Raphael Slawinski was one of the leading mixed climbers during the M-Revolution of the mid-90s to the early 2010s.
🧊 About the episode
Mixed climbing was always part of the alpinist’s bag of tricks 🪄, but the technical and impossibly steep style we know these days only started to come into its own in the ‘90s.
The period has been referred to as the Modern M-Revolution — a period when grades advanced rapidly, from about M8 to M13 📈 — and lasted roughly from the mid-90s to the early 2010s. It was punctuated at the start by Jeff Lowe’s ascent of “Octopussy” (WI6 M8 R) in 1994 and perhaps came to its conclusion in 2012 when Robert Jasper climbed “Iron Man” in totally dry conditions and officially denoted it with a “D” grade (D14+), effectively spitting off a distinct discipline.
Today, we chat with Raphael Slawinski, one of the leading mixed climbers during this time. Some of his accomplishments include sending some of the first M10s and M11s in Canada, climbing out the Stanley Headwall (including many routes he established), and topping out the unclimbed 7040m K6 West in Pakistan with Ian Welsted, for which they won a Piolets d’Or. I want to note that he managed all of this as a quote-unquote “weekend warrior”, since his full time profession is physics professor.
In this episode, we discuss:
- 🧊 The evolution of mixed climbing (and the role of bolts)
- 🧊 Advancements in techniques and equipment
- 🧊 His “honest introduction” and progression in the sport
- 🧊 Desire vs. judgement
- 🧊 Close calls and risk management
- 🧊 His relationship with the Stanley Headwall
- 🧊 Social media and climbing documentation
“In the end, climbing is not a goal in itself, but I would say it's a means to an end. And we're not just trying to establish these routes as quickly as possible, but I like to think we're trying to get something out of the whole process.
And so to my mind, maybe good style means to maybe self-consciously limit the means at our disposal to put up a route. Now, whether that means, uh, not using bolts at all, or using bolts sparingly, going ground up, not using fixed lines, um, all those things, which, yeah, are contrived — but then again, all of climbing's contrived — so, uh, so it just makes, I think playing by those rules Makes the game more interesting.”
🧊 Resources and links
If you want to follow what Raphael is up to, you can’t. But you can help him reach 1,000 followers on instagram. His handle is @raphael.slawinski.
There are a bunch of articles and resources mentioned in the interview:
- “Degrees of Freedom”, American Alpine Journal (2002)
- The follow up hubbub to Raphael’s article, “Mixed Messages, Is Hard M-Sport-Climbing Influencing High-Standard Alpinism?”
- Raphael’s ode to the Stanley Headwall
- The full report of the First Ascent of K6 West
- Raphael’s blog
- Colin Haley’s blog
- Nick Bullock’s blog
🧊 Credits
📸 Cover photo by Leif Godberson (@leifrdenby)
Intro music by Hannah Noelle Enomoto (thanks, sis!). This episode was edited by Andrew Salomone of salomonesound.com.
🧊 Sponsors:
A huge thanks to Aniiu Gloves and Furnace Industries for supporting this show!
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