In this episode, longtime Nova Scotia climber Todd "The Bod" Foster (aka "Toddles") exposes ALL. He talks about his 25-year impact on the local scene through guidebooks, route and boulder development, and his award-winning film Eastern Tide. Foster explains how partnerships helped him produce multiple guides (rope climbing, Digby Neck, Halifax Region) and why he’s working on an Eastern Shore volume now, emphasizing knowledge transfer and community succession. He recounts learning to climb in the 1990s through top-roping at Eagles Nest, the Dal wall, and self-teaching from books, and later being inspired by early bouldering at Duncan’s Cove on homemade pads. We discuss the tradeoffs of beta videos, his preference for moderate climbing, an injury-averse approach focused on climbing rather than training. We also delve into his motivations for bolting accessible sport routes and his aversion to trad climbing - while also getting excited about the indoor gym scene and a growing generation of outdoor-focused climbers.

More Show Notes

⁠Icebox Sessions - All Links

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to the Icebox

01:58 Writing Guidebooks

10:01 Eagles Nest

16:34 Bouldering With Homemade Pads

21:46 Projecting and Beta Videos

34:24 Eastern Tide World Tour

41:37 Is V5 Harder Than V15?

46:18 Choose Easy

50:30 Training and Injury

56:40 Bouldering vs Roped Climbing

59:39 Lessons for Todd 2.0

01:05:18 Toddles Wants to Sport Climb

01:13:36 Is Trad a Thing Anymore?

01:20:52 Route Development

01:26:05 The Community