On Episode 212 of the Enormocast, brothers in spray, Andrew Bisharat and Steve Dilk return for the annual chat about the fallen trends in climbing. Despite 2020 being a hellscape, we still managed a tongue-in-cheek raucous conversation about the stuff we lost to COVID’s shut downs and economic hardship, as well as long time trends that we believe to be dying out. We saved a small corner for our cancel wish list, and finally a surprise submission (even to the contributor) from Reddit. On the block this year: secret spots, Olympic fury, Dilk’s manhood, “Rig”, Drones, Ground up ascents, and the platform on which this very podcast resides: shit-talking. We even addressed your very dignity and humanity: is it also a dying trend?
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Hey guys, great taps edition (as always). Gotta say though, you got the comp climber/outdoor performance bit sooo wrong. This last year we saw Megos climb 9c and final a world cup, Drew Ruana go on one of the biggest bouldering tears of all time (former comp climber), Jakob Schubert climb 8C boulders and upwards of 9a+ sport, Stephan Ghisolfi climb 9b/+ sport, Sean Bailey go on a tear, Brooke Raboutou smash multiple 8B+ boulders, Molly Thompson Smith onsight 8b+, Laura Rogora climb 9b and win a world cup. This list goes on!
Has Andrew bisharat been living under a boulder for the past year?
Anyway, just my two peneth.
Love the enormocast though, keep it up guys!
We clearly don’t know what’s going on, especially in bouldering considering I have no idea what those ratings mean. But also, climbing 9a-9b sport is no longer that cutting edge for men. Especially repeating ones. No diss there, and of course its incredible, but there are Spanish dudes you have never heard of doing 9a and 9a+ on the reg. Megos is obviously one of the crossover guys.
The women are more obviously contradicting the idea. Rogora and Chardonnay () being obvious examples.
But I still think the way of the future is the Japanese style of more or less pure indoor climbers. Lets revisit this we see how those indoor/outdoor people actually do. I think they’d be better off banging their heads against that miserable speed route than climbing outdoors right now.
Isn’t Chardonnay a wine?! Hahaha
I think (just googled it) her name is Chanourdie.
Enormocast is the best! We need more TAPS!
Keep up the amazing work CK!
Yes, that was my little joke, teehee.
Sweet sweet burns.
Tommy Caldwell just posted flat Biden and flat Harris!
https://www.facebook.com/1tommycaldwell/posts/3735827813121301
Saw that. Hahaha. Those kids are damn cute.
It’s me! I’m listening! I’m famous (as far as climbing podcasts go)!
For what it’s worth, the quad thing was actually brought up by another Reddit member, maxwellmaxen. I’m sure some guides properly use it as a fast and easy to deploy multi-piece anchor.
It’s “misuse” if you will, I see from beginners who use it as a “rig” (haha) on bolted sport anchors/top rope. I don’t think they can explain why they’re using a quad other than because they saw someone else use it, it looks beefy and is redundantly redundant which gives them a false sense of being more safe.
Some banter regarding the episode on Reddit here:
https://tinyurl.com/y5bd658k
Haha. That guy was chapped we didn’t know about the Olympics. I don’t think he’s a TAPS aficionado, since when are we relying on facts? But also, Per a comment above: Repeating a 9 whatever outdoors is not cutting edge any more for men. Its just not. I can’t comment on the bouldering because I don’t understand the grades and don’t care. The women are more prominently succeeding doing both. But the point is that, yes folks are still doing both, and Megos is a freak, but I think its will be a slowly dying breed. And we can see how that plays out if the Olympics ever get off the ground (pun intended).
And this is just a me thing, but methodically repeating hard routes outdoors is not visionary. Its training. Find the new routes, go beyond what’s been done. Some are still doing that, sure, but not for long in my opinion.
As to the speed thing, I mistakenly used “qualifying” for “has a chance”. Nobody is betting on those speed freaks to win it. Nobody. Doing the research now, all the articles qualify these folks as “could be a breakout!”, “if they rise up in the other disciplines…” etc. which is code for, ain’t going to win. So there will be a shoot out for winning the speed, with its own accolades, but the really shoot out will be between the strong boulderers and sport climbers to get the least sad score.
However, I hope I am wrong and some weird math means one of these speed folks wins. I can’t wait to read the horror in comments and threads and articles all over the Western base climbing media.
The quad is fine. Its just a funny meme.
I use the quad in Potrero Chico where obviously everything is bolted. It’s super convenient because it’s already tied and ready for you to hang it on the anchors and it automatically equalizes; not that bolted anchors need to be perfectly equalized …
It will not surprise you that we were speaking from pure ignorance. It was more “quad” as a social media trend than quad as an actual useful tool, which I’m certain in capable hands like yours, it is.