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Enormocast 265: Drew Hulsey – Just a Climber Like EveryBODY Else

Photos 1 and 2 Matt Cunningham
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On Episode 265 of the Enormocast, I connect with climber and influencer, Drew Hulsey. Drew saw Free Solo and pretty much lost his mind for climbing. Despite the feats of Alex Honnold being at the most extreme end of the sport, Drew found himself wondering “Can fat people do this?” Not even sure that the ropes would hold, Drew hit up his local gym and after a few sessions “learning the ropes”, he was hooked. But he did look around and notice that he was different from the predominately lithe climbers around him. In the media, too, Drew didn’t see climbers of his size. So despite opening himself up to the vagaries of social media comments, Drew started an Instagram account with the idea of making his struggles and triumphs as a larger person public. Now a “sponsored” climber and influencer, Drew uses his social media and clinics to help larger people not just discover climbing, but feel welcomed into the pretty overtly body-conscious community.

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Enormocast 264: Alita Contreras – The Language of Climbing

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On Episode 264 of the Enormocast, I connect with Alita Contreras – a Venezuelan/Colombian climber beaming in from…Georgia. Alita was born in Venezuela to a Colombian father who taught his child to love the traditions and legends of Colombia. At University while studying languages, Alita found climbing, and soon, she was pining to leave her rainy and relatively rockless home for destinations worldwide. Stints in Germany and Canada introduced her to the world of climbing coaching and she brought her own ideas of that craft to Colombia where she became a top competitor and then a top outdoor climber and now a coach. Alita is primed to take a job coaching girls in the States and about to finish a film, Guerreras, about the climbing women of Colombia.

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Enormocast 263: Steve House – The Art of Alpinism

Photos clockwise: House, M. Thurk, M. Thurk, House
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On Episode 263 of the Enormocast, I sit down for a long overdue conversation with one of the greatest alpinists of all time, Steve House. Steve house spent 20 years riding the cutting edge of alpinism. His ascents of K7, The Rupal Face, and the Slovak Direct, among many more, represented a sea change in the world of highly technical big mountain climbing. But all that time strung out to the max took its toll, and finally an accident on Mount Temple in the Canadian Rockies signaled the beginning of the end for Steve’s climbing aspirations. Steve cowrote the lauded book Training for the New Alpinism and now heads Uphill Athlete and coaches aspiring mountaineers the world over. He is also a dad and husband. After all these years on the edge, Steve put the work in daily to keep life simple, free, and filled with love.

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