Adjectives like “motivated” and “passionate” fail to describe Daniel Wood’s relationship with climbing. Think more along the lines of “addicted” and “obsessed”. As Alex Kahn wrote for Time to Climb, “When Daniel is feeling confident, motivated, and goal-oriented, he essentially runs at two speeds: zero and one hundred. He tries every move at 100%, he trains at 100%, he obsesses over perfecting and memorizing the beta at 100%, and he even rehabs at 100%, which is made evident through his pained expressions and short, strained breathing. It’s no wonder that someone who spends so much time at 100 needs to be at zero the remainder of the time.”
Though most commonly thought of as a boulderer given his ascents of V16, flashes of up to V14 and World Cup successes, the 29-year-old Boulder resident is one of the few climbers to climb both 5.15 and V16. In 2018, Daniel joined an elite group of fewer than 20 climbers in the world when climbed his first 5.15b: La Capella in Siurana, Spain.
Woods first climbed at age 5, in Texas’ Mineral Wells State Park with his father. He started going to the local gym in Dallas before his family moved to Colorado, where Daniel joined the Boulder Rock Club junior team and started competing. In 2010, he was the first American to win a Bouldering World Cup and establish a proposed V16 boulder problem. Daniel won every competition he entered that year. As a nine-time American Bouldering Series National Champion, he dominated the series for a decade. Daniel continues to push himself to succeed simultaneously in indoor bouldering, outdoor bouldering, and outdoor sport climbing—entirely different sports that require different ways of thinking and training. When it comes to the limits of what’s possible, you can always count on Daniel to be right there at the edge, pushing even further.
- 2018 South Africa Trip (27 boulders sent 3x V15, 5x V14, 5x V13, 10x v12, 4x V11)
- 5.15b - La Capella, 2018
- V16, Creature from the Black Lagoon
- V16, The Process