Runout #42: Climbers in Iso: Kelly Cordes

Hello friends. It’s time for another edition of Climbers in Iso, our pandemic podcasting mini-series in which Chris Kalous and I, Andrew Bisharat, reach out to our fellow climbers to check in and see how life under lockdown is going. To quote Cormac McCarthy from his book The Road, “Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave.” That just about sums up what a full month of self-quarantine feels like for many of us. But not today’s guest, who is just now really hitting his stride. Today, we’re speaking to one of the saltiest bastards in climbing, Kelly Cordes—a distinguished alpinist, writer, and online provocateur. I say salty bastard … but he’s also salt of the earth. Few people in climbing possess the authentic charm and charismatic delight of Kelly Cordes, even when he is in one of his notoriously misanthropic moods. I hope you enjoy this conversation, and please reach out with feedback. For one, Kelly loves seeing people write comments about him on the Internet, so don’t be shy. And if you have any suggestions for who we should be talking to next for our Climbers in Iso mini-series, we’re taking names and numbers now. Let the games begin. Here’s Kelly Cordes.