Ben Spannuth started climbing at the Rok Haus in Lafayette, Louisiana at age 13.  A regular at the yellow taped route at the back of the gym he was soon picked up both as a potential climbing team member and apprentice to a tightly knit group of Cajun climbers.  Within a year he started traveling the US to compete in national competitions and as a “foster child” to a newly wed couple always excited to travel and climb outside.  In 2006, Ben competed in his first international competition in Imst, Austria; just a few months prior to winning the North American Continental Championship.  His final major competition before taking a few year hiatus for college was in Ibarra, Ecuador in 2007.

Remodeled Rok Haus

For the next five years Ben studied Integrative Physiology in a BA/MS program at CU Boulder while he worked in a neuroendocrinology lab.  While in Colorado he bounced around the now four climbing gyms with a wide variety of climbing partners.  As a student he founded and coordinated the Rocky Mountain Region of the Collegiate Climbing Series and Climbing Team at CU.  Throughout his stay in Colorado, he developed a love of steep technical bouldering and spent most of his outdoor climbing time finding cool toehooks in the roofs of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Mirkwood, RMNP. Photo: JJaeger

After graduation in May, 2011 Ben shifted gears to sport climbing and left Colorado on a massive climbing trip to Europe in search of interesting and challenging routes and people to share them with.  This trip was unique in it’s production of a climbing rhythm that’s vastly changed the way he thinks about movement.  So he’s joined the LT11 team to collectively share their climbing experiences and thoughts.

The Golden Ticket, RRG. Photo: Brendan Leader