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Enormocast 321: Katie McKinstry Stylos – Reaching Further

Photos: Joe Stylos, Joe Stylos, Cooper Shuman
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On Episode 321 of the Enormocast, I sit down at the Michigan Ice Fest with dry tooling maven, Katie McKinstry Stylos. Katie spent her entire youth as a “horse girl”: training horses, caring for horses, and competing. But when she lost her beloved horse to complications of an injury, her enthusiasm was dashed and burnout set in. Katie had started to gym climb simply as a way to take a break from all things horse, but it was a memory of a day of ice climbing near Boise, ID that would set her path to her next obsession: dry tooling. In the years since, and under the tutelage of Kevin Lindlau, Katie has emerged as one of the world’s best sport dry toolers. Pilgrimages to the late Tom Ballard‘s dry tooling mecca Tomorrow’s World has racked up some records for Katie including her becoming the first woman to climb D15+/D16 on the route Parallel World. Along with Katie’s dramatic story, this ep is ripe with terms, secret beta, and rivalries that introduce us to the enigma wrapped in a mystery that is dry tooling.

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Enormocast 320: Last Rites FKA Taps 2026 – The Roomba Your Way to the Top Edition

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On the latest Episode of Enormocast we bring you the long awaited 2026 installment of Last Rites FKA Taps: the annual show where we air our grievances, talk shit about our fellow climbers, and have a good time doing it. As is the recent tradition, the fodder for our silliness is coming from listeners like you. On the block this year is a lot of shit to do with bouldering, automatic girl support, chalantness, day drinking, pregnant women sending, inverted offwidth grades and more. Oh, and its time to repurpose the Roomba for the crag. So tune in and let off a little steam with us. If you are easily offended or believe that climbing is a sacred art that should never be made fun of, skip this one and wait for 321 coming soon. Seriously, we don’t want to hear about it.

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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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