Tag: alpinist

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Enormocast 331: Mick Fowler – Fortune, Turn Thy Wheel

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On Episode 331 of the Enormocast, I have the distinct honor of sitting down with everyone’s favorite alpine climbing taxman, Mick Fowler. Despite having been gainfully employed since his early 20s at His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Mick built a climbing resume to rival any professional climber or full-time dirtbag. Or maybe it was because of his limited free time as a bureaucrat that Mick was so focussed. Either way, over four decades he amassed bold ascents on rock, chalk, ice and seastacks at home in the UK, and technical alpine ascents in the greater ranges abroad. His brilliant run of climbs that included three Piolet D’Or awards hit a snag when in 2017 he was diagnosed with cancer of the anus and the resulting treatment left him with a stoma and forced to use a colostomy bag. Mick recounts the years and ascents that followed in his new book Eternal Alpinist: A Bottom to Top Climbing Memoir. Now in his 70s, Mick has adapted and pushed on with his love of Himalayan Alpine first ascents.

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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 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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