Enormocast 238 – Tommy Caldwell: Concerned Climbing Citizen

On episode 238 of the Enormocast, Tommy Caldwell shows up for his sophomore appearance on the podcast. A lot has gone down since his first show in 2016. Both Tommy and the Royal We had a child – his second. He wrote a New York Times best seller. He and Honnold put up a free route on El Cap that nobody cared about. They also teamed up to do the Nose on El Cap in under 2 hours. But perhaps most importantly, Tommy turned his sights on environmental activism by getting involved in Climb the Hill, the protection of Bears Ears and Oak Flat and more. Finally, we find a slightly mellowed Caldwell, bent on being a great dad and husband, but still chasing after that elusive sense of adventure.

Enormocast 220: Alex Honnold – The Same, but More So

Alex in 2013, 2020, 2017

On Episode 220 of the Enormocast, I sit down across the internet with Alex Honnold. A lot has happened to Alex Honnold since we last talked in 2017. Back then, he had just free soloed El Cap, but the Oscar winning film of that ascent was still year away from blowing our minds and moistening our palms. So I endeavored to discover if AH had changed much. If he had let the fame and fortune fortune and rubbing his elbows with rock stars go to his head. Turns out he’s same old Alex Honnold: still wants to climb, still has no time for your bullshit. And he also still wants to make the world a better, more equitable place. Good to know that some things never change.

Episode 179: Dierdre Wolownick – Mother of Honnolds.

On Episode 179 of the Enormocast, I sit down with Dierdre Wolownick, perhaps better known in the climbing world as Alex Honnold’s mom. Up until now, Dierdre has appeared to the climbing world as a talking head in Alex’s movies, and I believe, she’s a bit misunderstood. Dierdre has recently put her thoughts on raising Alex, her life as a mother, and her new climbing passion in a book titled The Sharp End of Life: A Mother’s Story. In our interview, Dierdre talks about being the mother of perhaps the greatest climber ever to live, but she also relates being a beginner and dipping her own toes in the climbing life for the first time well into her 50s. Despite her son being a mentor of sorts, Dierdre had to overcome a life of the workaday straight-and-narrow to jump into the cliquey, jargon filled world of rock climbing. Initially she sought out climbing to simply understand her son Alex’s crazy life, but soon Dierdre found her own inspiration in climbing that lead all the way to an ascent of El Cap.

The Sharp End of Life at Mountaineers Books