Tag: Ice Climbing

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Enormocast 308: Angela Vanwiemeersch – The Stars Not Wanted

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On Episode 308 of the Enormocast, Alpinist Angela Vanwiemeersch returns after over a decade since her first interview on the show. That interview featured a spunky overstoked girl who had more or less just discovered climbing. She had been ushered into the big leagues by association with her then boyfriend, Scott Adamson. Scott’s “no weak shit” motto was already practically Angela’s own when they met. A love affair and bountiful climbing partnership bloomed for 4 years. But then Scott and Kyle Dempster disappeared on Oger II in Pakistan and Angela was shattered. On this deep and emotional face to face interview at The Michigan Icefest, Angela explains her journey through the darkness of grief and how she put her life back together, sort of. Her connection to climbing and the climbing community was a lifeline that never let her go.

Angela’s latest grand adventure with Bronwyn Hodgins et al

More with Bron

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Enormocast 306: Sarah Hueniken – The Aftermath

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On Episode 206 of the Enormocast, I sit down at Banff Mountain Film with alpinist and guide, Sarah Hueniken. Sarah was an outdoor educator before she was a climber, and though she is known for ice climbing and dry tooling, she was a rock climber first. She even found Canmore, Alberta a little bleak and cold for her taste. Nevertheless, Sarah eventually set up shop in Canmore and pursued guiding as her career choice and first love. Almost as an afterthought to that pursuit, she became an accomplished alpinist in her own right and took to the emerging disciplines of mixed climbing and dry tooling. She became the first North American woman to climb M11-M14. But then, well into her advanced guiding career, a terrible incident occurred during an ice-climbing camp under her direction in 2019. An avalanche swept over a a guided group at Massey’s Waterfall and buried and killed Sonja Findlater. In the aftermath of that incident, Sarah found herself wallowing in guilt and trauma and the loss of her friend. Finally, she emerged from her despair to rejoin the climbing community, start guiding again, and form the Mountain Muskox organization to see others through the trauma of mountain accidents.

Sarah On Fire

Sarah’s Guiding Website

Massey’s Incident Guide Report

Not Alone by Heather Mosher

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Enormocast 297: Paul “PK” Kuenn – The Dairylander

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On Episode 297 of the Enormocast, I sit down in Munising, Michigan with local Midwest legend, Paul Kuenn. In his youth near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Paul was drawn to the outdoors: fly-fishing, cross-country skiing, and finally, climbing at Devil’s Lake. Climbing became obsession which brought him to the PNW to become a guide and to Colorado to ply his craft as a guide but also a builder. But the upper midwest drew him back, and Paul set out on a mission to find and climb ice all around Lake Superior. He also created Dairyland Expeditions which specialized in alpine training in Wyoming and Montana, and guiding ice in Munising. Paul also help organized and popularize the AMGA. Now decades later, Paul still revels in the ice climbing community he helped to form on the lonely ice flows of Lake Superior and attends the Michigan Ice Fest nearly without fail since its inception in a tiny cabin on the shore of mighty Gichigami.

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