Does drytooling have a grading problem? Katie McKinstry Stylos is one of top drytoolers in the world, specializing in big roofs. In 2023, Katie sent A Line Above The Sky, becoming the fourth woman to climb D15. This past summer, she returned to project Parallel World (D16/D15+/other?), and she has some questions.

While Tomorrow's World is somewhat of a benchmark for grades in drytooling, compared to rock climbing, consensus is hard to come by. Factors such as DTS vs. Yaniro, tactics for manufacturing difficulty, the changing nature of routes, and, human variables, like ego, all play a part in grade discord.

In this episode, we chat about:

🧊 The complexity of grading at the highest level of drytooling
🧊 How you don’t have to comp to crush (or need specialized tools)
🧊 Coming to climbing after a competitive horseback riding career
🧊 Balancing her roles as an artist, business owner, and climber
🧊 Developing new drytooling gloves with Aniiu

"There's so many factors in drytooling that can make it complicated. And so, for me, I really want to try to have this general idea of the hard grades around the world so I can give my opinion to help us kind of find a consensus on the grading. And I think, really, what makes the grades of drytooling pretty difficult to figure out is there's, even though we're a small sport, there's a pretty big divide."

🧊 Resources and links

To follow Katie on social, she’s @katie_stylos on Instagram. And to check out her artwork, you can head to hyalitedesigns.com.

You can read about her send of A Line Above The Sky here.

📸: Cover photo by Cooper Shuman.

Credits:

Intro music by Hannah Noelle Enomoto (thanks, sis!).
This episode was edited by Andrew Salomone of salomonesound.com.
And of course, a big thanks to our sponsors, Aniiu Gloves and Furnace Industries!

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