So what’s the secret behind Will Gadd’s success on the rocks, ice, in the air and underground? I recently caught up with Gadd to talk about various aspects of his life of adventure.

Coloradan or a Canadian? You make the call: Colorado native and extreme athlete extraordinaire, Will Gadd has bounced between the two “countries” for much of his life. He moved to Canada when he was six months old, but returned to Colorado first for school (Colorado College), and then mixed it up between the two places in the ’90s before returning to reside in Alberta for the past eight years. Whatever the case, neither place would likely be sorry to claim him as its own, given his proven prowess at practically every adventure sport he’s sampled—from climbing icebergs in Labrador to paragliding in Australia—not to mention his infectious positive attitude, his enthusiasm and his sense of humor.

So what’s the secret behind Gadd’s success on the rocks, ice, in the air and underground? I recently caught up with Gadd to talk about various aspects of his life of adventure.

AR: When, how, where and why did you start climbing?

WG: I started with my parents when I was kid, but abandoned it for a few years for video games and BMX bikes, then got back into it on my own in high school—I’ve been at it ever since.

AR: How often do you climb and what is your favorite place to climb ?

WG: I climb about 120 days a year, give or take, doing ice/mixed in the winter and then rock in the fall. I’ve done everything from sport climbing competitions to Himalayan mountaineering, it just depends on what seems cool. Right now I’m having a rock climbing resurgence of sorts, and that’s been a lot of fun, new routing in Canada. Plus lots of ice climbing in new places—I’m just back from climbing ice in underground mines in Sweden.

AR: How often are you on the road for your sports?

WG: I travel about 100 days a year, give or take.

AR: What other sports are you involved in?

WG: I do a lot of paragliding—that’s my primary sport along with climbing. I also kayak, mountain bike, trail run, ski and sit on my ass at the computer way too much. I’ve won the U.S. and Canadian Paragliding Nationals recently, won the Canadian Sport Climbing Nationals a few times back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, won the Ice Climbing World Cup in 2000, won Ouray in 2006, and won lots of other comps over the years.

AR: How do you balance all of your various athletic interests?

WG: I just do my sports seasonally; it keeps me healthy and psyched. A lot of people seem to get all worried about taking time off from one sport to do another, but I usually come back even stronger after a sport switch. Most of sport is mental, and if you stay generally fit (I still climb occasionally during paragliding season for example, and do a lot of running, and maybe even hit the weight room if that’s all I can do), then your body will come back quickly to the next sport.

AR: Do you have any other source(s) of income beyond your athletic pursuits?

WG: I make my living writing, making films, working on gear for companies and posing. The sports I do as an amateur, but I’m a professional poseur. If someone wants to be a professional adventure athlete then the key is to just put your heart and soul into it, and understand the difference between the sports and being a professional at them. I get a fair number of emails from young athletes asking how to get sponsorship and climb full-time, and I always say that the climbing is far more important than the sponsorship. If you truly put your heart and soul into something, and then act just a little bit professional when companies take notice, well, you’ll probably make it. But you might also find something else along the way, and that’s OK too—only by really trying do we learn what we truly want.

AR: Do you think you’ll ever settle down and participate in a “real world” sort of life?

WG: I’ve worked pretty hard to make my world what I want it to be, and continue to work hard at trying to improve both as an athlete and human. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the progress, but there’s lots of room for improvement. I really enjoyed working at Sports and Fitness Publishing (which used to publish Rocky; I was the editor for a few years) back in the day, and learned a lot there that I use today. If I stopped learning and enjoying this lifestyle, then I’d find something that engaged me—it could be anything, even an office job again. I am working on couple of new books (the ice climbing book has done really well; it was just translated into German and Spanish) as well, so maybe I’ll return to writing full-time. But there are still so many places in the world I want to visit, lots of dreams left.

For the latest from Will Gadd, including his blog as well as information on how to purchase adventure films (“made with a lot of talented people working stupid hard for less money than they’re worth”), visit www.gravsports.com.