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Enormocast 319: Freja Shannon – Moments of Glad Grace

Photos Fay Manners, Hamish Frost, Al Lee
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On episode 319 of the Enormocast, I connect across the Atlantic with Irish/Swedish climber and guide, Freja Shannon. Freja split her youth between the west coast of Ireland and Sweden. Her first mountain sport was snowboarding which took her to Chamonix for a winter season when she was 19. But in that spring, she found climbing and finally felt “this is it!”. Freja dove into all the alpine pursuits with abandon and started racking up ascents in Chamonix, her other home in Sweden, and discovered that the sea cliffs of Ailladie were only a few miles from where she grew up. Then an serious fall in 2023 in the Alps broke her back and dealt a major blow to her confidence. Freja’s body recovered quickly but she’ also had to reassess her risk tolerance and her commitment to the alpine. The fire is still there, but Freja’s focus may have changed for the better.

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Enormocast Tweener : Live from the Banff Mountain Film Festival with Helias Millerioux

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I had the honor of interviewing French alpinist and guide Helias Millerioux on stage at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Helias is most internationally known for climbing a new route on the South Face of Nuptse alpine style with a French Team. But Helias is a experienced alpine climber with ascents around the world. He is a guide in Chamonix but originally hailed from the mean streets of Paris. Known for his sense of style in climbing, Helias also specializes in long and committed multi-disciplined human powered expeditions like climbing Mt Logan sea to sea. This episode is rebroadcast of the live interview. He has two beloved cats named Nuptse and Logan.

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Enormocast 318: Babsi Zangerl – 10 Years Later

Photos: Austin Siadak, Jacopo Larcher
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On the latest Enormocast, Austrian rock master Babsi Zangerl returns to the show after I discovered her 10 years ago. Just kidding, but to say that her fame has rocketed since her first Enormocast over ten years ago is an understatement. Since we last talked, Babsi took her bouldering base and parlayed that into becoming one of the dominant big wall free climbers of all time. She’s racked up 8 free ascents of El Cap including the first flash, climbed most of the important alpine walls in Europe, and brought her talents to the Karakorum in Pakistan on Nameless (Trango) Tower. In between, she’s sent single pitch trad test pieces on both sides of the Atlantic and climbed 9a+ sport. All while dragging her boyfriend Jacopo Larcher around (wink). All the while, Babsi maintains her day job as a medical radiographer just to keep it real. Truly one of a kind and one of the best, its an honor to have her back on the show.

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