113 min listen
EP 46: Chris Kalous — Untold Stories, the Mythical Grade of A6+, and the Gift of Podcasting
EP 46: Chris Kalous — Untold Stories, the Mythical Grade of A6+, and the Gift of Podcasting
ratings:
Length:
125 minutes
Released:
Nov 30, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Chris Kalous is the host of the Enormocast and has been immersed in climbing for more than thirty years. We talked about training to be a climber in high school gym class, climbing mountains in New Zealand, soloing El Cap in winter, the infamous “Aid Rant” and the mythical grade of A6+, the ‘Freerider’, old-guy training, raising a kid, and the future of the Enormocast. Support on Patreon: patreon.com/thenuggetclimbing Show Notes: http://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/chris-kalous Nuggets: 2:41 – Election hangover and my visit to Bonfire Coffee 5:14 – Growing up in the Midwest and reading about John Bachar in Outside Magazine 6:34 – Training for climbing in high school gym class 9:53 – First day of outdoor climbing at Horsetooth Reservoir, and the Outdoor Adventure Floor at CSU 12:15 – Guiding at Colorado Mountain School 15:07 – Chris’s first big international trip to Australia 20:06 – Becoming interested in climbing history, reading ‘Climb!’ cover-to-cover, and idolizing climbers from the 70s 22:29 – Aid climbing in the Fisher Towers 23:30 – Doing an exchange to NZ in ’91, moving to LA, moving away from ice climbing, and starting to climb in Yosemite 27:29 – Climbing A4 in the Fisher Towers, and early aid climbing on El Cap 30:43 – Solo aid climbing ‘Lost in America’ in winter, and aiding through a waterfall 38:33 – Getting down the east ledges in the snow, breaking “the rule”, and the aid climber’s mindset 41:33 – The ‘Aid Rant’, and a breakdown of aid climbing grades (A0 through A5) 47:07 – Aid climbing as an engineering and mental challenge 50:24 – Patron Question: What exactly might constitute the mythical grade of A6+? 51:28 – Patron Question: What is the best way to train for hard aid in a gym? 52:19 – Why Chris moved away from aid climbing 56:30 – How Chris thinks about introducing his son Miles to climbing 57:36 – The ‘Freerider’ chapter 1:06:01 – ‘Learning to Fly’, Didier Berthod, “The bolts don’t make the sport climbing”, and traddy tendencies 1:12:16 – Embracing Rifle, climbing ‘Cantina Boy’, and the mental game of sport climbing 1:16:49 – Back to ‘Learning to Fly’, the advice Chris got from Peewee Ouellet, and taping for finger cracks 1:20:40 – The Canadian Rockies chapter and the FA of ‘Premonition’ 1:24:15 – Putting up a 10-pitch 13a in Wadi Rum 1:26:03 – Patron Question: How do you balance fatherhood and climbing? Any secret beta for a new father who would like to keep improving at climbing while being present in his daughter’s life? 1:29:22 – Navigating a relationship with kids, climbing with your partner, and date nights 1:34:08 – Training lessons from working with Kris Hampton (Odub) 1:36:53 – Training can be fun, and “you can do a lot less than you think and still see gains” 1:38:42 – A breadth of experiences, and how climbing harder opens up the world 1:41:11 – One wish about sponsorship and being a sponsored climber 1:43:24 – Hoping to go to Tagia in Morocco, getting shut down on ‘Golden Gate’, prioritizing friends and family in climbing 1:47:34 – The sale offer, and the future of the Enormocast 1:50:31 – The Runout podcast (Chris’s other podcast with Andrew Bisharat) 1:52:12 – Chris’s recommended Enormocast episodes 1:55:11 – Chris’s recommended Runout episodes 1:55:48 – Grateful for Carbondale, CO 1:57:35 – The gift of podcasting, and the guest wish list 2:02:14 – The Mobile Studio 2.0
Released:
Nov 30, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
EP 20: Chad Andrews — Financial Independence, Building a Craft, and Pursuing Your Best Life: Chad Andrews is the maker of the Clipping Chains blog—a resource to help climbers navigate personal finance and move towards financial independence. We talked about reaching retirement at age 35, simple steps to reduce your cost of living, why financial strength equals freedom, the joy of building a craft, and pursuing your best life. by The Nugget Climbing Podcast