EP 46: Chris Kalous — Untold Stories, the Mythical Grade of A6+, and the Gift of Podcasting

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