Roger Strong

Age: 42, Years climbing: 25, Hometown: Seattle Washington, Favorite product: Miura VS

Do you clip bolts, plug cams, stack pads, or crush ice?

I love plugging in cams and gingerly crushing ice as much as possible. I probably clip way more bolts though, as it helps push the trad realm a bit more. Not much of a pad person, although i love the simplicity of it at times.

How long have you been an athlete with La Sportiva?

This is my 6th year I believe...way cool.

What are some of your lifetime climbing goals?

I'd really like to do a new route in Patagonia on the Torre group, or a big link up. I would also like to help re-kindle the sport mixed climbing in the Pac NW...there's so much potential, but only a few bretheren getting after it.

Do you have a claim to fame?

Yeah...kind of funny...I was a crab fisherman for over 20 years and highlighted in the first 2 season on the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch...can you believe the ButtRock opening with music from Bon Jovi? Ironically, my wife has a secret crush on Jon Bon Jovi...go figure.

Do you have any vices?

micro brew and coffee...yum.

What makes you tick as a climber and in the real world?

i think the tick in climbing comes from the percieved improbability of the vertical realm. No matter what the route, problem or line is, there is something so attractive about trying to solve the puzzle and move over stone, ice and snow. The real world is a nice way to rest from the break that climbing gets from in in the first place!

What drives you to climb? The money? The groupies? The fame? What?

It's all about the movement for me as well as the problem solving. Even though i love to solo a fair amount, it's the partners that drive and inspire me, share and compare each experience

What is your favorite movie?

Monte Python and the Holy Grail...the Brits are the funniest humans on the planet.

Do you have any nicknames? Explain:

RojMahaj...my first Captain when i started crab fishing gave it to me...don't know where he got it from.

What’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep? Why?

86 hrs...Hauling Crab Pots way out West on the Aleutian Chain, trying to find enough King Crab to pay for a long crappy season. I swear I hallucinated the last 30 hrs of it.

If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be?

Florida...because the irony of completely the adverse of where I've spent the majority of my life... Alaska

What did you have for lunch yesterday?

Mr. Gyro!!! it's so nice being a carnivore again.

If you could hook up a thought monitor to your head, would you see pictures, hear words or would music be playing?

Music for sure...it's 24-7 some sort of beat, riff, rhythm, loop, or rhyme.

What really scares you about climbing?

Getting so injured that i wouldn't able to indulge in it. or have it taken away, i.e. access.

If your life was made into a movie, what would it be called?

Suffer Machine

Where would you live if it could be anywhere in the world?

Squamish B.C. or Canmore Alberta

Have no food or have no gasoline?

No Gasoline

Do you wish you had sexier feet?

I'd settle for presentable...man, they are gross.