American Alpine Journal

Welcome to the Cutting Edge Podcast, back in the ice, rock, and snow of Alaska for this month's episode in the Kachatna Mountains, a western satellite of the Alaska Range, where two young American climbers have put up a first ascent on Kachatna Spire over the course of four days and four nights with almost no sleep, which is why they named the route the Hologram Wall after the out-of-body exhaustion that they experienced on the climb and descent.

We're joined by the climbers themselves, Eli Spitolnik and Michael Telstad, as well as legendary alpinist Conrad Anker and and American Alpine Journal editor, Dougald McDonald.

Before we get started, this episode is sponsored by Feathered Friends.

For over 50 years, they've been handcrafting exceptionally lightweight, warm, and packable down gear in Seattle, Washington.

Kachatnas are about 70 miles southwest of Denali, and they're about 85 miles from Talkeetna.

That's Dougald McDonald,

editor-in-chief of the American Alpine Journal.

So it's a significant flight, and it's chancy.

I mean, we could not have dreamed sponsorship or being featured in a film.

We took pictures of each other and we hoped to get published in the American Alpine Journal if we did something really cool.

Nobody gave a shit beyond the small coterie of climbers.

So, I mean, that's something that so clearly puts me in a different ballpark from the younger generation.