Podcast

Ep. 31 - Leading From Behind the Scenes with Doug Heinrich

Aaron Gerry

on Aug 28, 2024

• 2 min read

Doug Heinrich has just about done it all and seen it all in ice climbing as both a climber and product designer.

🧊 About the episode

Doug Heinrich has just about done it all and seen it all in ice climbing ⛏️ as both a climber and product designer 🧤.

Doug hails from Salt Lake City where he began climbing in the 1970s. He was an extensive route developer, including many mixed climbs in the Wasatch, competed at the X Games, and has been at the vanguard for product at Black Diamond almost from the beginning.

In this episode, we chat about:

🧊 The climbing scene in Utah, from early bouldering to the evolution of ice climbing, to the advent of sport climbing and sport mixed climbing
🧊 Lessons learned from Mugs Stump
🧊 The importance of humility
🧊 His inverted professional career
🧊 The evolution of Black Diamond and what most people don’t understand about the company
🧊 How passion projects lead to innovation, and why he’s excited about his new venture, Aniiu

You know, when you got 60 million worth of inventory, there's a lot more on the line, right? Certainly than it was back in the old days. Sometimes, people will think it's bad.

To me, it's just an evolution. It's like, it is what it is. We still make incredible climbing gear. We still invest a lot of money into, you know, products that aren't necessarily profitable, but we believe in them, you know, for the sport and for the community. And I think that gets losst on people. Like it costs us a lot of money to develop a crampon or a new ice screw or a high end harness.

🧊 Resources and links

Doug’s not much for social media, but you should definitely check out his side project, Aniiu, which are focused on making highly technical gloves for all disciplines of ice climbing, including working with some of the world’s leading drytoolers. You can check them out at aniiu.com and follow them on IG @aniiu_gloves.

And for some behind the scenes into Black Diamond R&D and testing, here is a (sponsored, albeit interesting) article from Outside from 2014, with quotes from Doug.

🧊 Credits

📸: Photos by Chris Noble (@noblefoto)

Intro music by Hannah Noelle Enomoto (thanks, sis!). This episode was edited by Andrew Salomone of salomonesound.com.

🧊 Sponsors:

A huge thanks to Aniiu Gloves and Furnace Industries for supporting this show!

Aniiu Gloves: What do you get when you combine 30 years of ice climbing and product design chops? Well, if you’re into gloves you get Aniiu — a boutique climbing brand on a mission to produce the best ice climbing and drytooling gloves around. Doug, Jun, and the rest of the team spare no expense in the pursuit of durable, dextrous and waterproof. Best yet, they are made from recycled textiles — which saves waste from the landfill — and they are robustly built so they won’t end up there anytime soon. To learn more about your friend in the cold, head to aniiu.com. That is aniiu.com.

Furnace Industries: We get it, ice season never really ends… it just kinda blends between rock, plastic, and plywood until waterfalls freeze over again. No matter how you train in the off-season Furnace Industries keeps you going ‘til your next bout of screaming barfies. With their gym-safe DRY ICE Evolutions you can keep up your fitness indoors. And if you’re looking to challenge yourself on your homewall, they have the largest stock of drytooling holds in America. Check out their full lineup of ice and drytooling gear at furnace-Industries.com… where It’s Always Ice Season.