Tag: climbing

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Episode 144: Raphael Slawinski – Control Within the Chaos.

Photographers (clockwise from upper left): Daniel Bartsch, Pierre Darbellay, Wiktor Skupinski.

On Episode 144 of the Enormocast, I sit down at the Ouray ice festival with ice climbing dark horse, Rapheal Slawinski. While a total legend in his backyard of the Canadian Rockies, Raph is maybe not quite the household name of his compatriot, Will Gadd. Yet, he has been on the forefront of ice climbing, dry-tooling, and big mountain climbing for over 20 years, receiving a Piolet D’or in 2014 for his and Ian Welsted’s ascent of K6 West in the Karokorum of Pakistan. Part affable Polish Canadian, part precision machine, Raphael found his calling scraping away at ice on rock in the Canadian Rockies and beyond.

Raphael’s Remarkably Current Blog.

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Episode 143: The TAPS Edition AKA Kill Your Daisy Chain with Andrew Bisharat and Steve Dilk.

On Episode 143 of the Enormocast, Andrew Bisharat, Steve Dilk, and I sit down with a bottle of whiskey and look back on the year and decide what notions and ideas in climbing are dead, or dying. Do Euros really suck at crack climbing the way the forums might see it? Can you really get away with posting that cliché photo again? Rapping off sport climbs, dirtbags, and more get the treatment in this cantankerous show. Oh, and the daisy chain gets clipped to the whipping post once again. Don’t get too bent if we call you out on your bullshit with our bullshit. Its all for fun…and to maybe save your life.

Thoughts from Semi-rad on the Sprinter and the Dirtbag.

Rock and Ice’s Take on D-Chains.

BD’s QC LAB on the PAS.

 

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Episode 142: John Middendorf – Build It and They Will Go

On Episode 142 of the Enormocast, I sit down in a wide open and relaxing space in SLC to talk to big wall legend, John Middendorf. John disappeared to Tasmania after single-handedly changing big wall climbing in the 1990s. Previously, porta-ledges afforded respite from the vertical, but could not hold any serious storm at bay. John’s designs at his company A5 lead the way to a ledge that could handle nearly anything the weather could throw at it.  Armed with this shelter, climbers could cast off into the upward void for as long as it took: come rain, shine, sleet, or snow. John himself took the ledge to the great ranges, putting up The Grand Voyage on Great Trango Tower with Xaver Bongard, perhaps still the hardest wall route in the world. Now he’s back in the designing game with the new D4 Ledges. And a shout-out to Rock Steady Body Works for the recording space.

John and D4’s Facebook Page

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