I originally started my podcast – then named ‘The Grapplearts Radio Podcast’ – because I wanted to share some of the amazing conversations I was having with the athletes, competitors and coaches in the BJJ, submission and mixed martial arts space with my audience.
The format of this podcast has evolved over the years. For example it now includes Q&A sessions and rants as well as interviews and conversations.
There are now 77 episodes of the Grapplearts Radio Podcast and it’s time for it to evolve once more…
The talks with grapplers and fighters AREN’T going to stop, but I’m going to start including more conversations with people who are pushing themselves to the limits and living what Theodore Roosevelt called ‘the strenuous life‘.
The first instalment of that new format is now out – and it’s episode 78.
In the inaugural episode of The Strenuous Life Podcast (episode 78 of my feed) I talk about a story that has haunted me since I first heard it, life and death in the mountains, and one of my personal heros: the amazing Swiss climber Ueli Steck.
If you like this new format I would love to hear about it (and I would also really appreciate a rating or a review on the Apple App Store)!
This podcast episode, along with all my others, are available on my Strenuous Life Podcast, which you can subscribe to with a few easy clicks! Choose your audio player below and click on it to open up The Strenuous Life Podcast and from there, you can click to subscribe, or simply search for this episode.
- Apple Podcasts (the purple app on your iPhone)
- Google Podcasts (the new google podcast app)
- Spotify (it’s free)
- Stitcher,
- Soundcloud,
- Google Play
Alternately, you can click on the embedded audio player below to listen (however, you run the risk of missing future episodes by not subscribing – but if you’re a gambler then here you go!)
(If you don’t know what podcasts are, well you’re missing out. They’re basically like on demand radio shows on just about any topic that you can download, skip, or fast forward through. Grab your smart phone right now: if you’re on Apple search the iTunes store for a free app called “Podcasts“, and if you’re on Android then download one of these podcasting apps right now. You’ll thank me for this, I promise.)
Today’s podcast was recorded in the shadows of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains in Switzerland’s Berner Overland.
From my vantage point sitting on a rock in a sunny meadow I could hear the ever-present cowbells clanging in the distance.
But I could also see the infamous route up the north face of the Eiger that has claimed so many lives over the years.
And I couldn’t stop thinking about a couple of things…
Firstly, my mind kept going back to the disastrous attempt by four men to do a first ascent on the north face back in 1936. I don’t want to spoil the story for you, but three men ended up dying quickly, and one ended up dying… well… not so quickly.
At the same time it was also impossible to look at this giant vertical rock face, more than a mile straight up, and not think of the amazing speed records set by Swiss mountaineer Ueli Steck.
He shattered the Eiger North Face record 3 times, free soloing it in 3 hours and 54 minutes in 2007, 2 hours and 47 minutes in 2008, and then 2 hours and 22 minutes in 2015.
Sitting at the base of this mountain you simply can’t believe that someone can scramble up wall of vertical rock this big that fast. It boggles the mind.
In the rest of the podcast I talk about Ueli’s other accomplishments, including perhaps his most audacious attempt on a different trio of mountains in the Himalayas: Everest, Nuptse and Lhotse.
To subscribe to my podcast so you don’t miss future episodes go click here to go to the Strenuous Life Podcast / Grapplearts Radio on iTunes, here for Google Play, and here for Stitcher.
I hope you like it!
Stephan Kesting
The post The Best Mountaineer in the World and a Brand New Podcast… appeared first on Grapplearts.