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Enormocast 295: Aaron Peterson – Paying His Dues

Middle Photo: Fallon Rowe

On Episode 295 of the Enormocast, I sit down at a splintery picnic table on a hot morning in Lander, Wyoming with Aaron Peterson. Aaron is a young (ish) climber for whom activism, protest, and speaking his mind goes hand in hand with his motivations as a climber. At a cost to his mental health, Aaron will engage on the thorny subjects of racism and Trumpism online and in person wherever he goes. His need to speak up comes from a youth exposed to inequality in Phoenix, AZ and a previous life with one foot in the dangerous side of hip-hop culture. A difficult illness for his mother and theft of his life-collection of music production equipment sent Aaron on a difficult path to wellness and climbing, in that order. Now Aaron is a half-time road-dawg spreading the gospel of equality, inclusion, and environmentalism as he sees it while climbing and visiting the far corners of the America.

Music Tracks:

Boom, Boom

Wake Up, E$cott ft. Shawn P

E$cott – Cliche Ft. Doberman

James Baldwin Quote

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Enormocast 294: Simon Carter – Climbing Through the Lens

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On Episode 294 of the Enormocast, I connect to Katoomba, NSW in Australia- the heart of the Blue Mountains – to chat with photographer Simon Carter. Simon has been in the game as long as anyone currently active, and after four decades of producing some of the most iconic images in climbing, he’s published a retrospective: The Art of Climbing. After a demoralizing start in the mainstream world of photography, Simon began using his camera to capture climbing in the late 80s and early 90s and thereby found his muse. A State-promoted course in business planning resulted in Simon creating a selling a climbing calendar and voila, he was a professional. In the 40+ years since, Simon travelled the world shooting climbing, publishing photos, and writing guidebooks. He also worked through the shift from film to digital. Carter’s done more than anyone to bring the incredible beauty of Australian climbing to the world, and now he’s fighting a battle to keep two of its most legendary areas open to climbing.

The Art of Climbing at CNN

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Enormocast 293: Jim Ewing – The Quality of Life

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On Episode 293 of the Enormocast, I connect with paraclimber Jim Ewing. Jim grew up climbing in the storied days of 1980s North Conway in New Hampshire. In his formative climbing years, Ewing rubbed elbows with the likes of Randy Radcliff, Alison Osius, and Hugh Herr. He didn’t know it while eeking out a dirtbag life in New England, but that early friendship with Herr would become one of the most pivotal relationships of his life. Fast forward decades to Jim family-climbing in Cayman Brac, and a fateful day that resulted in a 60 foot ground fall and a broken body barely clinging to life. Later, while looking for solutions to a painfully destroyed ankle and leg, Jim found himself in the office of his old friend Hugh – now the preeminent inventor of leg prostheses in the world. Hugh laid out the argument for amputation, and Jim started down an experimental path to a better quality of life than he could have ever imagined while being stuffed into an ambulance in the Caribbean.

Augmented Documentary

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