Conrad Anker

you know who the Alpinist

Conrad Anker is? Mm-hmm.

Okay.

He's from Montana.

This is something we've seen coming along for years.

Back in 2009, I traveled to India with mountaineer and friend, Conrad Anker, And we did a report on the melting glaciers.

We traveled up the Ganges River to the source of the Ganges, to the Gangotri Glacier, where scientists said that in 50 years, the Gangotri Glacier, which feeds the Ganges River in a subcontinent with over a billion people, they said that that glacier would disappear in 50 years.

And that was in 2009.

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.

We'll dig into the infamous hoax from the 1960s when a group of climbers submitted a photo of the Kachatnas to Summit Magazine under a false name and location to spoof the climbing community, which went on to inspire the first expedition to the zone in 1965 by a collection of climbers from the Gunks.

We'll hear from two of the climbers on that first 1965 expedition, Al DiMaria and Peter Geiser, with more insights on this wacky chapter in climbing history.

We'll also learn about the more modern history in the Kachatnas from Conrad Anker, whose first major expedition as an alpine climber was flying into the Kachatnas on an American Alpine Club grant in 1987.

As usual, we'll hear from Dougald MacDonald about the place these mountains and climbers hold in the annals of American climbing history.

And I feel like that moment taught me that to move forward in the future and to have a better understanding of how I learn and grow.

You have a relationship with Conrad Anker that seems to have been pretty important in, in your progression.

Can you describe that and, and what it meant to you in terms of like getting that job out in Yosemite and, and, and things like that, that I, that I saw again in a film or, or read about? Because that's kind of a...

I don't know if you'd go as far as to call that a mentor kind of situation, but, um, you know, getting noticed or sort of accepted into the crew by somebody like Conrad Anker can be a moving experience for a young climber.

Yeah.

I mean, [laughs] it's kind of serendipitous.

It'll be great." And I'm thinking like, "How am I gonna climb if I'm working six days a week? That sounds terrible.

[laughs] That's not why I want to be there." And get off the phone, go out to the Gallatin Canyon to meet some friends who are already out at Crag to go climbing.

Co-writing.

First, Conrad Anker.

Second, Ed Visters, for four books.

And third, Alex Honnold.