Tag: mixed climbing

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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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Episode 159: Sam Elias – You Can’t Climb Everything.

Photos: Matt Pincus, Seth Anderson

On Episode 159 of the Enormocast, I sit down with professional climber Sam Elias in his camper parked at Rifle Mountain Park. With the creek gurgling in the background and the occasional late night drive-by, we get deep into Sam’s motivations and psyche. Once on a pro-skiing track, Sam decided to slow his life down with climbing and find himself in the Red River Gorge. Using his athleticism and knowledge of training from ski racing, Sam quickly progressed to 5.14. Then he took up ice and mixed climbing on the path to where he is today – with a short pit-stop on Mount Everest.

Sam in Lebanon

Sam Talking about Everest

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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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