Watch Mike Cronin’s: A Climbing Life

For the last 15 years, South Dakota climber Mike Cronin has worked as a professional firefighter, a job he began because of its flexible schedule, which allows him to climb more than 200 days a year.

“Climbing has made me who I am today,” he says. These days, Cronin balances his career with caring for his young daughter and developing new routes at his local crag.