A true adventurer, Matt Maddaloni is a climber, surfer, paddler and mad-genius tinkerer/inventor/self-taught engineer whose company Sea to Sky Cable Cam has helped him travel the world to capture top adventure and nature stories. To mix it up, this month we also have climber/Mountain Lifer Trevor McDonald in the studio joining the conversation to chime in with his own insights and questions.
The discussion covers Matt’s journey from a troubled youth to a pro climber, his innovations in rigging and cable cam technology, his experiences in adventure filmmaking and the balance between family and adventure.
Matt transitioned from a troubled youth and construction worker to teaching himself mechanical design and AutoCAD, leading to innovations like the anticam and custom cable cam systems used in film projects.
Sea to Sky Cable Cam specializes in gnarly environments, such as jungles and remote cliffs, and has been featured in major productions, including The Alpinist, where Matt’s unique rigging (and sound recording skills) were crucial.
Matt talks about the importance of sound in film, sharing how authentic audio (e.g., a climber’s heartbeat) enhances storytelling. He discusses the increasing role of AI in editing and the pitfalls of recording audio in nature.
The conversation also explores the evolution of climbing ethics in Squamish, the influence of legendary local climbers and the ongoing debates about bolting and route preservation.
In the course of the wide-ranging conversation (and ML’s longest-ever pod!) Matt describes deep water soloing as one of the most adventurous forms of climbing, highlighting its mental challenges and the unique risks involved. He emphasizes the importance of headspace management over physical ability and the raw, levelling nature of the sport.
Matt also shares his initial fear of freediving and the importance of continuously learning new skills to stay mentally sharp.
Highlights
Early Adventures:
“I came to Squamish and I had this dream of doing an expedition. I could climb harder than the kids at school, but in the grand scheme of things I wasn’t that good of a free climber. To me the coolest adventure I could have was getting high up on very blank rock, by any means possible. And you could have cool adventures like being on a portaledge, hauling your stereo and chocolate and whiskey up there, and hanging out with your friends. So I climbed a bunch of big walls on The Chief, then I went down to Zion and Yosemite, climbed El Cap a bunch of times, and I got it in my mind that I want to do an expedition. I’m only 19 at the time, and I was like, “I want to go to Baffin Island!” That looked like the place to go if you wanted a big wall climb.
I was still going to university and working the summers for my dad doing steel fabrication… I remember being yelled at so much, and just being so tired, a little skinny runt of a kid falling asleep at the drill press, the foreman screaming at me, ‘Get back to work, Maddaloni!’…”
Trips, Work and Family
“I’d say most of what I’m doing now is work adventures. Which is completely on purpose. I think I’ve focused my interest towards documentary film because it’s small crews in really interesting places… And as a family man (I’ve got three young girls at home and a wife), to be able to get time away where I’m just spending a lot of money doing fun things without them…”
ML: Yeah. Hard to sell.
“…So one of the things that I find you and I talk about a lot is our families and how we bring them into things. Getting older, what’s important to us and our legacy, is to show our kids what is important to us, and how to mitigate family with these big adventures. But now a lot of times we bring our families on adventures, and that’s what it’s become…”
Listen to the full conversation here. Podcast sponsored by Citizen Watch.
