Episode 44

Ep44: Mountaineering Misadventures with Keli and Mike

Why do humans purposefully subject themselves to freezing winds, exhausting altitudes, and perilous drops? In the first of our mountaineering series, host Dups opens with an autobiographical story from Indian Ridge in the Canadian Rockies. Then, Dups is joined by two long-time friends and climbing partners, Mike Mannion and Keli Ryan, to discuss the philosophy, humour, and hazards of modern mountain trekking. From the ethical dilemmas of summiting Mount Everest to being circled by vultures on Kilimanjaro, this episode explores the irresistible pull of the peaks.

Show Highlights

  1. Indian Ridge: Dups shares a personal story of a solo summit attempt in the Canadian Rockies.
  2. The Philosophy of Climbing and the lure of Everest: Mike Mannion breaks down how his love for hiking and indoor climbing evolved into global mountaineering. Mike and Dups discuss the ethical issues of putting people at risk for a tourist summit.
  3. Kilimanjaro, the Barafu scale, and freezing on Elbrus: Keli Ryan shares her memories of tackling Kilimanjaro. Keli recounts the reality of altitude sickness, and other stories from Kilimanjaro. She contrasts that with the cold of Elbrus and lessons for life

About the Guests

  1. Mike Mannion: A seasoned trekker who has climbed alongside Dups in the Rockies, Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
  2. Keli Ryan: A long-time friend of Dups who joined the team for the ascent of Kilimanjaro and tackled the freezing, technical climb of Mount Elbrus in Russia.

Mentions & Resources

  1. Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies by Alan Kane
Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Tales under the cat tree: Conversations on Imagination, Tech & Human Adventure
Tales under the cat tree: Conversations on Imagination, Tech & Human Adventure
Hosted by tech leader and storyteller Duleepa Wijayawardhana, this podcast explores the intersections of technology, fiction, and human adventure. Words create the worlds we live in—join us for weekly conversations that spark your imagination.

Listen for free

About your host

Profile picture for Duleepa Wijayawardhana

Duleepa Wijayawardhana

It started with late nights, glue sticks, and a university newspaper / radio.

That early obsession with how words reach people took me from student journalism to a career spanning the globe. I’ve gone from designing newspapers and having radio shows to building systems at BioWare (yes, the RPG legends), managing data at MySQL, and now leading tech at Supermetrics in Helsinki.

But at my core, I’m still that geek who believes writing is just code for the human mind.

While a computer chip executes code exactly, your imagination runs stories based on your own unique wiring. Tales under the cat tree is where we run those programs together. Whether we're exploring the fiction that inspires us or the tech that defines us, my goal is to spark your imagination and—most importantly—never make you go "meh."

Words create the worlds we live in. Let's explore them.