to show our support.

Show Kyra you’re rooting for her, too! Use these stickers in your Instagram stories and tag her!

ATLAS

An interpretation of Atlas, the Greek Titan who held up the world for eternity. While Kyra’s certainly not holding the world on her shoulders, they’re certainly strong enough!

MAGIC HANDS

The circle on the wrist is Kyra’s tattoo. Her bestie, roommate, and training partner, Allison Vest, has a matching one, too. And of course, magic dust instead of chalk.

TRY HARDER

The actional half of Kyra’s mantra, which comes from the group motto that’s spray painted across The A, the gym she helped build. Without try-hard, you never know what you’ve left on the table.

MINNESOTAN PRIDE

A now Salt Lake City resident, Kyra proudly celebrates her upper midwest roots, where she learned to climb hard and stay humble.

THE COACH

“Kyra has a lot of grit. She's come a long way with her back and not having a coach. She's had to have a lot of self-motivation.” -Josh Larson

“Eventually, Kyra and I got to a point where Kyra was like, "I want a coach that's training me, I want a coach that's pushing me out of my comfort zone." -Josh Larson

Getting tips on the next route from Coach Josh

“Having never had a coach before, the mental approach competitions wasn’t something I really ever talked about or was able to work on, and I think I was naturally so competitive that it worked out a lot of times, but now being at a higher level and having higher stress competitions, I think that aspect became really important.”

“It was kind of hard to trust somebody at first because from age 16 through 23, I really didn't have a coach, but I knew that in order to get the most benefit out of working with Josh, trusting him and working together was going to be the way to do that.”

“Together with Josh, I've been working on speed climbing a lot. I've been doing a lot of sections and then going to the gym and doing the full run. We've done a lot of video reviews and that's really helpful just to have two people looking at it, because if I'm just looking at myself climbing, I can start to be really critical, so having somebody else there to tell me things that I maybe wouldn't notice has been really helpful.”

THE COACH

“Kyra has a lot of grit. She's come a long way with her back and not having a coach. She's had to have a lot of self-motivation.”
-Josh Larson

“Eventually, Kyra and I got to a point where Kyra was like, "I want a coach that's training me, I want a coach that's pushing me out of my comfort zone." -Josh Larson

“Together with Josh, I've been working on speed climbing a lot. I've been doing a lot of sections and then going to the gym and doing the full run. We've done a lot of video reviews and that's really helpful just to have two people looking at it, because if I'm just looking at myself climbing, I can start to be really critical, so having somebody else there to tell me things that I maybe wouldn't notice has been really helpful.”

Kyra lifting a big exercise ball overhead

“When I'm climbing and I can hear Josh say to calm down or to rest or chill out, all those things really help cue me to try and bring my heart rate down and not get too frantic on the wall.”

“I feel like Josh really nails the combo of coach mentor as well as friend and peer. Even when he's in coach mode, I can talk to him about anything.”

“Getting to this point, for me, means that hard work pays off. I really want to show that it's good to be confident, it's good to be proud of yourself, and it's good to speak up and use your voice, and that it's even cool to do.”

What is ‘Sport Climbing’?

Competition climbing started in the United States in the late 80's at Snowbird Resort. The sport of climbing has come a long way since then, and we're not just talking about graduating from leopard print tights and mullets...