Enormocast 301: Quentin Roberts – Listening to The Mountain

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[00:03:31] This is your host Chris Kalus It is February 4th, 2025 About 10.30am here in Colorado And this is episode 301 of the NormaCast A conversation with alpinist Quentin Roberts In other news, just got back from the Winona Ice Fest Great time out there on the Mississippi in Winona Really great time

[00:03:58] I was sort of lamenting booking two ice fests in two weeks But it was totally worth it in Winona Michigan is up next I want to thank Eric Barnard at Big River Climbing Guides For inviting me out there You may remember Eric from way back at episode 99 I think Anyway, he spent the last decade Trying to transform Winona into this outdoor town Adding this crazy ice park It just sits right there above town Kind of a wild experience

[00:04:28] Everybody I met in town seems to love it And it's an amazing resource And I had a great time hanging out with Eric Now a friend of mine And meeting all of his ice farmers Great group of people Keeping that resource alive So, if you want more information about the Winona Ice Park Or climbing in that general area Hit up Eric He's on Instagram at Big River Climbing Guides Totally awesome scene up there Now it's off to Michigan Okay, and I also want to do a little advertising

[00:04:58] For an EnormaCast adjacent event Coming up February 20th, 2025 In Boulder, Colorado The Runout Podcast The other podcast The one I do with Andrew Bicharot Most of you are probably aware of it I hope most of you also listen to it Although maybe that much caloose is too much caloose It is possible to get too much caloose Just ask my wife It sounded like one of those 1950s style comedians

[00:05:26] Anyway, we have some stuff planned Chris Parker's going to be there playing some music You've heard Chris Parker here on the EnormaCast We also have Matt Samet coming on Also a former guest on the EnormaCast And obviously his name and reputation precede him And Kelly Cordes was coming But there has been a conflict He has been replaced And I think he's been replaced by Perhaps even a better guest We've got Nellie Milfeld coming in And who is Nellie? Well, Cedar Wright is her husband

[00:05:56] And though Cedar kind of gets a lot of heat In the climbing world Nellie is also an amazing climber An amazing woman Smart, funny, and I think she's going to be an awesome guest When we had Kelly booked It was an all-boys show We've upped the estrogen level a little bit Which is always a good thing So, check that out It's going to be in Boulder, Colorado Chautauqua Community House You can go to Chautauqua.com To get tickets February 20th

[00:06:25] We're also going to be announcing A little after party for that Sort of a meet and greet there in Boulder Small place, intimate setting Some music Some chatting Should be a lot of fun Once again, Chautauqua.com For tickets And if it goes well Maybe we'll come to your town And I'm not joking about that World tour I never did tour with any of the bands I was in This is my chance Finally, the last thing to say is

[00:06:53] Don't bug me about the show Formerly known as Taps We're changing the name to Last Rites this year Yeah, we're running a little bit late But you know what? The other people decided to do dry January So, you know, what the hell We'll just book in February So we can get past that I did not, luckily Because my trip to Winona Was very much less than dry Anyhow, it's coming up Hold your horses The recording is booked in a couple days So it should be out just after this one And this one's great

[00:07:24] This one is great So don't worry about where FKA Taps is Okay, let's talk about Quentin Roberts Quentin Roberts is an alpinist Maybe not as famous as a lot of other guys in his game But he should be The guy is super accomplished Super amazing climber, a deep thinker I got this interview in August actually At the Arcteryx Academy Up in Squamish Arcteryx was very generous in bringing me up there To interview some folks

[00:07:53] And just to make the scene Despite the fact that they don't sponsor the show And actually compete with some other sponsors on the show They said, we don't care We love the EnormaCast Come on up, we'll take care of you And you can get in front of some of our guys And Quentin was immediately on the list We have a bunch of mutual friends So it was an easy decision To sit down with Quentin And what we got was a really deep, thoughtful And kind of heavy podcast You know, part of talking to alpinists Sometimes is talking about the hard part of alpinism

[00:08:23] Which is accidents and losing your friends It's just part of the world that they tread in And we got into it One other thing I want to say about the timeline of this Is the fact that six months went by Between getting this and putting it out Means that one of the people we talk about in the show We talk about him briefly Mike Gardner Passed away in the interim Mike fell to his death on Janu

[00:08:51] Climbing with his long-time partner Sam Hennessy So I kind of debated Leaving the little section in there Where we actually talk about Quentin's desire to do a trip with Mike Someone who he'd become friends with Because of the Arc'teryx team It's a very tight-knit team Several of my friends are on the team And it's amazing to look into that group of people And see how tight they become working together as athletes I asked Quentin if I should leave it in We decided that we should

[00:09:20] Because it's just sort of a mention of a friend Of how much Quentin wanted to spend some time with Mike And just punctuates that loss a little bit So I just wanted to give you a warning We actually talk about a lot of death in this thing It was just a mellow day That's where we went with it all Rest in peace Mike Gardner If you want to hear more about Mike Of course there's his enormous cast from a couple years ago Also an amazing article in Alpinist that he wrote

[00:09:48] Not long before his death called Worth the Wait He was also on the Alpinist podcast So yeah, a lot of ways to connect with Mike Even though he's gone He was a tremendous guy Sweet, sort of gentle despite being tough as nails Yeah, the loss is still being felt And of course Quentin Roberts is cut from much of the same cloth So let's get to this talk On a rainy afternoon in Squamish

[00:10:17] With Quentin Roberts I think it's cool to see that technical climbing at altitude is kind of seeing a resurgence And instead of like doing things fast Now lots more people seem to be doing like technical things Taking them slower, harder things

[00:10:47] And taking them to higher altitude Because that's been, you know, most of the stuff that I've done is not Not 8,000 meters at all, it's like 6,000 meters in the technical realm, you know? But it's always been a dream to go and do hard technical climbing at altitude I don't know if that's a crazy one or not, you know, it's dangerous country But yeah, it's cool to see those guys What they did on Janya is totally wild and awesome I'm glad they're all alive, you know? And the same thing with what Tom and Alice just did on G3 Those kind of routes, it's cool to see them happen It's like a resurgence in a way

[00:11:17] But there's like a new They are slower than like what the kind of fashion has been of the last like decade But they're still like fast compared to, you know, the olden times Thanks to our gear, I think, yeah But I think more like they're spending the night on the mountain They're like really like letting the energy of the mountain sink in At least for me personally, like when I try and do things super fast It's really fun and you feel the fitness and the burn And moving fast is fun

[00:11:45] But in terms of like really connecting with the environment It's a bit harder to do Like I think suffering and shivering at night Is a better way to connect with your environment That's what you tell yourself while you're doing it I'm just connecting to my environment I'm not telling myself, I'm feeling it This is great, hello mountain Yeah, it just frees me So I mean, have you ever climbed at that altitude? 8,000? No, no, I've never been to 8,000 meters I've always wanted to and I've kind of

[00:12:14] I felt like it would be good to go and do a hike up an 8,000 meter mountain at some point But that whole industry really doesn't appeal to me at all And all the normal routes are kind of chaos So yeah, we'll see, I will At some point in my life, see how I do at that kind of altitude, hopefully How high have you been? 6,500 meters, so not even 7 And how's your just general appreciation for that? That's good, I've been doing okay Yeah, yeah, I've been doing good there But you know, things change a lot with another 1,500 meters

[00:12:43] So it'll be interesting to see But yeah, I love, I mean, technical climbing at 6,500 meters Or in the 6,000 meter range is a really awesome kind of window Because you can definitely still climb quite hard But the guys on genre were saying that they were doing like pretty cool hard moves And able to do like hard moves And I find this at, you know, 6,000 or whatever too Is that you can do really hard cruxes, you just have to be able to stop and recover afterwards Or just like stop and pant for 10 minutes or whatever if it's really been hard

[00:13:11] And so then you can actually like, in terms of like technical difficulty You can actually climb, free climb pretty well and pretty hard at altitude As long as you can recover And you're sort of planning that out as you go I mean, I saw their program in Michigan And I mean, it looked like they were climbing pretty hard Yeah, totally I mean, it wasn't just humping up snow, that's for sure Yeah, yeah, it's wild Like big 400 meter face like that high up there It's cool, it's a cool, really cool line

[00:13:40] Yeah, for me, I mean, I'm drawn to like very I would be really psyched on like a big sustained line that's just steep And you go through the altitude through climbing You know, if you're thinking of, I don't know, other routes like The stuff on Nutsi maybe No, I don't think that's a good example There isn't really any examples at that high of an altitude, you know So it's, that's the unexplored territory of alpine climbing

[00:14:09] I think that would be cool to explore for humans But also it's like, we don't actually know if we can do it yet Right West face of Markaloo, like Steve House and Marco Prezel tried it, sort of tried it, you know And that's, those kind of things are like still, still to be done Right on there, we'll see We'll see if it's me, I'm not sure I have to know if I can climb at 8,000 meters or not And it's going to be a while in the future Right Right now I need to get more psyched too Because I had some close calls in Patagonia And I'm kind of freaked out these days But that'll change

[00:14:37] Yeah, well, let me ask you About those? Yeah I had an anchor fail with a friend when we were climbing I'm coming down from the east face of Cerro Torre And then I was soloing Los Tiempo Perdidos And pulled a piece of gear that I was waiting And so it took a pretty big fall there too Both quite unexpected Like the anchor failure was because I didn't inspect the properly Both were mistakes, for sure But at the same time, we do make mistakes I think it's important to recognize that So I'm scared because I know that I'm going to make another mistake

[00:15:06] And I'm trying my hardest not to But it's just a reality Obviously I'm going to be way more on my anchors and everything now I would have said that I'm pretty on my anchors anyway Yeah, it was three cams and a big feature of rock That was used for a rescue in a previous year And luckily that anchor was attached to a fixed rope That went higher up And I loaded the anchor Sort of tested it, but didn't really Like I sat on it with my own body weight Then my partner came down and hung on it

[00:15:34] And then I started wrapping with the whole bag Which is super heavy So I think like maybe me and the whole bag And maybe that extra like different angle From stepping down into It was the last rappel Like going down to the shrine The anchor popped And this huge block like I don't know Two modern Those modern big fridge freezer combos Together or something Landed on his foot And smashed his climbing boot But the climbing boot saved his foot for sure And smashed his foot up pretty good too He was in shock and couldn't walk or anything

[00:16:04] And then came down and smoked me With my whole bag And somehow like the whole bag Absorbed most of the impact and I was okay But it could have been totally different And if we didn't have that fixed rope Then we would have been in the shrine too You know so it was like a An eye opener And it was right at the end of the like the push too We did the sick push on the mountain Came down Last rappel Our homies were on the glacier like Dancing and playing cumbia And I think that's why I kind of switched off A little bit you know It's cause like

[00:16:32] Oh we're there last rappel Like homies are down there We're gonna be down there soon And I had been like So on it for every rappel The whole way down you know like Putting extra wires in Fixing them up And yeah it was just that last one I don't know But that's how it goes Right Did you basically have to rescue your buddy then? Yeah we did We had the G7 pods We were using the pods on the face And they were perfect It was really wild to We were lucky you know like We put him on the pod We tied him in really good And then we dragged him on the glacier And then when we got off the glacier We carried him a little bit

[00:17:02] Down through the Cirocs and stuff Got to a Sam splint And splinter his foot up really good And then he crawled all the way down To where the heli could Could pick him up It was a bit of an epic crawl Had like huge holes in his pants And his knees And yeah But it was good We stayed in good spirits the whole time And it was really lucky Those friends that were playing music And dancing on the glacier It was really lucky we had them Because then there was like Four of us there that could rescue him And soon they stopped Playing music and dancing Oh yeah they were They were at the Shrend in seconds Like they saw it all happen

[00:17:32] And then yeah they came straight to help Oh man Yeah it was wild It was a wild one And you know like I feel like Those things can happen And I Fortunately I'm still alive And I've had some of those things happen Like several A long time ago I was in an avalanche And I've had some close calls you know But I would say kind of spaced out And not To have that like full soloing On Los Tiempo Peredidos right after That was kind of what really rung at home Or rung the fear home

[00:18:01] Because it's just back to back And I've been this last year The last few years really like Climbing a ton Alpine climbing a ton And just chasing Chasing another Another sick thing And I've got all these sick projects That are so cutting edge You know but they're like Big projects for me And they demand a lot And in some ways Like they demand Like an acceptance of a lot of risk too And so yeah thinking about How many of those things I really want to be doing all the time

[00:18:29] And all of those things So right now I've got that question In my head a lot I'm trying to think about Where my North Star Like I was just saying My North Star is 8,000 meter Technical climbing Hopefully I'm doing like M8 roof pulls you know In theory Like the North Star The distant North Star And yeah but But I have to reevaluate that a little bit Or at least how I'm going to get there Right Because I want to get there But I want to be alive first and foremost You know Yeah well I mean I got to keep pushing on this Because I mean one of the things that kept coming up

[00:18:59] Looking at your climbing is also soloing And not just rope soloing But free soloing And so it's like Yeah it's an interesting thing to hear someone like yourself Start to think about Or talk openly about risk Oh yeah Because it's I think from the outside looking in It seems like you're a bit immune to it Yeah When it comes to some of this stuff Yeah and I'm not immune to it at all Well Sometimes you are Like sometimes like If something If you have a close call Or something you know Like if you're soloing

[00:19:29] And you have a sketchy moment Or something like that Sometimes those moments If you're not careful They don't You don't hear them You can kind of just like Keep going And block them out Which I basically Because this happened in Patagonia In like January And now it's the middle of the summer And I've really only been processing it This last three weeks Or this last month You know And so you just have to It's a funny thing Blocking Horrible experiences out Or scary experiences out

[00:19:58] And that can be a detriment We really have to listen to The mountains when they talk to us Right Right How old are you? I'm 32 now 32 Okay Yeah it's starting to make sense The 20s man Yeah dude The 20s are a hell of a drug As they say Oh man yeah It was a wild ride those 20s Yeah And hopefully still Still is gonna be one But yeah it's different It's different for sure The 30s Early 30s I feel like I have my Perspective on life In general has changed a lot I also broke up

[00:20:27] With a long term girlfriend Who I had through the Through my 20s And she She was like a really Powerful anchor in that time So even though my life was like Super wild and crazy She provided a lot of stability That I think I didn't really recognize Until we broke up And then so that That too In going into my 30s And like suddenly Like having all this opportunity Climbing and being able to go Whenever I Like wherever I want Whenever I want Yeah it was a crazy combo So I went from like It was a wild 20s for sure But then when we broke up

[00:20:57] And in my early 30s I kind of suddenly Had all this opportunity And I've always had like A huge fire to go climbing And I could do it Properly without having to Do tree work or other work You know And I did it And that's been crazy And now I'm like Sitting here like Whoa that was wild And what am I gonna do next You know? Right. Can I interest you In a country club membership Or something like that? Yeah yeah yeah Maybe I'll start golf Lawn bowling Lawn bowling's always interested me Yeah. Oh it has. No no not at all That would be the next thing Like we've gone hard already

[00:21:26] But I have this phrase in here That you used somewhere I pulled it out of something That you said That like Part of alpine climbing Is a confrontation of the ego Oh yeah. You ever saying that? Climbing in general. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it seems like That's tied into this somehow Again this idea of listening To what happened Or listening to these signals Mm-hmm. And not ignoring Your mortality so to speak The way you can

[00:21:55] When you're maybe younger Or when you're in that mode Yeah. Yeah. Can you sort of explain that at all? Like what you're thinking When you talk about that? Yeah I think With the mortality thing I definitely don't think Or I hope to think That I've never really ignored it I had some experiences Like pretty early on That showed me How dangerous What I was doing was Instead I would say That I'm just accepting it And I think in general In alpine climbing In climbing People don't really accept That they're taking risk And they don't And if they're not

[00:22:25] Either that or they don't know That they're taking risk Because like if we go out there Even if you're rock climbing You know like I've had Giant chunks of rock Fall off at the crag No one's wearing helmets Like there's just a million ways Shit can go wrong And I think for us To like get out there And just pretend like They're doing the safe thing Or I never go soloing So I'm safe Is bullshit You know like It's dangerous That's just the way it is And for sure what I do Is more dangerous But I accept that And that's the difference You know like And I have up until this point Accepted my mortality I recognize that like

[00:22:55] If everything goes south I'm gonna Yeah Shit It could go really bad You know I don't want that obviously But it's something I think We have to recognize And with the ego thing Yeah that's The ego is huge I think I did like Most of my major ego processing In my early 20s Like I was rock climbing a turn And trying to get better And better and better And then I stopped getting better Than I Well I was on this like Super steep progression curve And eventually that Progression curve like Teetered off a little bit And I started

[00:23:25] You know you go on Alpine climbing expedition You come back You're way less fit And I've never actually like Put in consistent year round Rock progression training Which would be cool to do But anyway In my early 20s I was training I was climbing a turn I didn't feel like I was improving as much As I wanted And every time I couldn't do Something that I wanted to do I'd lose it you know And it was just this Then I really had to think About why I was losing it And I And then the reason Is because you want to do it And why do you want to do it Because You gotta like Why do you want I don't know

[00:23:54] Why do you want to do it so bad That you're getting mad That you can't do it right? And so That was a cool Really cool part of the process for me And that was specifically like Sport climbing and bouldering And rock climbing It wasn't actually alpine climbing But obviously it translates To alpine climbing too And you see like Why you want to do the objective And if it's to get to the top of the boulder Rather than To do the moves that get you to the top of the boulder It's like a totally different perspective In terms of your ego And why you're doing what you're doing And a really liberating one To just like remember

[00:24:24] That you're here to climb Not to get to the top You're here to just enjoy being in A humpy in India Like eating awesome food And jogger And going bouldering In the morning and the evening And if you top out a sick boulder You do and that's awesome And all the times that I've done The hardest things Like I've never had Those expectations And I don't think ego Has really ever been a part of it Including soloing in the mountains too Like whenever I go soloing I take it really seriously And I meditate And I listen to myself And I try and make sure That I'm doing it Because I love being In that environment And the landscape

[00:24:54] And even in Patagonia recently With this accident I was really really happy To be there you know And when the accident happened I was really happy To be there too And I was really thankful For the experience I had to get out of there I had like In the end I had actually Kind of broken my ankle A little bit And really hurt my knee So it was pain in the ass The soloing accident The poor piece Yeah the other one I mean you took like A big ass ball Yeah like 20 meters Or something Like a tomahawk-y one Right And I had crampons And ice axes And my ankle I think Got like

[00:25:24] It's just a little Microfracture or something But my Yeah my front point On the crampons Snagged So But yeah When you were This person Obsessed more with rock climbing Was that in Camor? Were you in the Bow Valley? Skaha in the Okanagan I was in university Oh okay Yeah Kind of just that time period Yeah my big like The It was in Humpy The time where I really feel Like I first digested my That was my first like Oh wait I gotta like Think about

[00:25:53] Why I'm doing this Properly now Because Before that I was just Doing it I loved it I've always loved it No question Just go go go Don't even think about why Because it's the best thing In the world And you're just climbing And then suddenly I started having less fun And I had to think about why You know And then I found out How to have fun again Basically I just figured out Why I was climbing And then focused on On that instead of The outcome You know Talking about ego And climbing is really interesting Because It goes beyond that too Like that's a very obvious Sign of the ego I think If you're like

[00:26:22] Just trying to achieve something So that you can say That you got to the top Of something hard And that's how you look Around your friends Or whatever But if you're thinking about it From more of the perspective Of like Why do you do it Especially alpine climbing Is something dangerous Or something like that Why do you do it To the people around you Like it's such a selfish thing For you to do And in terms of like Ego and selfishness Being correlated Yeah there's definitely A lot of ego then If you consider selfishness Ego Then for sure Alpine climbing Is a super selfish pursuit

[00:26:52] And it's a really powerful Selfish pursuit You know Like for me It's completely changed my life And my perspective On life and the world I'm really thankful for it But yeah I mean I did it for myself I didn't do it For someone else And I'm not doing it For someone else either And I never will be That's kind of What's so cool about it At the same time But yeah We have to remember It's selfish Going back just a little bit Like you were Kind of the super International kid Yeah Sounds like your folks Were teachers I think In international schools

[00:27:21] And things like that Time in Wales As a little kid A little Denton, Germany South Africa Is kind of Where you Kind of were like Pre-teen or post I was It was like 15 to 17 In South Africa But somewhere in there I read about like You being off I think in Germany Somewhere And some like You know Very Sort of snobby school Or something like that And like you said Like I didn't fit in Like everything

[00:27:50] I think you said Everything sucked about it Yeah Except that it was Like by some mountains Yeah It was by some mountains And because it was Such a snobby school They had like Two mountain guides Or one guide And one apprentice guide Employed at the school They were head of The climbing team And then there were Like three of us kids That were super into it And they would take us Into the Alps You know On glaciers And climbing in the Dolomites And it was like Every second weekend We would go into the Alps And I was like Back then I was like 13 you know And I was getting exposed

[00:28:20] To all this crazy stuff I had no idea What I was doing I don't remember Any of the routes I was just getting yarded up Behind this guide Herr Schiffer He was called And Yeah I don't know It's just like Really lucky I'm really thankful for that But it was really intense Like the peer pressure At that school was wild And the most of any school That I've You know Went to when I was a kid I guess in South Africa In school And UK in school But yeah That one in Germany Was an intense one Well it sounds like too That there was a Like the South African part There was a bit

[00:28:49] I just noticed skateboarding Yeah And you know It's just I think it's Traditionally that like Yeah The kids that don't fit in They find Skateboarding They can find climbing Totally You know In some places of the world They find surfing Yeah I did surf in South Africa too Actually And so it's It's kind of like I see this sort of Through line of a kid That was like Not necessarily fitting into What they needed No I've never fit in I still don't fit in But you know Like It's okay It's kind of fun not to fit in Back then in South Africa

[00:29:18] I was super into skateboarding Like way more than climbing But skateboarding was like You know Keeping me on the streets Smoking and doing Stupid shit And my parents were really Wanting me not to be On the streets doing that So they were like pushing climbing Yeah I've always loved climbing And I've always done it But back then It was definitely something That I'd do like Through school And my parents encouraged And those kind of things But South Africa Was also the first time Where I like Climbed independently With my buddies Like I knew how to go Like clip bolts And lead climb And you know Wrap in

[00:29:48] And in Cape Town The sport climbing Is really really good So it was like That was my introduction To sport climbing I did have a ton of fun Doing it But yeah All through those years Like from the age of 9 to 17 Or whenever I moved to Canada I was just like Skatehead I just love skateboarding And I didn't want to do anything else That's funny That's like Your parents were like No Climbers don't What do you think about Run at the gym tonight Yeah but climbers don't Smoke weed or anything I'd send them with the climbers They're like Sure we don't smoke weed It's fine Yeah we're totally good Yeah I know Exactly He'll be fine with us

[00:30:17] Come here Quentin Little did I know I just have two subcultures That are totally Awesome subcultures I think I mean It's a little healthier Yeah The climbing versus The skaters The skaters yeah It can be rough out there Oh yeah For sure Yeah that's interesting I mean do you Like still run a deck somewhere Yeah Oh yeah I've actually got two right now John Price just came back From Canmore And I didn't realize That I've totally forgotten That I'd given him one So now I've got two And I'm all psyched But yeah I do still I just I started again

[00:30:46] During the pandemic actually For like a long From the age of 17 When I came to Canada Until the pandemic I didn't skate And I started in the pandemic And I've fallen in love again It's like It's way easier to go Get in a little bit Of flow state Without getting changed Or without going to the gym And you can do it For like 15 minutes quick Or have a quick game Of skate with your buddy Or just go in session In the skate park For like hours But all of that Is like really easy access I love the community And it's beautiful To step outside Of the climbing community too Because I'm like I'm so in the climbing community Now you know

[00:31:15] And so going to skate park I don't have to I'm like Hi I'm Quentin And I don't have to say Anything else I don't have to say I'm a climber I just go skateboarding With people I don't know And it's cool I enjoy that a lot So I've been doing it Yeah since the pandemic You ever get out With Gardner? Yeah we've gotten out Usually during like Arcterics events And stuff like that We get out But we've never gotten It would be fun To get out with him He skates a very different Style from me Like I learned in South Africa And we didn't have skate parks We just had dry bowls And like very street

[00:31:45] Kind of like stairs And rails And ledges and stuff And Gardner's had a park His whole life And skated it His whole life And he's a total boss On all the ramps And I just don't I'm not as good At the transition-y stuff We have a different style Which would be sick I've actually I haven't asked him yet But I want to go to Scotland With Gardner It'd be really fun I'm going to do some Winter climbing And then skate in Edinburgh And Glasgow Those are some cool cities To skate It'd be really sick To skate in But yeah We'll see Dude that's a That's a film project Right there Yeah It is Yeah it's a pretty cool idea Yeah

[00:32:14] Because like even last night Or I hear this all the time But I think somebody Said it last night About like Oh this is sort of Skate inspired And then I've you know To keep it real Some of the zines Like the little Climbing zines That come from that Skate culture So I mean It's kind of gotten popular It would be pretty cool To do I mean Because there's not A lot of really good climbers Or that I know of That are also like As good as like Gardner is anyway Yeah yeah I don't know what your skills Are like but No right They're definitely not pro But I think that'd be

[00:32:44] A great actual movie Like Yeah it would be It would be really fun Yeah I think it'd be An awesome movie too Yeah we'll pitch it Yeah Articarex will do it Yeah I mean you just had The skate guys Talk about the shoes No he'll do it Yeah Anything that makes A guy look cool Look cool Is he's down for that Well cool I just kind of was Wondering about like I mean it's your Interesting kid You lived an interesting life That most kids don't You're moving around The country and everything else Leading up to this Sort of stuff

[00:33:14] There was a point At which you took You know in your own words You took the reins Of your own climbing Yeah can you talk A little bit about that Like Yeah you're dabbling And then you're part Of the community Rock climbing And I think you end up In Vancouver at some point Yeah In high school Or something like that And then maybe Over to Canmore At some point So yeah where does That all fit in That you quote unquote Took the reins Took the reins Yeah I All through Basically until I moved To Canada I had always had A climbing mentor Of some kind

[00:33:43] In South Africa I was really lucky To have some of Like the forefront Sport climbers Mentoring me When I was climbing In South Africa But then when I came To Canada I didn't know Anybody that climbed One of the teachers At the school At my high school Was a climber And we kind of Started a climbing Activity together It felt like For the first time I was the one That was kind of Leading that And I was teaching Other you know My classmates and stuff And we built A little climbing wall On the campus That I was going to And yeah that That was kind of

[00:34:13] Like where I felt like Okay now It's my thing I'm teaching other people This thing And also that was Definitely where I decided That climbing Is what I wanted to do In high school I decided to be I was like I'm going to become A mountain guide You know Because I thought That that was how I'd be able to Climb all the time And then after high school I went out to the Rockies To try and do that And decide I didn't Want to be a mountain guide I had yeah Just like I did a bit Of hiking guiding Around Lake Louise And stuff And it just wasn't Even that wasn't for me And I realized Quickly not to

[00:34:42] And so that's why I went to university In the Okanagan Which is where I was Like sport climbing And then eventually I moved out Out to Canmore Again after After uni In the Okanagan And when did you Graduate in your head To Or in reality To Quit futzing around With this rock climbing Stuff and get into The big mountains So when I first Went out to become A guide

[00:35:33] I was climbing a little Obviously And technical climbing The whole time Similarly Around that time Is when I started Ice climbing And in those years I kind of feel like I was doing them Separately So I was like Scrambling I was rock climbing I wasn't really Bouldering back then But And I was ice climbing And then Chris My buddy I told you about Earlier I met him Around that time And he was an Alpine climber And he kind of Helped me Bring all of those Skills together And use them In the mountains In harmony

[00:36:03] And I think that That is the greatest Skill of an alpine Climber How do you blend All of these Skills that hopefully You have We all have to be Mega jackable trades And then just let Them be seamless In the mountains And have the intuition That you build in the mountains Which I think is Sadly quite lacking More so these days Than it was Because people did Come into the mountains From just spending time In them And not necessarily Having to be Charging or doing The super steep 13 plus free route Or whatever And I think

[00:36:33] That that does Really help you To kind of Feel them You know Like you just get Like a bit of an intuition You don't freak out If you get lost In the forest You follow the water To the river And you just learn How to be out there And yeah I think that People learn that less But What do you think The like Coming up Climbing in the Rockies Has done for you Because it seems as though It's such a proving ground For so many of the greats And it does have the I mean it has All the

[00:37:03] Difficult parts Of alpine climbing Other than altitude Yeah it doesn't have Granite either Oh okay So but it Granite or that Like it has really cool Limestone sport climbing But yeah The Rockies are I think they're the Best training ground For hard alpine climbing In the world probably I just think that The access to those Huge glaciated mountains You know You can drive down The Icefields Parkway And then Literally like half an hour Be climbing like a 500 meter Ice route Or Or find big

[00:37:32] Gnarly alpine Limestone faces The gear is really Complicated Like to climb well In the Rockies You need to be good With gear And good on your Ice axes And you need to be able To read the snowpack Really well It's like a really Complicated Dangerous snowpack So there's just like A lot of learning That happens in the Rockies Plus you're hiking Everywhere all the time It's not like Chamonix Where you're like You know Catch a lift And then you go do Some sick alpine pitches And then come back down You're like For that same thing You're walking for Six hours to get To those pitches And so it makes you Really fit It makes you

[00:38:02] Be able to move Over difficult terrain Well you can walk On snow well A lot of like Really fundamental skills That I think we need To learn I was in Cody In Wyoming actually And that's a really Good place to practice Walking It's like all this Like a little hard Scree that's really Hard to walk on But yeah Those kind of things I think that the Rockies has a lot To offer And there's a good Reason why people From there Like ice axes And climbing I think the Rockies Probably produces Some of the best You know I think about like Raf Sawinski And Will Gad

[00:38:32] And those guys Like really Really exceptionally Skilled on their tools Like it's incredible To watch them climb And that's because They've climbed in the Rockies their whole lives Yeah And let's Do you want to talk About Chris? Yeah sure Yeah I mean Chris Willey Is a mentor Of yours Early on And you just Talked about how He was this guy That brought you Into this This idea of Harmony in the mountains And having all the skills And quite a good Climber himself

[00:39:01] But then There's just a Crazy story That goes with With the end Of his life And you were involved Are you willing To talk about that? Yeah of course Yeah Chris was My best friend My brother I was really Really close to him He was Quite a lot Older than me Like probably Seven years older Than me or something And he was so Psyched on alpine Climbing You know And on climbing And he had his He also oriented My ethics around Climbing You know Like minimizing The use of bolts Trying to have

[00:39:30] Less impact Kind of yeah Like clean ethics And being all He kind of had A very British ethic Sort of to his To his climbing So I took that on Thankfully Through Chris I think they're Really valuable Because I think That that style of Climbing gives you Really powerful experiences And I think That that's why We climb Is so that we can Grow from those Experiences But anyway Yeah We climbed a lot Together My first trip With him was to Moab But we went to Patagonia mostly Over the years That was like Where we would Do our big expedition My first ever year Down there

[00:40:00] I was 23 And he bought my Flight ticket Because I couldn't Afford it It was like A totally mind Blowing trip And we did The third ascent Of the Canadian Route on Fitzroy On the south face Which was amazing We had like A shiver bivvy Halfway up All of that stuff Was just blowing My mind Like every time I went somewhere It was like It was the first time You're doing it You know And yeah So we kind of Lived like that For quite a while Climbing together And in The winter Of 2016 Maybe I might not get The year right I'm not sure What year it was Chris developed An opiate addiction

[00:40:30] His life basically Fell apart In every way possible Like his career His partner All sorts of things And he was A cerebrovascular Physiologist So he like Knows all about Drugs And I don't know How to He was like I'm just gonna Try this thing And it was crazy He was like I was gone in India For Christmas And then I came back My parents were living In India at the time And I came back And he was basically Addicted to the stuff And I didn't really Realize he was Working out here In Squamish And so I came out To Squamish

[00:41:00] To visit him Which is when I Realized how intense The situation was And he obviously Like he was super Addicted but he also Didn't want to be So we like He came back To the Okanagan And he stayed with us And got himself Off it We kind of went To a rehab Center as well At one point Yeah And he pulled through Like he He totally Got clean And but it was A really It was a really Intense experience Seeing him do that You know this Man I admire so much Just watching him Kind of implode You know so So intensely But he

[00:41:29] He got back to it He got back to climbing And he started Writing a book About addiction And climbing And about the Relationship between Drugs and alpinism Basically In its simplest form And I thought I thought that was Fascinating I had some really Really cool And interesting Conversations with him About that Because I do think That there's a lot Of crossover Like obviously One's a lot more Health than the other One but there's a lot Of crossover Between the two And so yeah He was right Working on that book And he was clean And we were climbing Again together We went to the Bugs He went and soloed The North Hauser And then we decided

[00:41:59] To go back to Patagonia in November So we went down For the early season Like before the main Season And climbed Los Tiempo Perdidos Which is the route That I was soloing On just recently We climbed that route Together And then we tried To finish on Direct al Warpe On Cerro Torre Like it's like A direct finish Kind of To the Ragni And that link up Would be so cool It'd be like Tiempo says Like 900 meters And then it'd be Like another 400 meters Of really cool Crazy steep Rhyme climbing So hopefully Somebody does that

[00:42:28] But anyway I'm going off on a tangent But yeah So we tried We got really close To like 100 meters From the summit We bailed Because we couldn't Figure out Chris was on lead And he couldn't Figure out how to Climb the overhanging Rhyme It was super steep And just bottomless And I don't know He couldn't get Purchase And we decided To bail Because it was Getting really hot And the mountain Was falling apart So we bailed And we wrapped And it got dark And then in the dark While we were Repelling I was pulling the rope And I pulled a rock off That was very lightly Somehow attached To the rope

[00:42:58] Up high As I was pulling it And the rock And the rock came down And smoked Chris in the head Like in the side Of his helmet And smashed The side of his helmet Knocked him Clean and conscious And then You know He was out For maybe a couple Minutes And then he came to And had completely Forgotten everything Didn't know he was In Argentina He had blood Coming out of his ear And his nose And he was Totally out of it So at that point In time I don't know I was young I was really young I was 23 like I said Or 24 maybe Actually

[00:43:27] And I got him Off the anchor And wrapped with him To a ledge Put him in all Of our down I just sat there In like a fleece Shivering overnight And gave him All of our sugar And we just sat there And he luckily improved But I was sitting On that ledge For the whole night Thinking that he might Not make it through the night And definitely back then I mean maybe In recent years People have called Helicopters But I just I didn't at that time Send any rescue Because I didn't think That it was an option And I don't think It really was an option But it's been interesting Seeing people get rescued

[00:43:57] These recent years anyways But yeah So we sat on the ledge All night And then we descended Down to the glacier And because of the accident And everything Because of bailing We had gone down To the other side Which was away From our base camp We had eaten Our last food Like on the summit push Hoping to like Just wrap And then get back To our food But instead We had to do Like this big mission Now it took us Like two days Of walking To hike all the way Around the massif And then back to town And he just Chris just improved The whole time Luckily But yeah It was really

[00:44:26] Really freaky I didn't I didn't know If he was going To survive Or not At the beginning Got back to Chelten And recollected there And then came back To Canada I went out To my ex's Family for Christmas And yeah Then we got the news That he had relapsed And overdosed So he overdosed Like two weeks After we got from Patagonia And that was super Super intense Did he have Did he have I mean What was wrong I mean Did you guys Did he just Walk away from it

[00:44:56] Yeah In the end He kind of Just walked away From it Yeah He was heavily Concussed But yeah In the end He didn't have Any like neck injuries Or anything Yeah I mean He didn't We were in El Chalten For I think Two more weeks And he kind of Just sat In dark spaces And eventually Started writing again And I Went climbing again I went and climbed Pier Giorgio With a friend Jujo Knutila So Did you I mean I think Even

[00:45:26] I mean They did a Scan of what was In his blood And he could have Even been taking A different drug And it had This fentanyl stuff In it Because there was A huge It's a huge problem It's still a huge problem Right And so It is possible That he didn't even Like truly relapse To the opiates But we'll never know Right And in the end You know At least my opinion Is that it doesn't matter He's just not here With us anymore Right And that's Just what matters Right Yeah So your mentor Is gone Mentor's gone Yeah And I mean I have lots of mentors Right

[00:45:56] But yeah He was definitely The one For that period of time Uh huh Yeah And he's an It wasn't a super Exceptional human Like really Really smart PhD Like all the accolades In academia And it was cool Talking to him too Because he studied Blood flow And the brain At altitude And so He had a lot of Intel and knowledge About that whole world As well And spent quite a lot Of time in the Khumbu himself To do the research So he Yeah He had lots of ideas We never actually Went to the Himalayas Together But But you kept Climbing in Patagonia

[00:46:26] Obviously Oh yeah Yeah I mean that seems To be the place For a really long time For you Yeah Spending a lot of time Basically every year Since I was 23 now Yeah Right I mean describe that Like why Why is it Yeah I mean the obvious things Right Yeah I have I have Like Hugo Is a really Hugo Acostila Yeah I can't probably Kind of say his name Properly Anyway But Hugo Runs a hostel Called Hemheru In Patagonia And he's really good Buddies with Marc Andre To we share We share Marc

[00:46:55] As a mutual friend And I just love Hanging out with him I basically have Like a second family There I speak Spanish Now I love the culture I like disconnecting And obviously The climbing Is insane Like the The Torres As an objective To have Wild Huge Big walls And such Difficult Granite Climbing Into like Steep Ice Gulots And then Wild overhanging Rime mushrooms To climb to the summit Like I can't think of Sure there's no altitude In that mix

[00:47:25] But everything else Is about as cool And wild And intense As it could get You know So they're just like I think they're some Of the sickest mountains In the world I've still got lots Of mountains to check out So I can't say it for sure But yeah I've just fallen in love With the place And the people And the mountains Yeah What are some of your Greatest hits From down there Greatest hits Yeah You mean like Like climbs That meant a lot to you Well the tunes I've been playing with Sean Which ones were the most popular No I Like the same Similar thing

[00:47:54] And time in the Torres Like interestingly My first My first ever Route that I tried to do In Patagonia Was with Chris And we tried to climb Festerville Which is a Timmy O'Neill route Down on Stanhart And We got stormed off Like we were climbing We were like Oh yeah it's windy It's super windy dude And then we're like Yeah but we're in Patagonia We should probably just keep climbing We just kept climbing And then We topped out on the ridge And saw this huge Wall of storm Coming at us And by the time We were like On the glacier It was fully raging And blowing us All over the glacier That was a really wild

[00:48:23] Experience to see it But personally Like my greatest hits Kind of what I'm proud of I think I did a route on Eggo With Brett That I really enjoyed But the next day Or the next night Really I soloed Exocet On Stanhart And that was beautiful It's an incredible line Like the Ice climbing is perfect It's in the back of a chimney Yeah it was just A really really beautiful experience The other guys Hiked out of the valley Basically everybody Was done with the window And hiked out of the valley I was using the last night Of the window Like the storm Was coming the next morning

[00:48:53] So I climbed overnight And yeah I had just climbed This amazing route on Eggo And then I just had This super soulful Solo experience On Stanhart afterwards And I think That was definitely One of the most beautiful Experiences So you climbed The route you guys named Mas Visión Yeah Yeah M.A.'s Vision Right Yeah Mas Visión Yeah Brett talked about that On her show A couple years ago Cool yeah Yeah no it was really fun Doing that with her It was like over two years And then the second year We did it with a third

[00:49:23] Local Called Horacio Yeah It was an awesome Experience And really nice to hang With Brett After Mark had passed In those years too It was Yeah It was nice to spend That time with her for sure And you were buzzed with Mark Yeah Yeah Yeah He took care of me I'd just broken my foot And was living in Agassi With Brett And yeah We'd go hang out with him All the time over there And yeah Wander around the football field With my crutches Yeah I don't know Good times Yeah

[00:49:52] How did he sort of Inspire your climbing Do you think What did you take From being Close to that guy I feel like I mean A lot of inspiration For sure Like And a lot And a real Awesome connection Like when we would hang out And talk about our objectives It was really Really cool to like We'd bounce We'd get super excited together And then bounce back and forth ideas And talk about different things we had And back then We were both like Really fired up on soloing Or the thought of soloing

[00:50:21] And we'd Yeah We'd just get really Really psyched together And motivate each other You know I find similarly Like when I go to athlete events And all the athletes hang out I get really motivated From talking to people Who have that much drive And that much psych And I had that with Mark a lot Like whenever we hung out We both got really psyched And what else I think like His motivation being really pure Like Mark really Just loved it And I think everybody Has that In In them And some people have

[00:50:50] More Of the other stuff They climb for the other reasons too But Mark was insanely pure In his motivation And I Yeah That was really special And I admire that too Like I like to think That I have the same And that we share that But you know Maybe I don't How do you really know Right How do you really know But I really admired that And Mark for sure Yeah And tell me about hearing that news That was really crusher Honestly That was like Five months After Chris passed Or something like that And I had processed

[00:51:20] A lot of Chris passing With Mark Like we hung out And spoke about it And stuff And then Yeah When he went missing I was working In Vancouver It was super rainy I had a broken foot I was just hangboarding You know It was a low point And then yeah That news on top of it Just like rang at home I felt pretty I was It was a bad time For sure That was a bad winter Came out of it in the spring Fortunately the sun And time heal a lot Those years were intense Hayden was a couple years Before that And Even though I didn't know Hayden You know

[00:51:50] Like it rocked the whole community And I guess that was the time Where like mortality Was like Thrust right in front of my face And I had to like Deal with it I had just gotten into A massive avalanche On Polar Circus Not too long before that So all of this stuff Happening together Really like pushed me Into a A perspective shift On risk And what the mountains Can offer Before that It was all just Glitter and gold Like oh these things Were incredible Like these experiences Are amazing Life is amazing Everything's amazing And then Yeah Then in those years

[00:52:19] It sort of changed a bit Reality And real life sank in You know I kind of just want to Like figure out How you just Turn it around Into like even more Intense Pursuit Do you know what I mean I mean It's what we do It's like what Everyone does That I mean You can't quit climbing When friends are killed In the mountains You can Or if you're involved In accidents Yeah It happens And it's a completely Legitimate thing To say yeah That was That was good enough

[00:52:49] I hope that one day I have the ability Like kind of In coming back To the addiction Thing that we Mentioned earlier With how Alpine climbing Or just climbing In general Can be very addictive Or is kind of Like an addiction Or taking drugs Whatever you want To call it But I do I do hope For my sake That I can Eventually Say yeah Like I'm done Or I'm totally Fine to not Do anything Gnarly And I don't know When that time Is going to come I wouldn't say That it's here now But I am ready To like redefine How often And when And what risk I take

[00:53:19] And it's still Like it's a Never ending evolution And I would actually Say that like I'm not Even though Maybe the stuff That I'm doing Is intense Or more intense Than the stuff That I was doing In my early 20s And in those years I don't think It is actually More intense I was being Crazy then You know Like I I just didn't Know as much Now I'm a lot More experienced And I'm Better at reading When things are Dangerous And when they're not Obviously I'm not Perfect None of us are But yeah I think that's That's kind of Like I'm doing More intense things But I think also I'm actually Kind of In a lot of ways

[00:53:49] Safer If you know What I mean Yeah Who do you Look up to In the In like If you want to Like You know A guide for Like Growing old As an alpine climber There's a few around I mean Oh yeah Swenson's in town Where do you live Swenson Michael Kennedy Barry Blanchard Right Yeah Steve House There's a lot of Climbers that stuck it And I think that They all kind of Man they all came close though Yeah Not all of them I don't know what I don't know if Steve's had a really bad accident I don't remember

[00:54:19] Steve House No Swenson Yeah No he's definitely And he He's Mr. Clean I think Totally yeah Yeah It's actually really impressive And he kind of like You know He picks an objective And then he goes And does that one And his whole Work here and everything Revolves around it And I think that There's a lot to be said For that Because it's a numbers game too You know Like if you put yourself Out there all the time And you just don't do it That much But you go super hard And when you do You do improve your chances

[00:54:48] That way you know But yeah you're right They did all have Really close calls And that's what I'm saying Like I think if you're going To try and push Push alpinism It's It's Recognizing The risk Is really Really important Even Even if some people Have managed to stick it But I do think That they all Also Moderated Their Substance abuse You know Like I think that In order to be able To stick it All of them Did at some point Say no Or they did back off They listened to the voices In their heads And they

[00:55:19] Yeah They were cautious as well Even though the stuff That they were doing Was super gnarly It's an interesting dichotomy You know You've got like people Doing super I think Alex Honnold Even is a good example Of it too Like really intense Dangerous things And then feeling like What they're doing Is like In control And within their capability And trying to do that I don't know Yeah I don't know the answer Right I don't think it really is Within our control In the end Right Yeah I mean You know I was just thinking You talked about House Like he had to have The I mean he had

[00:55:48] The accident That That changed everything Yeah So it wasn't like Okay I'll just It's time for me To chill out He had this like Moment At the wrong You know At the right age Or wrong age However you want To look at it Right To sort of like Change his perspective Whether he liked it Or not in some ways Totally And I think that That's awesome You know I'd be I would be really thankful If I had a perspective Shift like that I think it would show A lot of maturity And control of my ego We all have egos And it would Yeah It would be I'd be proud of myself

[00:56:18] If I got to that place I don't want that though You know Like it's very clear to me That I don't I don't want to quit At this point in time I have I have A vision still To follow You know But Yeah One day Hopefully I have that In me That would be great Quickly aside I reclimbed That little Because when Steve Fell off on Temple He went off route And I accidentally Went off route The exact same way And I'm fairly sure I climbed through The part where He would have Fallen off of Because it was Really really messed up And there was no gear And it was super slabby

[00:56:48] Like after pulling This roof thing Yeah it was kind of Wild to be up there And thinking about Steve and that That wild fall Luckily not Punting myself But yeah It was crazy It's a beautiful mountain That North Face of Temple Did you Have you told him this? No I haven't told him Really I don't think I've told anyone that Actually Now it's on the internet Now it's on the internet That you That you just sent I sent Steve's Steve's demise I could easily Have not have Right Right Yeah So

[00:57:18] You know Back to the I kind of want to Ask you about This one solo Actually And I don't know If you Sometimes the wording Talking about Some of these solos That I read anyway Was You know He sold it He free sold it Mm-hmm That is a distinction In the mountains even Right Oh big difference Yeah As opposed to like Well like I guess If you're using ice axes Is that free soloing Or is that just soloing I don't know I think it's like The mountain I think it has to do

[00:57:47] With the rope Okay yeah Doesn't it Yeah no rope You bust a rope out Yeah Do a rope solo part of it Yeah I would agree Yeah Yeah Is that like Do you look for stuff That's like free solo Do you prefer that Or is it Just depends on what you want Yeah I think it depends It's more about like Being there I think soloing Is so powerful Because it's just you And the space And the energy And the climbing And yeah Like in Patagonia I almost always Take a rope Because the descents Need them And I don't really feel Like down soloing

[00:58:17] Those mountains Like Jim did But Yeah I I mean Jim Reynolds Yeah Jim Reynolds Down on the fantasy That's a great story It's so cool Yeah Down climbing wet edges Through the night I know Yeah Yeah I'm not a big fan Of down climbing In general But So I take ropes In that scenario But then I think if you don't need to It's a really wildly Liberating feeling To completely Just to free solo And in the context Of like taking If I'm taking a rope

[00:58:46] And it's not just Like for example On Exocet I just took a 60 meter tagline Which was awesome For the climbing But then coming down Was a nightmare Because I had to rig Like every 30 meters I was rigged Building a V thread And then eventually I was stopping Like 5 meters short Of every anchor That I was The next anchor You know On the way down But then In the Rockies Of all the stuff I've done Usually there's just A nice mellow walk off And so you can free solo Without even taking a rope Altogether If that's what you want It does Commit You get really committed On a big face If you don't have A rope with you

[00:59:16] And yeah I don't know Then the Egger was Like a full rope system I had a single rack And some screws And two ropes And that Was really encumbering But also allowed me To climb the mountain That way You know And so I don't know Whatever makes sense Well let me ask you About this Striving for the moon route Oh cool What mountain is that on? Mount Temple It's on the east face Of Mount Temple So yeah Let me ask you Striving for the moon On the east face Of Mount Temple The thing that I read That I thought Was kind of Interesting about that Is that you'd have

[00:59:45] Attempted this route With Chris actually Chris and Frank Cox But not done it No We climbed through the crux But we took way too long Okay And we had kind of Planned to bivy In the day And then climb Through the night But we were so late That we had to keep Climbing when day broke And then we would Have had to bivy at night And it was definitely Going to be too cold And we didn't take Bivy gear So we ended up Kind of not being able To do it And then when I went back I had already Climbed the crux It was in totally Different condition But I kind of knew

[01:00:14] What I was getting into And I was way faster Because I was soloing So I didn't have to worry About bivying or anything I just So well let me ask you About the process of that Like you You tried it You guys failed You know For various reasons Some of which is just Yeah That moving with A team of three On ropes is slow I mean Are you already Thinking about it While you're coming down This is all reasonable I could do all this Sort of stuff But then what What do you do To sort of like

[01:00:43] Prepare in your mind For something like that With striving Like you drive When you're driving Down the Trans-Canada It's up on the left As you're looking at Temple It's like a beautiful Straight line Of ice and snow Like Barry Blanchard Who did the first ascent Describes it as like A pearl necklace Laced Draped over the side Of the mountain Or something like that And it does look like that It's gorgeous And so like You're driving past All the time I've tried it already With my buddy Back then I was thinking Like yeah That looks like something

[01:01:13] I would enjoy soloing And I think I think some mountain routes Really call out To be soloed And that's one of them You know It's just like A sustained ice climb I didn't have ice The whole way There was one kind of Hairy mix pitch That I didn't expect To have to climb But basically It's just like A beautiful 1600 meter Ice climb The whole way To the summit of Temple And it doesn't really You know And I know That Marc Andre did too We chatted about Striving for sure

[01:01:42] He wanted to Oh he thought It was a sick idea Yeah So did you bring a rope No On that one No I didn't even bring Like a I went I went kind of All in on that one It was really cool It was really really cool But it was intense What do you mean by that I had obviously Ice axes and crampons So I was using Assistance of that kind And I had a harness too But I didn't take I didn't even Like I I think I forgot My tat or something I didn't even Often you take Like a five meter section So if you have to Get down a short Little bit You can And I probably had Like a double length

[01:02:12] Sling on me or something But I felt really committed Like I felt Like a And I definitely I climbed through The grades Five or six Or whatever it is Crux And then Yeah I didn't want I wouldn't have wanted To down climb that pitch So once I climbed That pitch I was really quite committed And then got to The mixed pitch I was telling you About like You know Maybe a hundred meters Higher And that was actually Like kind of It was probably Like an M6 pitch Or an M5 pitch Something like that I was up there And I just kind of Had to climb it You know And it was And I did And it was an amazing Powerful experience But yeah I was really When I say all in

[01:02:42] I was like kind of All in in that respect Like I I was up there I had never seen That pitch That I The mixed pitch I had never climbed before Because we turned around Before that with Chris I don't know Yeah It just felt like A lot of new terrain And a lot of like Really just trusting That you're going to be able To do it And it felt committing In that sense So like All in No ropes What about like Shorter I don't know Kind of more intense Difficulty Kind of based Soloing on like

[01:03:11] Shorter ice routes And things like that Is that a different Approach for you And a mutual friend Of mine Of ours Sorry A mutual friend Of ours Sort of mentioned You doing some Pretty rad stuff Like in Michigan When they were there Oh yeah Yeah the Lion Queen That is a really Cool pitch Yeah Yeah And that I think That was a fairly Logical solo Because I couldn't Protect it anyway Okay I would have just had I would have put Jesse at risk With a falling ice On his head Or something like that And if I had If I had screwed up At any point I would have

[01:03:40] Landed on the rocks In the water For sure Did you call it A logical solo Yeah Okay Yeah Because the logical Thing would be To go to the bar Yeah Not climb it at all But whatever But it was so cool Like the sandstone There absorbs the water Like the wind blows All this water Into the sandstone It absorbs it And then you get Like ice twofers And ice roofs And it was just like I don't know I couldn't pass it up And Jesse had done A sick new route To the left So I wanted to add One to the right Right And I knew Like I

[01:04:09] Also I did top rope it Before I soloed it Okay So I knew It was It wasn't like It wasn't like Striving for the moves Yeah so specifically But I mean do you have Do you have a method To the To To like Preparation Or is it just What you're feeling In the moment Yeah It is a lot about What I'm feeling In the moment And there are Way more times That I don't feel it Than I do Like I think It can seem I think because soloing Is such a big Like flashy thing In climbing It can seem like

[01:04:38] I'm like a big soloist But I would say That actually not so much You know I don't want to do it Most of the time So It was the right moment I was really I really wanted to do it At that time And other times That I've soloed Have been the same thing Like I'm really sure That that's what I want When I do it So we've been concentrating On Patagonia But you have a resume In Peru In the Himalayas And what about Some climbs That have stood out For you In other parts Of the world Just recently Or not that recently But I guess

[01:05:08] Two years ago now I was in the Cordillera Waiwash With Alec And we climbed We called Reino Ongo On Chirishanka Same time as Josh Wharton And Vince Anderson Who were in the Real Rock film Climbing that mountain We actually topped out The summit At exactly the same time As those guys You can't see it in the film I don't know how they Miraculously managed To pull that off But we were there On the summit At the same time I don't know why Because I think it's like Cool Yeah I know It's probably just like A whole extra story That they didn't want to Right right right

[01:05:38] Yeah that's true Yeah Yeah which I understand You don't have so much time But yeah that was Totally insane Like the mushrooms On that route Were like buildings And we were weaving Around the buildings And the whole experience Was amazing It was a very committing Route in general Like if we had had to bail We would have Had to go over the other side And there would have been A huge walk around There was some Inclement weather That we weren't Sure what was going To turn into And we went for it And it went well And sometimes it just Goes well like that It was really Really beautiful

[01:06:08] When it happens Because a lot of the time I'm like oh shit Now we have to go back Next season And we'll try it again Next season We've learned that much You know And then the other Route that I Did in Peru Also with Alec We call the Devil's Reach Around And it's on the east face Of Chacaraju Este And that I was really quite young When we climbed that And that one I think maybe Was one of the routes That kind of Put me on the map A little bit For sponsorship And things like that And was also epic Because it was like The whole face

[01:06:37] Hadn't been free climbed And we free climbed it And it hadn't You know The route was independent And completely new And neither of us Are really that Experienced with finding New lines And it's just like A gorgeous Picturesque tooth Of a mountain And we were just like Let's go for it And Alec was like I don't know man That looks really hard And I was young And psyched And idealistic And it worked out So yeah I don't know Those are my two Favorite routes from Peru For Nepal Like I've I've only made attempts I've never actually Climbed anything there But the attempts Have been really amazing And hanging out With the locals In Nepal

[01:07:07] Has been really amazing too I was there During the pandemic Right You guys kind of Got stuck there Yeah we got stuck there And it was really cool The whole Kumbu was empty We developed a really Really incredible Relationship with A family in Tame I don't know if anybody Has been watching the news But Tame just recently Got swept out by a flood Which is really sad So Perry A friend of ours Who just recently Climbed there Has just started A GoFundMe for them So if anybody Feels like donating To Tame The poor town Has been completely

[01:07:36] Wiped out by a flood But anyway Yeah we became Really close to that family And they took us Up to the monastery And we did ceremonies With them And ate with them And it was A really special time Even though it rained Every day And we couldn't go climbing I can't remember Because you guys Sent us a tape of it Actually Of just sitting there Festering Yeah It was like The lockdown started And you couldn't Necessarily fly out Yeah we had to get On a chartered flight To Dubai And then we got A different flight back I think it was I mean I couldn't afford

[01:08:05] All of the extra expense That we had to pay And then when we Came back to Canada I had to get like A hotel They forced you To stay in a hotel It was like Three grand extra To just do that And I don't know Yeah it was all A bit of a gong show Honestly But really I mean Now that it's Far ahead I don't remember Any of that stuff I just remember The beauty of being there

[01:08:52] One last little I don't need it I don't need it At all I wouldn't have As much fun But I could go And be an engineer If I wanted to By some miracle Honestly I climbed like All the way Through school I don't know What I learned In uni But I'm an engineer You know And yeah Currently Not the kind That drives trains No I wouldn't I wouldn't be fun To drive a train I've never driven A train Childhood Dreams You know Anyway Yeah I've been working On the design team With Arcteryx For the last two years On and off Like between climbing And it's been incredible It's really

[01:09:22] It's been Arcteryx is an amazing sponsor They're like They're trying to create us As humans For times beyond Like what we're doing now As well And that feels really cool So I've been doing Kind of engineering Design engineering For them Working on harnesses And breaking a ton of harnesses And having a lot of fun Doing that And is it something That's like You're trying to get Your perfect harness Something that you Yeah we've got some Cool harnesses coming up Right Yeah they're gonna be sweet Right on So last kind of question

[01:09:51] There's another line That I pulled out Actually you know what I want to ask you I want to ask you Actually what's up With Alec Berg Oh yeah Alec Berg He's like a I mean Somebody sent me something And was like Yeah you should talk To this guy You should And then I'm like I don't know He's like I mean I get those requests a lot Like This guy's like Super undercover You should You should get in touch with him I'm like well That doesn't mean He's gonna talk to me Because he's undercover For a reason Yeah yeah A lot of times Yeah I don't know What he would say If you asked him Honestly But he's like Popped up

[01:10:21] Yeah I just see his name He's a brilliant climber He's probably one of Canada's Best all around climbers For sure You know Of my generation Young old Like what He's like an enigma Three years older than me So like mid 30s Yeah Yeah Yeah He's a He does rope access He makes all of his money Very efficiently Doing rope access And then he climbs Like I feel like he works Less than I do You know Like he's climbing a lot Sadly right now He's injured But yeah He's a phenomenal partner A really great friend too Like I was

[01:10:50] Alec and I climbed With Chris together Way back in the day And I've climbed with Alec Consistently all throughout And so Yeah I really value His companionship And his partnership In climbing He's an And he's an insanely Good climber too He soloed Al Cap When he was like 14 or something You know Yeah Yeah With his dad Well not with his dad But yeah He would go down to the valley With his dad Earlier than that And then And then his dad Stopped coming down And he would still Even as a teenager Like between high school Go down to the valley And so he Like cut his teeth

[01:11:20] Soloing in the valley And then he came out To the Rockies And got into Alpine climbing out there But it is a really Cool skill set He was big into The aid soloing stuff Which I've never Really got that into And it's nice To have that skill set On your team For sure What about other partners? Canmore has an Insanely awesome Community of like Pretty committed Alpine climbers I'd say In my generation Like Alec And Ethan Berman And we had Usteen Hawthorne there For a little while But now he's back In Scotland again

[01:11:49] Martin Van Heer And like they're all My generation And we all get on Really well And they're all From Canmore Right now I'm kind of Moved to the coast To like To Squamish But yeah That community In Canmore Is an incredible one And I value all Of those partnerships I've got a really Good buddy Kif Alcacer Who now lives In Patagonia And I climb With him a ton too Will Stanhope I've climbed with Jesse Huey Is a really great friend I look like all of my Good climbing partners Are also my best friends You know So I've got lots Luckily

[01:12:18] That's cool Yeah All right Last question You had a line In another Thing I read That alpine climbing Is the best way Or the only way Maybe you said That you can find To understand And myself better Can you sort of Expand on Yeah In terms of What that means Yeah what that means And how it works And again As you've You've been sort of Doing a little bit Of soul searching Around Around your Commitment Midlife crisis Soul searching

[01:12:49] Midlife crisis Yeah You're only halfway To midlife Yeah okay You're a little more Than halfway But still But yeah Tell me what that Means to you So I think If you're soloing In the mountains As soon as you Get scared As soon as you Feel like you're If you're there For the wrong reasons You're gonna turn around I think At least I certainly would As soon as I feel Like I'm not there For the right reasons Or I don't wanna be there I turn around And so It's interesting Because it

[01:13:18] And the reason I turn around Is because you see So clearly why you're there As soon as you like And it kind of takes Actually getting there To see it You know like You could sit In your backyard And think about it And maybe you could See how you feel But as soon as You're out there And you're on the wall Or you're Putting your laces on About to start Climbing or something Then you really feel it It's like Do I really wanna do this And you can see Not only that But you can I feel like You can see why Especially on some Of the longer solos Where you're like Really On it all the time

[01:13:48] And you're like In this state You feel the pressure Of the exposure Or the pressure Of where you are For a sustained Period of time I find it does Really like Put you into A mindset That is way more Clear Than normal life With all of the distractions You see super clearly

[01:14:34] The role that your ego You don't understand Become clear You don't understand When you put yourself Out there like that And that's a really cool thing And it gives you When you see it And you have a perspective On your life In that way It gives you much more Control over it So things like Your ego Or like why you would be there If you see it For what it is Then you understand it And you can work With that way more easily Than not even knowing Where it is Or what it's doing Do you think that's a gift You have Or do you think Other alpinists Feel this Because I feel I mean I feel like

[01:15:03] There's tales of like You know Enlightenment through You know what you did The crucibles That you put yourself through As an alpine climber And then I see As many or more Tales of destruction Yeah You know So what do you think Is that a sort of Like something you define I think the destruction Is just someone Whose ego is like Way too big And is in control You know And then And I think also The destruction comes If you're not doing it For pure love

[01:15:32] Or for a motivation That's pure And there have been times Where I've felt That destruction too You know Like I've seen that as well You know And I do think that If you're open to like I kind of think That you're forced To reckon with it You know Like if Even if you just imagine You're soloing Like a 510 at the crag And you're on some Like tricky little edges In the middle Or yeah You're about to pull On to these tricky Little edges And you're there Hanging out at a rest Like what are you Going to think In that moment You know

[01:16:02] You're going to think Like fuck Do I want to do this Or do I not want to do this And then if you're like Alpine climbing And you're actually Just standing on a ledge And you're chilling You can take that further And think about Why do I want to do this You know And then you take that further So anybody who takes The time to like Really think about The feelings And the thoughts That they're having Through the process of soloing I think would eventually Get to understanding In that way But you just have to Actually take the time To think about it I don't know Yeah Do you think you have The force of will

[01:16:33] To I mean I'm trying to imagine Like being on a climb With a partner though And having these revelations Or second guessing Your partner's motivations I mean are you able to Like I think for me at least My ability to get To have that understanding And clarity Is It's important That I'm alone I love climbing with a partner But it's just a kind of A distraction from those thoughts What I'm getting at though Is if you felt those That way

[01:17:03] And like Wait we're here You know This isn't right I mean do you Have you pulled the plug Oh yeah Are you like Yeah I have Like this is I pulled the plug on Tom Livingston On the east face of Faye He wasn't very happy about it Right Yeah no I have actually I have pulled the plug quite a lot Yeah Just because of that You're like this is Yeah just Wrong feeling Wrong motivation Not psyched on the Level of risk Or whatever it might be Yeah But it's really important To be able to pull the plug And it's important

[01:17:33] To be able to descend You know Like I think a lot of people Especially early on in climbing Go do a ton of Awesome multi pitches They get into big routes even And they don't really know How to bail And rig their own anchors Efficiently and effectively And conserve their gear And I was quite lucky In my early days of climbing I don't think I ever really Had to bail all that much But lots of people Are unlucky And they have to bail All the time And they get really good at it And it's always nice To climb with a partner Who knows how to get Down a mountain quickly So I don't know That's another tangent What was I talking about

[01:18:02] I was talking about Pulling the plug I mean pulling the plug Like when it's mostly A feeling and not A feeling thing And not necessarily Like oh we're running late Or we're doing this Or we're doing that Yeah I mean I have done that Not maybe that much Right But I do respect it Like if my partner Says that Which also has obviously happened I'm super respectful of it I think everybody has Every right to have a feeling And that be the reason You bail

[01:18:31] Like I believe in the feeling Every time I've had a close call I've had a feeling Before the close call Just a weird thing You know But there's I can't even describe it But there's just been This weird like Knowledge that Something messed up Might happen You know Same thing on Cerro Torre This year with the accident Like same thing With the avalanche Like every time I've had a close call I felt like I've kind of I don't know what to say But I've kind of known I've had a weird feeling And I've ignored it And kept climbing I guess I do have

[01:19:01] One more question What do you You know We're kind of wrapping up here But What do you think you do To sort of honor These dead friends As far as you're climbing Keep my motivation pure Keep living with love Both of them lived with love First And I think that's Like that's the solution To happiness And to everything To good relationships Just live with your heart And I try and do that Live passionately And make them proud They inspire me

[01:19:31] And they will always Inspire me For the rest of my life Alright folks Thanks for listening And thanks to Quentin For sitting down Being candid Opening his heart A little bit You can follow Quentin On Instagram At Quentin Climbing He just Jetted off To Thailand So maybe he is Taking it easy On the Alpine

[01:20:00] Side of things Somehow I doubt it It's probably Just a brief Respite And by the way There's been a long While where the First Forty or so Enorma casts Were not on Spotify They are there now So for some reason You couldn't find them Anywhere else And you're a Completist Or want to go back Into the deep Origins of the Enorma cast They're there now And if you are On the Spotify Listener end of things Don't forget to Rate and review us Over there

[01:20:30] Leave some comments That keeps the Podcast popping up On other people's Feeds more often So it's an easy Way to support the Show Okay I guess maybe I'll see you in Michigan Next week Maybe at the Run out there In Boulder Please come say Hi if you're at Either of those Events And I hope you're Having a great Winter Getting out there Having some fun Maybe looking forward To spring already Like I am Be kind to each Other out there Remember that The other

[01:20:59] Is not your Enemy And of course Check your Knots

[01:21:28] Because we are Food for worms Lads Because believe it Or not Each and every One of us in this Room is one day Going to stop Breathing Turn cold And die I'd like you to Step forward over here And peruse some of The faces from the past They're not that Different from you Are they The world is their oyster They believe they're destined For great things Just like many of you Their eyes are full of hope

[01:21:58] Just like you Did they wait Until it was too late To make from their lives Even one iota Of what they were capable Because you see gentlemen These boys Are now fertilizing Daffodils If you listen real close You can hear them Whisper their legacy To you Go on Lean in Listen Hear it Hear it Hear it You might They're not