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Enormocast 316: Chantel Astorga – What Would Voytek Do?

Art: Chantel Astorga, Lower right photo: Michael Kennedy
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On Episode 316 of the Enormocast I sit down with alpinist Chantel Astorga. Though Chantel didn’t grow up in a climbing family, it was her dad who lit the fire for climbing by giving a tween Chantel a book on the Alaska Range. Then an encounter with the writings of the enigmatic Polish climber Voytek Kurtyka in a Salt Lake City library sealed her fate. Voytek’s evangelism for the “night-naked” style of fast and light alpinism became Chantel’s lodestone as she pursued her mountain skills first through skiing, then ice climbing, then forays to the Alaska Range. In 2021, it all came together when she soloed the Cassin Ridge on Denali and found her own “contact with the mystical” (Kurtyka). Since then, she’s become a sought after partner for ascents around the globe. Though Astorga recently joined the North Face Team, she spent most of her climbing career funding her own way through her work as an avalanche forecaster. Pretty damn old school.

The Art of Suffering by Voytek Kurtyka

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Enormocast Tweener: Vikki Weldon and Em Pellerin Live at the Arc’teryx Academy in Squamish, BC

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On the Enormocast Tweener, we have Vikki Weldon and Em Pellerin on stage at the Arc’teryx Academy in Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh) BC for a live podcast. Vikki and Em are world climbers, but both have a “home” base in Squamish. Though they are of a similar age, the paths the two women took to arrive and stay in Squamish are quite different. Vikki worked her way west from Calgary following job opportunities, and Em just came from Quebec because, well, it was bigger than her home crags. Check out this joyful conversation where the women compare notes and see eye-to-eye on the draw of Squamish.

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Enormocast 315: Kate Kelleghan – Turbocharged Life

Photos: Abbey Bergh, Kate Kelleghan, Julien Scherliss, James Lucas
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On Episode 315 of the Enormocast, I sit down with Boulder-born Yosemite-trained speed climbing maestra, Kate Kelleghan. Kate came to climbing at 20 despite, or maye TO spite, her climbing dad. A youth of dark eye make-up, music, art, and smoke-sessions behind the school finally gave way to a life of climbing adventure when dad took Kate up the 3rd Flatiron as a teen. Then, as was her way, she leapt into the deep end and became a CLIMBER, eventually moving through the gym to finding trad climbing on the cliffs above Boulder like Castle Rock and Eldo. Then she fell into the quirky world of the Naked Edge speed games eventually creating, setting, then breaking her own women’s speed record. Eventually, Yosemite pulled her further west where bigwall speed climbing was her future. This path culminated (for now) when Kate and Laura Pineau became the only women (so far) to ever complete the Yosemite Triple: Half Dome, El Capitan, and Watkins in a day.

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