Robert Gilbert, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Erik Solberg, 11 June 2007

Transcript (25 pages) of an interview by Erik Solberg with Robert Gilbert on 11 June 2007. Part of the Outdoor Recreation Oral History Project, Everett Cooley Collection tape no. U-1879

Robert Gilbert (b. 1967) was born in Red Bank, New Jersey and spent his childhood in Fairhaven, New Jersey. He began skiing with his father at the age of three and began coaching racing when he was sixteen. At twenty three, following knee injuries from racing and several friends from his Belleayre days, he moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and began to mountain climb. He was largely self-taught, and struggled a great deal with the mental strain of climbing and leading. He eventually began to set routes in new climbing gyms that were being built along the Wasatch Front, and eventually entered into a partnership with Dave Bell that resulted in the Wasatch Front Rock Gym in 1992. During that construction process and after, Robert and Dave went into the business of making holds using the materials and technology Robert had been using to cast holds for the walls he was setting at Rockreation and Wasatch Front and in space essentially donated by Peter Metcalfe of Black Diamond. That company eventually became Pusher Holds.Project: Outdoor Recreation. Interviewer: Erik Solberg