The Careless Talk Climbing Podcast: Recent Episodes
Sam Prior & Aidan Roberts
A podcast where hosts Aidan Roberts and Sam Prior chat to top climbers about what makes them tick, their successes and their failures and the lessons they've learned along the way. A pretty standard climbing podcast, but zoomed out a little.
Ben is back! Ben is very close to launching his new innovation, the Moonboard Spray. He even paid me to set it, but then he crumpled up my offering and launched into the bin and did it again with a completely different team. Why? What is it? Can I have a crack at doing the app instead? Basically just a fun chat going over it as well as our philosophies about training boards etc.
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Jen Wood comes to join us on the pod this week! Someone who used to compete on the World Cup boulder circuit with Aidan but they went in totally opposite directions at the end (not because of any personal beef I hasten to add) Jen has transformed herself via the most gruelling methods into one of the UKs top sport climbers. All that hard work culminated in sending Climb for Life (9a) in Sicily. We chatted about that, how she got there and I also asked her a bunch of questions about running which a more professional podcast might have warned her was coming.
If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon! It probably won't help you climb your projects but it might help release a tiny amount of feel good hormones that for a brief moment could make you almost feel like you have.
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Billy is back to talk about another audacious challenge. This time Billy attempted to climb 100 7s on gritstone in 24 hours. It was quite the adventure with a some high highs and some devastating (and humorous) lows. Billy came on to tell us the story!
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Home team this week and Katie jumped in to join us for a friendly round of Red Pill vs Blue Pill, a chat about some storm in a teacup controversies that will probably be forgotten about in a week and a catch up about Aidan and Katie's summer training. We also rambled for quite some time about various sports, but that is on the Patreon so if you want even more rambling please consider checking out our Patreon page.
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If you normally listen to this podcast with young children, maybe tell them we didn't upload this week, or give them an old episode and test their memory!
Okay we'll level with you, this episode has given us a bit of anxiety. Having a moderately successful podcast can sometimes lead to the erroneous thought 'people like listening to us talk about climbing, so maybe people like listening to us talk about other stuff too'. That has often proven to be very wrong, however we have said many times that we think climbers are more interesting than climbing so we feel this episode is true to that. Lillian is a keen climber but not one that cares too much about progressing through the grades. She has written a book entitled 'Fingerbanging for climber boys' which is about exactly what it sounds like it's about, but it's also about the value of communication and the importance of consent. This stuff is important, and we do believe talking about it and breaking a few taboos is a worthwhile endeavour. That said, we do understand that some of you will feel this isn't the right place, or time, or that we're not the right people to be having this conversation, and we understand and respect that critique but on this occasion we elected to go with our gut (and the wise guidance of our Patroon community) and do it anyway.
Love, Sam and Aidan
If you would like to check out Lillian's book : https://www.fingerbangingforclimberboys.com/
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Wow it's been a while since Huffy was last on! Generally considered the foremost climbing physio in British circles, Huffy really knows his stuff and is also one of the nicest and easiest people you could hope to meet so it was a pleasure to have him back. Lots of good stuff, give it a listen!
If you want to hear more from Huffy then check out his podcast 'The Climbing Injury Podcast'.
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I can't remember the last time I had a faster two hours than during this conversation. We had a long (mental) list of things to talk about and after asking a couple of questions I looked down and discovered we'd run out of time. We mostly talked about Eric's time as a Yosemite climbing ranger and his film-making and I still can't quite believe we didn't get to anything else!
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Two return guests coming back for a new look round table. We chat about a range of topics from social media, awkward crag interactions, Hamish's new not for profit, what climbing means to us, Dean Potter and of course our new favourite Ebird comes up from time to time. It's a bit of a sprawling chat and we have to chase Ethan down a few rabbit holes but we got somewhere in the end, actually we didn't, but we chatted about some things along the way.
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A home team episode, just us chatting about some various bits and pieces. Most of the bits and pieces are in the title and in the episode description so I probably shouldn't write them out here again should I? Maybe I should, but that's starting to feel like hard work so I won't... It's just dawned on me that in the time it took me to write that I could have just written a proper description but ah well.. In too deep to turn back now. If you think I'm still writing just so it looks like a big enough word count for a podcast description you'd be very very very very wrong.
Lots of general natterings, you know the drill by now I'm sure.
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Long overdue, but we managed to get Tristan on the podcast. We've wanted him to come on for a long time. Tristan is a really strong climber from the south east who also has a witty and dry sense of humour which we really appreciate. Known for his hot takes and funny way of phrasing things he was great fun to have on and we enjoyed the chat immensely. Tristan recovered from Leukaemia a couple of years back and we talk about that at the start of the podcast if that's something that you wouldn't like to listen to then you can skip the first 40 minutes or so.
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Yannick did it! I've been saying for a while we need to see some 9As get downgraded (and potentially some 8Cs/8C+s upgraded) and Yannick has helped to get the ball rolling. He's always fun to talk to, you never feel far away from a clipable comment or quote that would make us serious bank on instagram if I could be bothered to clip it and post it. He's honest and he says what he thinks and we need a lot more of that at the moment!
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It's our 200th episode! To celebrate we're doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary! Just Aidan and I this week, chatting about Squamish, media we've watched, some stats from the pod and we play a silly game where we have to draft 9A boulderers for some challenges.
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This week we were joined by four time overall boulder world cup winner Natalia Grossman. Natalia is in the thick of an unfortunate set of injuries, having initially ruptured her ACL she now has picked up a nasty shoulder injury. Despite these debilitating setbacks she came back and won American nationals! On the face of it that sounds like an amazing comeback story but there's a lot more going on behind the scenes!
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We had a great time doing 75% of a round table. Alas no Benn this time, but Katie has done a hard new boulder in Yosemite so that gave us something to talk about. We got to talking about confidence in the projecting process, comparison to others, how much pride we feel about our achievements and I throw a bunch of hypotheticals at them at the end!
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We had a great time chatting to Connor for this week's episode. I feel like you have to really make waves in the Trad world for us to know that much about you and Connor has done just that. After sending what was potentially the hardest ever trad pitch Connor went around the world to try the other contenders for the title, and in so doing, discovered that yes, it's probably the hardest ever trad pitch. We chat about the incredible year he's had but also about trad climbing in general. Some of the ethics questions and also we chat about trad climbers and wonder why they are the way that they are (we love you really).
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Jana Švecová joins us this week! We've been trying to get this sorted for a while so glad it finally came together. Jana is a super impressive climber, and has climbed multiple 8C boulders (she climbed another one since we recorded this episode). We chat to her about those projects, coming back from injuries, her long term battle with Terranova, Czech climbing and we also run through some desert island boulders. Hope you enjoy!
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This episode is just the home team having a bit of a round up. We talk about Aidan's yosemtie season and I push a little harder to get his thoughts behind how it all went than I normally do. Then we just have a little catch up about some of the goings on in the climbing world and finally return to our desert island boulders, this time with more examples to plagiarise.
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This week we had a great time chatting to Bruce Zou. Bruce is a very charismatic chap who is incredibly passionate about his climbing. He has climbed up to 8C and has also developed an affinity for climbing barefoot. His opinions about what climbing means to him and how they have changed were really interesting and we also talked about the pros and cons of grade chasing. Really enjoyable chat, some of the best bits are towards the end so I would encourage a full listen... To be honest I always encourage a full listen, unless it's just me and Aidan... Then just listen for as long as you can bear it I guess.
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*Warning the sound quality in the first 5 minutes is pretty dodgy but improves after that :)
We had one of our favourites back on the pod for this week's episode! Max Milne has recently won the new Pro Climbing League after qualifying as a wild card and he's been putting in great performances on the World Cup circuit for a while now. He's also dabbled in rock climbing, flashing The Ace and Bewilderness as well as climbing Forgotten Gem and even returning to The Ace to campus it in a protective boot!
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A round table with Benn and Katie again this week. We had to talk about Ondra a bit because he's been busy! Then the main goal was to fill out a D&D style alignment chart we stole from Reddit. We had a laugh with it and I tried to herd the cats as best I could but it all got a bit messy!
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Fan favourite Allison is back on the pod this week! Thankfully Allison had a phenomenal run of form recently, culminating in some big sends, namely The Mantra, a three move V14 on tiny crimps, and The Expanse, a V15 boulder that had previously only been climbed by some of the tallest men in the sport! Climbing either of these boulders would be a good enough excuse to ask Allison to come back on the pod but to do both of them in just a few days is a feat that very few people could manage! We chat about that and her tactics, and why she's not fingerboarding (in the same way) anymore!
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Keenan is back! A pod favourite for sure and someone Aidan has spent a lot of time with over the past few years. Keenan has been putting up more incredible first ascents, which we chat a bit about, namely Dreadnought but he also came equipped with a few of his own talking points! I've recently learnt that some more professional podcasts actually ask this of their guests the cheaters! Whilst we were chatting there were some large trees being felled in the valley, these relatively humdrum goings on were vastly more interesting than the rubbish I was coming out with so the boys were occasionally completely distracted.
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We got stood up! Some say we should send links and reminders to our guests but we've never bothered before, and now it's cost us! So Aidan and I just chatted happily amongst ourselves. Largely about the Pro Climbing League which is a new competition format that recently happened in London. Could this be the new more exciting competition format we've been hoping for? If not could it be something the organisational previously known as 'IFSC' and now WCWCWC or something, could pick up a few pointers from?
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A bit of a messy round table for you this week. A few decent talking points hidden away amidst a mess of off-topic rambles and general merriment. I hope you get something out of it, they're definitely fun to record! Looking forward to seeing how AI segments the 'chapters'...
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Wow, what form Zach Galla is in! Recent sends of Hypnotised Minds, Devilution, Return of the Sleepwalker and Shaolin, could be the most impressive run of ascents ever recorded. We really wanted to try and discern what could have led to such form, is it a mentality thing or improvements in strength? What is the optimum level of confidence for repeat sending? Knowing that rich veins of form are often ended with injury when do you take your foot off the gas? Can you stop to enjoy it? All these questions and more are at least partially answered or vaguely talked about in the podcast!
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We're back! Just the reunited home team this week. Shockingly we hadn't spoken that much for a month so we had quite a lot to catch up on. Aidan is hard focussed on his 6 degrees project but has also had a couple of trips, and Sam continues his expansionary quest for global domination by having another child and building another board. We chat about outdoor climbing comps and weigh up whether they're worthwhile, and we couldn't not have a chat about Honnold's full metal solo at the behest of Netflix.
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So, I never intended to make this episode. When I did the episode with independent gym owners I felt like I should probably reach out to a CEO of a chain gym for comment. I should have, but I didn't. I was planning to leave that thread as it was, but Ged from the Hangar got in touch to say he'd listened to it and would be up for having a chat to offer his thoughts from the other side of the partition. I originally thought it would probably just be a little bonus add on to the independents episode, but in the end I found the chat really interesting so Aidan and I agreed it should be on the main feed as the weekly episode. I hope you enjoy it, I think Ged knows a lot more than I do about where the sport is going, and he has more to lose than anyone if he can't help it to move in the right direction which is an interesting situation to be in by itself!
Normal service to resume next week!
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It's the 'Sam can't record anything this week' special! Where one of the knights of our round tables Katie hosts an ask me anything with questions from our Patroons (Patreon members). If you want to be one of the people throwing questions out then you too can join our fantastic community of Patroons via our Patreon page. Lots of insights into the inner workings of Aidan's (and occasionally Katie's) brains, hope you enjoy!
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Hello all, I come to you with a different offering this week. There's no Aidan this week, it's just me chatting to three different independent climbing gym owners in London. Sounds a bit niche but I was hoping to get a bit of a conversation going and I thought that there would be good parallels to other areas of the climbing world.
What do you reckon? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
Thanks for giving it a go!
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The ever popular Jim Pope is back on the pod for his third time this week. A chap said to me he only knows Jim as a board climbing aficionado, which is quite funny really when in reality he is the hardest climber to put in a box that we know of. It's impossible to tell what he'll do next but he tends to do it pretty well and it's fun to talk to him about it afterwards.
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A round table episode with the A team, so Katie Lamb and Benn Wheeler joining Aidan and Sam to ramble about some climbing or vaguely climbing related topics. Does climbing need grades? Why are we so obsessed with maintaining the grading scale when other sports (that are similar but generally considered to be cooler) like skateboarding or surfing don't need them. Is climbing being underserved by those of us in the online space watering down our controversial opinions to avoid standing on the wrong side of a stand off with a mob? Then it devolves into a therapy session, can Aidan climb his best and maintain his relationships, can Katie ever live up to the high standards she sets herself? Did Benn really fail his maths exam? Can Sam justify allowing Frodo carry the one ring to Mordor? Find the answers to some of these and more in this week's episode!
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Happy New Year! We're back with a bang with a return guest that we haven't had on since episode 6 of this podcast! Back then Will was a comp climber taking a break from competing and showing huge promise on rock. Since then... Well, he's done all the things and now his hat is in the ring when people talk about the strongest climbers of all time! We chatted to him about a bunch of the rocks he's climbed as well as his mindset and hopes for the upcoming year!
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Merry Christmas/seasons greetings (delete as appropriate) dear listeners! Every now and then I like to take a break from making a climbing podcast and just try and wind up my mate Aidan for a bit. The first half of this episode is just that. I will be playing the part of Father Christmas/Santa (delete as appropriate) and I'll be challenging Aidan to help me save Christmas, unfortunately I don't do the voice as I discovered that I couldn't do the voice when practicing in the mirror. After we get bored of that we move on to do the customary summation of the year and a little look forward to next year.
We'll be taking a wee break now for a couple of weeks to let you all enjoy yourselves without the relentless weekly chore of listening to us ramble on (for the super psyched I'll try and fill the gap with some content on Patreon), but we'll be back with a vengeance in January!
A huge thank you to all who listened this year and we wish you a fantastic New Year where you don't evolve your podcast listening tastes at all!
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Does anyone read these?
Right, we've been having too much of a good time these past few episodes and lots of good rambles have fallen away into wails of (useless) mirth. Time for us to actually have a chat and remember that this is a job and we can stop pretending to like each other for five minutes and actually get some of this climbing stuff straightened out.
Sam makes up some words and uses them with conviction and Aidan honestly seemed surprised we were recording.
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Niall Grimes, he's been around for a long while, he's part of the furniture here, but who is he? Where did he come from? What's he about? You may or may not find the answers to those questions somewhere within but he'll probably make you laugh at least once (no refunds). It was a great laugh having him on, he says what he thinks and he's got some great stories to tell.
We referenced an excellent interview Niall conducted with Taylor Parsons on his podcast (JamCrack), it had been taken down but I have heard it's been put back up, we would both highly recommend seeking that one out!
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A classic round table episode with Katie Lamb and Benn Wheeler! We chat about some of the incredible climbing news that has happened in recent weeks, some of the internet storm in a teacup drama that has been born from it and we throw out a few hot takes. Keep listening to the end if you want to enjoy the story of when Sam got pelted with farm produce by some London youths.
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We were psyched to have Dayan on the pod with us this week, the British climbing team are at something of a high water mark at the minute and Dayan is right in the thick of it. Lots of chats about the competition scene and the many challenges it presents the climbers that are fighting to keep up with the level that increases year on year! Also, can these climbers who have only ever climbed inside go straight out and send 9A boulders?
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Just Aidan and me this week trying out a new format! Basically, it was recorded over two days so we could get Aidan's thoughts and opinions about trying a last day ascent of Mount Doom 9A, and then the second part was recorded a few days later to see how it went, and more importantly how his mindset might have changed before and after. We also ramble about Tutankhamun and the difficulties of running a pub these days, those two aren't connected.
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We love chatting to Aussies, we've always had fun when given the opportunity and this week is no different. Ben is a highly requested crusher who's been heavily involved in the Australian climbing scene for quite some time now. We chat about the current state of the access issues, his first ascents, his battle with Action Directe and his famous line when topping out Groove Train (if you haven't seen it stick it into YouTube) a fun chat!
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This week we have fan favourites Katie Lamb and Benn Wheeler back for some round table chat as well as playing a game described as 'quite brilliant' by it's own devisor. Has climbing got a Burden of Dreams problem? Did Aidan flash Bugeleisen? What would it mean if someone flashes a problem they have a 3D scanned replica for? All great questions as well as a game where Aidan, Katie and Benn have to bid for frankenclimber traits, powerups and vices in an attempt to build the most successful climber.
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We reckon we've asked Eliot onto this podcast about 6 times since we started, clearly we aren't very good at taking the hint but hey, persistence won the day in the end. Eliot is quite a quiet voice on the British scene but he has been one of the most prolific first ascensionists and has repeated many hard classics at home and abroad. It was fun to finally sit down and have a chat with the elusive Welshman!
If you enjoy Eliot's dulcet tones then check out his own podcast called 'Stoneline'.
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We're playing a game! Choices choices for Aidan and Sam is playing an incredibly convincing Morpheus, offering Aidan a selection of choices, all Aidan must do is choose!
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Mina is back on the podcast after quite some time! Since last time Mina has written a book all about nutrition for climbing! So we have a pretty long ramble about parenthood, whether you can maximise fun and achievement simultaneous and y'know general fear of death... All the fun stuff! I think we finally got to talking about the book after about an hour if you want to skip to that!
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Eat-to-Climb-by-Mina-Leslie-Wujastyk/9781839812729
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Home team episode, we sort of forgot it was recorded at times so gets a bit rambly but we did cover a few big topics, how do you pronounce Nike? How would Jerry cope with the Ace being campused by a chap in a protective boot? As well as some hypotheticals and life updates. Very much a recorded chat really.
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Stefano, one of the world's best sport climbers has rapidly been becoming one of the world's best boulderers so we thought now was the perfect time to get him on our podcast! We chatted about a bunch of things, his processes with Excalibur, Silence and Burden of Dreams, the situation with hold fabrication in sport climbing, how the future of sport climbing rests in collaboration and his bouldering journey.
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Joining us this week is one of the last (if not the last) board climbing specialist still on the world cup circuit! Adam is one of the strongest people around on a board and he's really started to show what he can do on rock, but he's fighting the siren call of the stone for a little longer because he's still competing internationally. We talk about his trip to Magic Wood, his four hour riverbed sesh with his parents, his slightly palm sweaty time climbing the Process in Bishop and many things competition as well.
If you'd like to see a chapter list there is an AI generated and highly inaccurate one below (or at least there is on Spotify) I wouldn't trust it to be honest.
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Charles definitely provides a different flavour for this week's episode. A man who truly goes his own way, he climbs without shoes, mostly without any gear and usually without crash pads. He climbs, he downclimbs, he jumps and sometimes lives a cave. On top of all these brilliant eccentricities he's also one of the strongest climbers in the world. Naturally we had a lot of questions for him and we really loved his completely novel take on the sport. Hope you enjoy!
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The other side of the coin from episode 150, it's another route setting deep dive pod, but this time with renowned setters Zoe and Ros, who were able to offer some different perspectives that four dudes can produce by themselves, who knew right?
Just a bunch of chats about route setting, some of it is specific to women in route setting and some of it is just general route setting rambling.
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We had an absolute blast chatting to Benn this week. He's not just ebullient and funny he's also a heck of a climber. He makes YouTube content with his older brother and one of the best climbers in the world, Noah. It's a funny position to be in, to be one of the best climbers around but to have a brother who is even better so we did talk about that a bit but we talked about a range of stuff, most of which I forget now, but it was good I remember that!
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This week we answered a bunch of questions from our Patroon community on discord as well as rambled about a few extra bits and pieces as they came to mind. Pub chat stuff really, objective grading scales, when does gear become cheating, flash ethics, Aidan getting abused by trad climbers you know all the classics.
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We like chatting to Ethan, he's got some great perspectives and he thinks deeply about his climbing. The base of the chat was around two recent segments in Ethan's climbing, one trip to Bishop where Ethan didn't really climb anything and a few weeks back in Squamish where Ethan climbed some incredibly hard things. It was interesting to hear how the former experience seems to have left a more lasting and positive impact on Ethan despite the lack of hard sends. We also chat about a bunch of other deep and meaningful things like why Sam turned up to the chat wearing a vest.
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One of the biggest names in climbing and a strong contender for being the best climber of all time, Adam Ondra joins us this week! Have you heard of him? We chat about a whole bunch of things:-
Rock manipulation, Onsighting vs Flashing, Lexicon E11, goal-setting, competitions, The Olympics, B.I.G etc etc....
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Back by popular demand, Katie Lamb joins us again this week for some round table discussions about pro climbing, legacy athletes and if we could be motivated to climb with no chance of any further progression. We also play a game at the end which is a fantasy climbing auction devised by Sam which turned out to be a pretty good laugh.
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We had another wad on the pod this week, Nicolai Uznik is a rare breed of climber who has somehow managed to climb the highest grades outdoors whilst also achieving some great results in the comps. We talk about that juggling act, what it's like to be a competitor in the current era of competitions, competition setting, Maltatal, and his experience with a candidate for the best looking 9As, Mount Doom. Surely Mount Doom would have scored very highly on our critically acclaimed (a couple of people said it was alright) 9A tier list if it hadn't been climbed minutes after we recorded it.
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Yeah, it's one of those episodes this week. Nothing to learn and no great insights into the world of climbing, but we at least entertained ourselves trying to devise a new Modern Pentathlon after a chat about climbing films. Say what you want about the Careless Talk Climbing Podcast but at least they're making themselves laugh.
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It was very exciting to have Brooke join us on the pod this week! We had a wide ranging chat talking about growing up in a climbing family, the Olympics, social media, maintaining a healthy balance away from climbing, Excaliber, the future of comp climbing, what it's like to compete against Janja Garnbret and much more! Big thanks to Brooke for joining us on the podcast and giving us a snapshot of some of the things that go through the mind of someone right at the cutting edge of our sport!
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We had a lovely chat with Natasha for this week's episode. She's been an outspoken advocate of strength training for years now and so there's nobody better to talk to about the dark arts of the gym gym than Natasha. She knows a thing or two about both worlds, we speak about her experience as a professional climber 20 years ago, and how an injury and a lack of good information led her into a cycle of injury which nearly ended her climbing career completely. She subsequently found strength training and power lifting and feels it has been transformative in many beneficial ways which we spoke all about.
We really enjoyed the chat, even if Aidan did throw me under the bus at the end!
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Austin Hoyt joins us on the pod this week! A name that's fun to say and he's a lovely chap who was really fun to talk to. We chat a lot about the lesser trodden North-East of the USA, heading to Finland to check out Burden of Dreams, using coordination moves to avoid having to pull too hard and the incredible crop of Wads that have popped up in his local area all of a sudden.
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Hey all! You've had it too good with guests for the last couple of week so it's time to bring you back down to earth with a home team episode. We've got a few quintessentially CTCP rambles for your delight and delectation. Hope you enjoy :)
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A little over a year ago I got a message from Aidan just saying 'Daniel is in!'. You know you're a bit of an icon when surnames aren't required! It took a little over a year to actually get a date but much like a hard project, sometimes it just takes consistency!
You know who he is, and we had a great chat about his hard projects, what the climbing scene is looking like from his perspective, how he searches for consistency when projecting and what his future is looking like. We chatted about a bunch of stuff and it was a great chat.
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We loved having Kai join us on the pod this week. He's a candidate for the most articulate climber around. He's been through a lot and he's come back swinging. We talk about his rise, fall and resurgence, his time climbing with Joe Kinder and the controversies there, his non-profit, and his hopes for the future.
I poorly referenced this speech about how intelligence is linked to kindness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjesSOLHWwE&ab_channel=CookieFunWorld. worth a watch!
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Ben and Cailean are joining us for a four way pod this week! Ben and Cailean are the chaps behind Impact Route Setting. Which is a business that, amongst other things, runs route setting courses. They are both very well established route setters in the UK, as well as being strong rock climbers. We wanted to have a good chat about the inside scene, and listen to their takes about the state of the industry. We had a long chat about indoor grading and we also got their opinions about the IFSC scoring changes and how that might impact the route setters who have the tricky job of setting in the big leagues.
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Just Aidan and Sam this week! We're catching up with Aidan as he looks to leave Yosemite, what life might look like for him if he lived in America and how that might impact his decision to not fly.
At 52:45 we finally get to our first topic of conversation, the new IFSC scoring for boulder comps and at 1:21:45 we rattle a few cages and ask if sport climbers should bolt on resin holds if the alternative is altering the rock with hammers and sika.
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This week we're joined by Eric Jerome, Eric is a really strong boulderer who has been on a mission to identify the best boulders in the US. An avid climbing nerd he's been a big contributor to the climbing history website and has a really analytical mind for adjudicating quality. We talk about his hunt for boulders, why he moved to a less popular area for climbers, his previous eating disorder and the many lessons he's learned along the way as well as his work for KAYA. Definitely one of our classic pub chatty style episodes!
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It's always really good fun to have Katie on the pod, and thankfully she's done a thing which gives us an excuse to have her back. She has climbed V16 again, we talk about her process (amongst other ramblings) and her motivations and feelings towards how her motivations will be perceived by the climbing community.
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Joining us this week is coach of the stars (and other less successful (but no less valuable) rock climbers) Charlie Schreiber! We had a really good time chatting to Charlie, it was fun but also we got some good insights from a guy who has been through quite a lot of the ups and downs that climbing has to offer. I reckon this is a good'un!
Check out www.paradigmclimbing.com or @paradigm_climbing_training on Instagram if you're interested in getting coached by Charlie.
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We were excited to be joined by Will this week. Will has been one of the most frequently requested guests on our discord. He's one of the brains behind Tension climbing, and so he knows a heck of a lot about one of our favourite topics, board climbing! He also used to be a coach and has clearly spent a lot of time thinking about training in general and has some great takes. Hope you enjoy!
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We were psyched to have Carlo Traversi joining us on the pod this week! He's an incredibly accomplished climber. developer and now gym owner! We chat about the gym, his changing motivations as he gets older and became a father, development in Yosemite and how to keep an incredible bouldering area off the map (just kidding).
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Allison is a pretty great podcast guest! She's talented and accomplished but also honest and has a great sense of humour. We're fans of her and Kyra's podcast (CircleUp, check it out) and so it was a real treat to complete the set and have her on our rambly mess of a podcast to go along with Kyra's episode. We talk about the transition to outdoor climbing, the pressures of projecting, trying to enjoy the process without letting failure get you down and of course we couldn't let her go without a quick interrogation about her frankly ludicrously strong digits, not even we could fail to bring that up!
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This week we're joined by the ever affable Jonathan Sin. Jonathan is a talented comp climber and Youtuber from Hong Kong. He's been on a publicised mission to try and get onto his national team and compete at a world cup. We talk about having audacious goals, his lifestyle as a climbing Youtuber and the mental and physical challenges that come with it as well as his insights from his time training in Japan.
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Martin Keller, the Swiss climbing phenom joins us on the pod this week. Martin has achieved a huge amount in his long climbing career (we end up in the weeds talking about his football career for a while but we get there eventually) he's climbed some very big grades and taken down some very long term projects but he's perhaps best known for having done all of his hardest climbing in his 40s. It was great to hear all about it.
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A special episode this week as we huddle around a microphone in our snowed in apartment in the Yosemite. The audio quality is a little worse than usual but we have fan favourite guest Katie Lamb back to talk about a few hot takes and moral conundrums with the home team (away team this week). It's a good bit of fun.
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Aidan gets dragged by his ears into tiering and ranking all the hardest graded boulders in the world. It's worth noting that Mount Doom from Nicolai Uznik hadn't been done when we recorded it, and there hasn't yet been enough information to grade it anyway. We also ramble on about shoes for about half an hour before we get stuck in. I'll try and put the video version on the Patreon :)
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Joining us this week is the mind-blowing Jesse Dufton. Jesse is a blind climber who leads hard trad routes, sets all his own gear and has a passion for onsighting (or nosighting as he calls it). He has recently featured in two films for the Brit Rock Film Tour called Climbing Blind, and they both make for truly incredible viewing. It was a pleasure to sit down and have a chat with him to better understand his motivations and courage.
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The ever popular Jim Pope is back to join us this week. He was our fourth ever guest and that was now long enough ago that he's forgotten what an ordeal it was. He's back to catch us up on his last few years, his competition journey, his headspace, his adventures, his foraging and his sewing skills as well as his desert island boulders!
Follow w00dwideweb for Jim's shroomin' adventures...
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Nathan is back this week to talk about finishing up his long term project in Brione. Nathan recently climbed Deep Fake, the sit start to the famous Fake Pamplemousse, and proposed a career high grade of 8C+. We chatted about that as well as his approach to route setting and training, his penchant for a mad beta idea and we all had a good laugh at Sam's questionable climbing technique. A good fun chat! :)
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Just the home team this week. Mainly getting an update from Aidan in regards to his trip so far. Seems like the big American adventure is becoming a big Yosemite adventure, and I was curious as to why! We also talk about a few other bits and pieces and I hit Aidan with a little moral conundrum.
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We were excited to have Katie Lamb joining us this week, as well as being one of the most accomplished climbers around we discovered she can ramble with the best of 'em. We chatted about all manner of things including but not limited to the drama around her ascent of Box Therapy, her views on what makes bouldering bouldering, and her feelings about holding down a conventional job alongside her climbing.
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Matt Bird swoops in to join us this week, Matt is a rare beast, a manager to some elite climbers like Shauna Coxsey and Will Bosi, but why does a climber need a manager? What does it mean to be a professional climber and how can said climbers play capitalism and get companies to give up some cash to go climb rocks all day? Matt has a totally different perspective from our usual guests, and it was interesting to get a little look behind the curtain!
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Ooo it's a biggie! It's only the Olympic gold medal winner Toby Roberts! We've been trying to get Toby on for a while and eventually we surprised him with a last minute pod so he wouldn't have time to come up with an excuse! All jokes aside a lovely chat with Britain's new national treasure, it was a great opportunity to get the inside scoop on his Olympic journey and the training behind his legendary strength and power endurance!
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Joining us this week is the legend Paul Robinson. A hugely accomplished boulderer who has been living the pro climbing lifestyle for longer than most! He's climbed well over a thousand eighth grade boulders all around the world and he has increasingly documented it himself, firstly with longer films and then shorter YouTube edits. We chat about a wide range of topics and Paul was refreshingly open and honest in his responses and graciously joined in with the rambles!
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It was a long overdue pleasure to be joined by Hamish this week! If you follow him on Instagram then you'll know that he's a deep thinker with an eloquent and unique way of phrasing things. We really appreciate the way he thinks about climbing and it was a pleasure to chat to him.
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Sometimes it feels like we're recording a podcast, and sometimes it feels like we're just having a chat which just so happens to be recorded, this one was very much the latter. Just a review of the year really, our favourite moments from our own climbers and from others.
A very happy New Year to all of you, if you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us please do consider checking out our Patreon page! https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=70353823
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Ho Ho Who's up for some quizzing? We've got a Christmas special which is mostly a quiz. Hopefully it's a good laugh... Not much more to say really! Listen to it!
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This week we have a bit of a font of knowledge joining us on the pod! Stian is a coach, a physio, a lecturer, a writer and a hard climber from Norway! He's climbed to a high level and he has been heavily involved in climbing injuries since becoming a physio. He's written a book that will hopefully help climbers be able to diagnose their own injuries and learn how to rehab them appropriately. As a psyched climber himself he understands that climbers are pretty desperate to be able to keep climbing and this really shines through with his recommendations. Really interesting chat, hope you enjoy.
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Hello there, we yoyoed to the other end of the spectrum this week as we got all lathered up in reductive energy and tried to rank the standard bits of equipment by how useful we think they are for rock climbing. If you want to see the visuals then the video (replete with shoddy tier list) is on the Patreon!
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Joining us this week is the Canadian strong man Ethan Salvo. Ethan doesn't just send hard climbs he also thinks a lot about his process and has been working to ensure he enjoys the whole experience rather than just the sends. He's also joined Aidan with the attempt to bring back the blog with his articles on substack.
https://ethansalvo.substack.com/
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Hello!
It's just the home team again this week discussing Aidan's whereabouts, a quick catchup with what we've both been up to, and then after about 30 mins we get into some beer garden philosophy. Is climbing a sport? Is it more creative or physical? How much of an ego do we have? Can we get rid of it?
The sort of stuff we wanted to talk about when we started a podcast in the first place so a bit of a return to form!
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We've scoured the country from top to bottom, searched underneath limestone caves, poured over bones with our fossil brushes, checked under the limestone caves a couple more times and then eventually checked the coastline of the south west and I think we've finally found it. The missing link British rock climbing needed!
Solly is back to chat about his big sends and his mischievous shenanigans as well as listen as we debate the merits of a rock type he doesn't like.
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Ahoy there landlubbers! A little chat and a catch up from our intrepid sailors this week from a marina in Panama. This adventure is turning into a Where's Wally (inexplicably Waldo for Americans) picture book.
We do hope we'll be able to resume our normal service sooner or later, but until then, thanks for tuning in!
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It was a pleasure to have Xian on the pod. We used to climb together when I lived in London years ago, she's a great climber and an all-round good egg. She's a climbing coach and she has her own unique way of looking at climbing where she focusses almost completely on technique and how to climb and doesn't focus on the much covered (and much loved) strength side of the sport. Her book 'Smooth' has recently come out and I try to clumsily go over some of the key concepts from it.
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We managed to squeeze in an episode with Aidan after his Atlantic voyage but before his mega central American traversal. Just a big catch up really as we haven't spoken in a few weeks.
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Aidan is back this week (it was recorded before he left) and we're joined by Nathan Hoette. Nathan works for Scarpa making climbing shoes. He knows everything there is to know about the process that goes in to making climbing shoes, and as it turns out, we didn't know all that much. So we mostly just sat and listened to him. I enjoy talking to people like Nathan, someone who has a real passion and are excited to talk all about it.
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Joining me this week, and sadly this week it is just me, is the Moonboarding legend Hoseok Lee. Known very well on instagram for his antics and incredible feats of strength, he's also a really nice guy with an interesting story. Having started relatively late and improved incredibly quickly he has established himself as one of the top Moonboarders and one of the best known Korean climbers.
Join us for a general chat about Hoseok's climbing and a bit of Moonboard geekery!
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Beth, one of our absolute favourite ever guests is back! Since we last spoke Beth finished her book, released her book, and we've both read her book. So we talk a lot about that, the process of writing it and what we took from it. There are a few tangents and just general chat thrown in as well.
If you haven't yet picked up a copy of her book we'd both highly recommend it!
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We had a great time chatting to Jorg for this week's episode. We got so carried away we totally didn't realise the time! We chat about a range of stuff, starting with Jorg's reflections on comps, then talking about his mental wellbeing and the mental wellbeing of climbers in general and ending with a chat about the furore around hold fabrication in Spain. It's a good'un!
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The time has come/has nearly come. Aidan is due to set sail for the new world. He's just been on a trip to Fairhead in Ireland so we also chat a bit about that.
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This week we were psyched to be joined by Ross Fulkerson! An exceptionally strong climber but not one that has lost sight of all other things in life. As obsessional climbers we can be guilty of letting many other experiences fall by the wayside in our relentless pursuit of ascension. Ross has not let that happen and he manages to maintain elite level rock performance whilst also keeping a number of other hobbies. So we dive into that and also talk a lot about mindset and how Ross tries to access a flow-state to help him with his climbing.
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It was a pleasure to be joined by Michaela Kiersch this week to talk about incredible achievements on rock, her recent trip to Rocklands without a full set of fingers, outing misogynistic comments on Instagram and so much more! There's some chat about retrospective grading, small gym communities and board climbing thrown in there as well.
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We were excited to be joined by one of the greats this week. Alex Puccio was a staple in world cup finals for many years, and has also climbed some incredibly hard outdoor boulders. Known to be one of the strongest people on the scene we had a bunch of questions for Alex and we covered a huge amount of ground so we hope you enjoy!
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This week we're joined by Clem Lechaptois! Clem is a phenomenally well accomplished boulderer with 8C+ ascents to his name. We chatted to him about his tactics when choosing projects, how he selects boulders with contrasting styles to supplement his training, the team environments that are most conducive to sending and much more.
Clem has a company that makes climbing fingerboard force plates which allows climbers to get access to loads of juicy data in regard to their finger strength! Check them out here: https://www.smartboard-climbing.com/
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Just us this week with our reactions to the Boulder/Lead Olympic finals, if you're interested in our pre-comp predictions or our reactions to the semi-finals then those are both up as Patroon bonus episodes on the Patreon. We also end with 30 minutes of triple distilled idiocy for those who are sick of talking about the Olympics.
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Big hitter Matt Fultz joins us this week. Matt's climbing resume speaks for itself, he's near the very top of the list when it comes to sending 8C+ boulders. He's achieved a huge amount and yet still it was fascinating to hear that he is not immune to the same moments of self doubt that the rest of us experience. Matt's a great guy and it was a pleasure to have him on the pod, we chat about a full range of stuff and could have chatted for hours longer but there's only so much of Matt's precious time we could ask for!
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Molly has been through a hell of a lot since we last spoke! In that time she has successfully gone through the Olympic Qualifying Series and has booked her place at Paris 2024! We catch up about the hard work and mental pressure it took to get her there as well as what life is like for a member of Team GB. Really cool to be able to get a moment in such a hectic schedule to give you a behind the scenes look!
Huge congratulations and good luck to Molly!
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A fellow podcast host and forever an Olympian, Kyra joins us and gives insights into her rather British-board-style training roots, her rock trips amidst busy seasons, her preparations for the Olympic games and her process for managing the psychological repercussions.
Note: We take no responsibility for any subsequent competition retirement announcements...
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Legend of British Climbing Ben Bransby joins us on the pod this week! Ben is definitely not someone to blow his own trumpet but he has climbed very hard in trad, sport in boulder over the years. He's also put up some incredible first ascents, gone on winter expeditions and even competed! He's done it all so we thought we'd ramble on about some of it for a bit. Make sure you listen to the end for the great stories :).
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A true ramble pod this week bordering on the irreverent in the opening 20 minutes but we do calm down and have a proper discussion eventually! Amongst some wildly off-topic rambles we chat about climbing genetics and we eventually get to the main topic of the podcast which was to attempt to choose which decade of climbing we would have most liked to have been a part of.
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Tom is back! Tom is a nutritionist that has worked extensively with climbers from all across the grade spectrum. He has a huge wealth of knowledge with all things nutrition but he also has a gift for cutting through the sciencey mumbo-jumbo and offering well simplified and usable advice. We cover a bunch of topics relating to body composition, how to fuel to maximise your training time and we also run through a bunch of supplements to see which ones we should be taking and which ones are best left to the people who are getting them for free!
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This week we were really excited to be joined by Sean Bailey! Sean is one of the world's best climbers. He is right at the cutting edge in both bouldering and sport climbing. We didn't go much into any of that though! We had a general chat about the state of climbing, including comps, grading and media. Definitely one of our 'we do chats not interviews' pods! Hope you enjoy!
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Could a guest be much better suited to our favourite topics and recurring themes throughout the pod history? Ethan enthusiastically joins us on our tangents and rambles into psychology, Newtonian physics and other topics we don't know enough about to be qualified to give an opinion on. But fear not, we get some questions in from time to time and Ethan shares some gems from his already long, adventurous and varied climbing career! Cliche perhaps, but a legend of the sport!
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We're going back in time to the halcyon days of a couple of months ago this week! An episode we recorded and then forgot about! Shockingly the climbing world hasn't moved on unrecognisably in two months so it's all still relevant. We chatted about climbing at night, Sam's time in Font and ideal chalk strategies.
Hope you enjoy, there's a longer version on the Patreon as well as some new content coming from when Aidan recorded a Q&A with Steven from the Nugget. So if you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us please check out our Patreon page! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
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This week we're joined by a voice you'll probably recognise! Steven Dimmitt, the host of The Nugget joins us to chat about podcasting as well as his personal climbing and we all ramble on about our personal climbing philosophies and what motivates us. We get to hear how being the host of a successful climbing podcast has changed Steven's relationship with his own climbing and what he is working towards for the future. In classic CT style, the conversation is wide ranging and varied so there should be something in there for everyone. We really enjoyed the conversation and we reckon it'll make for some good listening.
Also if you want to hear Steven getting a chance to have our Aidan all to himself, then keep checking the Nugget's feed as there is a new episode with Aidan coming soon!
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Something a little different this week as instead of focusing on a climber we're focusing on a crag! Magic Wood is one of the most famous climbing destinations in the world. It's seen development from too many icons to name over the years and has been incredibly popular for many years. With such popularity has come some challenges though. The crag is home to lots of polished rock and eroded foot paths. Thomas Saluz has been looking after the campsite, guesthouse and restaurant for a very long time and nobody knows as much about the place as him. In a classic example of how small the climbing world is, James O'Neil was once Sam's housemate in London but is now also involved in the organization that is trying to preserve the area and keep it alive and magical for the next generation. We chat about a bunch of the challenges Magic Wood faces and just a bit about the place as well.
The community led Save the Magic campaign can be found here: https://www.magicwood.app/en/magic-card/
Although Thomas isn't directly involved with it and has his own plan for long term financial sustainability of the area he did say that donating to it could help the situation with the local community.
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The author of the Lake District (Aidan's home area) boulder guide, Greg Chapman joins us this week. We have a wide ranging discussion covering lots of things that relate to the writing of guidebooks and developing boulders. This episode is a little more esoteric than most as a lot of the conversations pertain to the Lake District but I think it mostly all carries over to any other boulder area as well so there's something for everyone I hope!
Greg's lesser known Lake District gems that are worth seeking out:-
- Rolling Rock Wall (5+) Rolling Rock (page 464)
- Book of the Ages (6A) Coniston Copermines (page 212)
- Millenium Star (6C) Eskdale Granite (page 332)
- Scallop (7A) Armathwaite (page 545)
- The Giant Peach 7A+/B Horsehow Crags (page 299)
- Impailed (7B) Dove Crag (page 548)
- The Grinding Mind (7B+) Ennerdale (page 404)
- Diamond Reign (7B+) Eskdale Granite (page 318)
- Out of the Blue (7C+) St. Bees Head (page 418)
- Iron Hide (8A) St. Bees (page 461)
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Aidan and I this week chatting about a bunch of stuff. I'm in Magic Wood and Aidan is in Finland so we chat about that. If we could build the best climber in the world using attributes from existing climbers, who would we use?
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No pies are safe from Seb's fingers! Sébastien is an incredibly accomplished climber. He's climbed at an elite level across a range of climbing disciplines and he's doing it all in an eco friendly way. In the episode we talk about his recent mission to climb 100 font 7As in a day, sailing the Atlantic to climb the Dawn Wall, free climbing the nose and climbing James Pearson's Bon Voyage (E12). What a guy.
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In this episode, amongst other things, we're pondering about the remuneration for top climbers. Are they being exploited? Are they underpaid? Should they just be grateful to be able to climb for a living and accept that they can't expect to be set up for the future? We dive in, in a roundabout sort of way...
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The great Ashima Shiraishi joined us for a chat this week! Ashima has been on the climbing scene in a big way for what feels like forever, but somehow she's still in her early twenties! Ashima broke many records on her way through the grading scale as a young climber which culminated in her climbing V15 at just 14 years old! She has also competed on the world cup circuit and has been in the spotlight of both climbing and mainstream media. Like is often the case, the story behind the headlines was actually a little more nuanced and it was great to be able to hear from Ashima as she reflects on her early years but also moves into a new and exciting chapter of her climbing life.
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This week we were excited to be joined by Emil Abrahamsson! You probably know Emil from his exploits on YouTube, his sends of hard rock climbs and perhaps from his competition days as well. He's an accomplished climber both inside and outside but he's also a really lovely and super psyched guy with a nice optimistic take on lots of things around climbing. Join us for a nice wide ranging ramble about a bunch of climbing topics.
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It's a good episode for the Aidan fans this week as Aidan has sent his projects and has learnt a great deal in the process. Perfect time to stick a microphone in front of the chap and press go. Hope you enjoy!
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It was great to be joined by Bernd Zangerl this week! A true legend of bouldering he's been involved in the development of loads of classic areas like Ticino and Magic Wood and has been climbing elite level boulders for over twenty years. In more recent times Bernd has been pouring everything he has learned into the development of Rakchham in the Indian Himalayas. We talked about that as well as a bunch of other things, I could write them here, but you could also just listen and that'd save me the trouble!
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Something very different for you all this week. Nettie & Dave a.k.a The Climbing Backpackers are on an adventure climbing across Asia. They might be on their dream climbing trip but they're also setting out to prove that just because you don't have a huge chunk of savings that doesn't preclude you from living an adventurous lifestyle. To prove the point they are living on a budged of just £10 ($12.5 or €11.7) per day!
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Simon Lorenzi on the pod this week! Simon is the first man to have climbed 3 9A boulders with Soudain seul, Alphane and Burden of Dreams. He's also a mainstay on the world cup circuit and has made finals on more than one occasion. Despite being one of the best boulderers in the world Simon is slightly more under the radar than most of his peers and so it was great to be able to sit down with him and hear a bit more about what makes him tick.
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The renowned coach and climber David Mason is back this week! This time we nerd out about some training ideas, talk about how he is mentally dealing with a recent serious knee injury and we ponder how much of climber's finger strength is really within their control at all.
There's some interesting topics of conversation in there to wonder about!
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Neil is one of the original performance coaches in rock climbing, known for his elite level trad ascents as well as his efforts to demystify the obscure and hazy world of climbing training and his ability to deliver it in a way that makes sense. We chatted about a wide range of topics from social media, the online trad climbing mob, the stresses of grading and training for climbing. Perhaps one day I'll go through the whole thing and give links to every topic we discussed.... but not this day.
He also tells us which discipline of climbing is the most physical, so stay tuned for that!
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Noah jumps on the pod this week! He's recently repeated some of the hardest test pieces the US has to offer and in relatively quick time whilst sporting at least 5 or 6 taped tips! We chatted a bunch about Sleepwalker and Defying Gravity, how the style in which he climbs lends itself well to flashing hard boulders, his training, how his meteoric rise in climbing grades might not be quite as fast as it appears from the outside and so much more. He came across as a really humble guy, but I guess when you're on this kind of form, you can just let the climbing do the talking!
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Oh yes, it's a grades pod. Aidan's least favourite subject, and it's hardly in Sam's top 10 either. We end up having a bunch of discussions relating to grades, getting a history lesson from Aidan for first of the grades (possibly all wrong) and we give some recommendations for climbs at each grade bracket... Or at least some that came to mind without thinking about it for all that long...
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It was a treat to have living legend Ben Moon on the pod this week. A lot of ground covered in an absolutely whistle-stop tour of Ben's career and replete with a fine selection of totally random tangents and rambles. Bailing from O levels because of too much physics, dossing in a cave, the birth of sport climbing, training and board climbing, how comps paid better in the 80s than they do today. It's a chat that goes all over and it was great fun for us so I hope it makes for a good listen.
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A follow-along survey for the role of climbing in our lives: Sam and Aidan are joined by Mimi White a climber and psychologist as she collects data and runs us through her recently published survey (now closed). Complex and thought provoking, we both had to really think hard to answer these and it really got us pondering as we tried to cobble together our thought processes. I hope you enjoy trying to answer these questions for yourselves as much as we did and perhaps you'll even learn something along the way (a bit of a shock on this podcast).
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We're joined by the man Alex Megos described as the strongest on the world cup circuit! We had a great evening chatting with Yannick about rocks, comps and training. Give it a listen to hear some brilliantly quotable lines from one of the strongest climbers on the planet. Our personal favourite was 'bouldering is not a physical sport'. Top guy and really enjoyable to listen to, thanks for joining us Yannick!
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Something different this week! Toby Segar from Storror joins us to chat all things parkour and how they can all be related back to climbing. Toby is a big star in the Parkour world but has also been taking part in a lot of climbing recently as well! Storror is an incredibly successful YouTube channel with nearly 10 million subscribers so Toby knows a thing or two about content creation and we chat about what it's like to be on the other side of one of these huge channels, and also how and why a Parkour pro has ended up doing so much climbing.
We loved chatting with Toby so I'm sure you'll enjoy it too.
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Matthew Phillips joins us this week! He's only young but he's already had a sparkling career in the sport. A world champion, but also an incredibly humble and laid back guy who's now getting more involved with the routesetting and coaching side of the sport. His pragmatism and fearlessness in the face of challenges is infectious and we really enjoyed having an opportunity to chat to him!
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Alex joins us this week! One of the UKs most experienced and best known setters as well as one of the brains behind Hardwood Holds, Alex has been on the UK scene for a really long time and he's an absolute font of knowledge when it comes to all things routesetting and holds (as well as I'm sure a many great other things but we weren't talking about them). Give it a listen if you like delving into the nerdy side of indoor climbing, I always enjoy hearing what he's got to say.
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Happy New year everyone! Just Aidan and I back this week with some updates and some chat before we dive back into the guests again from next week!
Aidan ponders finding the fun in projecting and Sam gives the story of his first 8C boulder.
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Yo ho ho!... Wait that's pirates... Ho ho ho Merry Christmas everyone! Aidan and Sam team up to shambolically attempt to give the 12 recommendations of Christmas. All pretty chaotic but we hope some of you have a journey home to kill or want to stave off the boredom of having to listen to your family for a few minutes!
We're having a week off next week, but will be back, with a bunch of exciting guests in the New Year, so happy New Year to all of you as well.
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A big guest for us this week, Shauna Coxsey joins us for a chat. We cover a lot of ground from her competition days, her injuries, working with the IFSC and climbing post motherhood. Give it a listen, there's a lot in there!
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A fantastic story, and one the climbing community would do well to learn from. James Pearson joins us this week to tell us about how he tried to push trad climbing, and how severe a community kickback can be even over something as trivial as slightly inflated grading. We hear about what James learnt from the experience, and how he improved himself as a climber to be ready to be in more or less the exact same situation many years later...
Glossary
Headpoint - The art of practicing a climb on a top rope before attempting a conventional lead or solo.
Equilibrium - An E10 (and I believe the first E10) in the peak district first ascented by Neil Bentley in 2000
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Very exciting episode for your listening pleasure this week as Alex and Billy, two previous guests, return to talk us through their fantastic adventure in Yosemite. Not many people believed two retired comp climbers who've barely done a multi-pitch between them could wander over to Yosemite and free climb a thing that has still to this day only seen a handful of free ascents.
Come hear all about it!
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Taylor joined us this week for a typically wide ranging conversation. We joke a bit about Taylor being 'tall not strong' but it's all in an ironic way, he's clearly a beast! Lots of stuff on the agenda, first ascenting, climbing in the south east, living in a school bus in a commune, all standard fare. Taylor is a super humble guy and it was great to get a chance to chat to him, hope you enjoy!
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We were thrilled to have Ollie Torr this week. The guy really knows his stuff when it comes to coaching climbing. As well as being a strong climber himself, the people he coaches have enjoyed massive success. We got him talking about all kinds of stuff, and some of it might just be useful!
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All in the title really, just Aidan and I catching up about how his Finland trip has been going mostly, but also trying to assess boulders by way of their objective qualities not our experiences on them or their difficulty.
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We were excited to have Hazel join us this week, she's the head coach at Strong Mind, the company that is working to redress the balance by exploring the psychological side of our sport. It's pretty easy to talk about the physical side of climbing, hangboard protocols and shoulder conditioning or whatever, but it was a lot of fun to dive into the murkier waters of the mental side with someone who really knows their stuff.
If you think you might benefit from a tune up to your mental game (to be honest we probably all could) then check out Strong Mind's online courses here: https://go.strongmindclimbing.com/webinar
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Just the home team this week! Chatting about Aidan returning to Finland, being ill (as in the covid not being cool), battery powered planes and teasing Aidan with more ridiculous moral conundrums. You know, the usual drivel.
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Orrin dropped in to join us this week. We know Orrin pretty well, he's a strong climber based in Leicester, which is not exactly the hub of UK climbing, but Orrin has definitely made the most of it! He's climbed up to 8C on the boulders and he's competed for Great Britain at world cups so he's had a great deal of success in the sport. That said he's been really open and honest with this struggles when things aren't all going his way. He has the ability to really confront his flaws and talk openly about them, which I think is very rare and I hope what he says resonates with some of you.
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We were thrilled to have Isabelle join us for a chat this week. She is one of the best boulderers around and has been responsible for a large amount of boulder development. She has the hardest first ascent by a female to her name, and yet her accomplishments have often seemed to fly slightly under the radar, especially the ones that we thought would have been big news in the climbing world! We chat a little bit about why that might be and also a lot about boulder development, including how the groups she often climbs with keep their projects open and their reputation for being generous with showing others their projects.
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66 the number of the beast, and the beast in this case is Alex Megos. One of the world's greatest rock climbers, it was a right treat to have him on one of the world's podcasts. A nice chilled out chat about a range of topics, you know who he is, and you know we don't have a format, just give it a listen! (Thank-you for listening)
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A classic ramble pod this week as we discuss a whole lot of absolute rubbish. Should you take your phone climbing? Should Aidan have a Nokia 3310 instead of an iPhone. If you could wear a pair of shoes that benefitted the rock but were rubbish would you wear them? You know, that kind of gubbins.
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This week we were joined by South-West crusher Solly. Solly has done a bunch of hard FAs and repeats in recent years so we've been meaning to get him on for a while. We had a really fun chat talking about all sorts of things, Solly has had his fair share of mishaps and misadventures to go along with the big successes so there's something for everyone.
Warning, this episode is slightly more sweary than usual so be prepared
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Billy is back! Our very first guest returns with an update on all that's been going on since last we spoke.. And it's quite a lot! Billy is a top bloke and a good mate of both of ours so it's always a fun chat when he's around. We chat about him taking a step back from the comp scene (he's not actually officially retired but that made for a snappier title), some successful rock trips and he's got some big and exciting goals to chase on his upcoming Yosemite trip.
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Ravioli, he reminds me of that kid in school who everyone wanted to be friends with because he would beat up the bullies. I reckon he's the de facto leader of the Moonboarding community. Insanely strong but equally friendly, supportive and encouraging of everybody else. We don't just talk about the Moonboard though as he's no stranger to hard rock climbs, and Aidan doesn't know all that much about the Moonboard so that prevented us from spending the whole conversation nerding out about individual holds.
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It's a peek into the near future this week as we discuss how artificial intelligence or 'AI' to us in the biz is going to change absolutely everything in climbing. As is traditional we don't know anything about AI so we had to get AI to tell us about itself. A bit like the plot of Ex Machina (one of my favourite films) but Chat GPT so far hasn't gone into a murderous rampage.
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Louis AKA Captain Cutloose joins us this week. As one of the busiest people in climbing it took a few months to find a time but once we did it was a real treat. Louis' media persona is the incredibly energetic and enthusiastic climbing coach that you may have seen on Instagram or Youtube, but somehow he actually is just like that in real life too. He's effortlessly entertaining and manages to sneak profound suggestions and useful tips under the rug almost without you noticing.
Thanks for listening!
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Ned joins us for a natter this week. One of the strongest climbers the UK has ever produced but he's tried his very best to keep a low profile. If he was a musician his music probably wouldn't be on spotify and only available via cassette. He's responsible for strengthening millions of meat hooks and his products quite likely sit above a doorframe in your house.
His personal climbing has been put on the backburner a tad in recent years, as he's become a Dad and he's also supporting his wife Shauna to get a deserved stab at the rocks after having spent years on the comp circuit. It's a pretty standard relaxed chat, but there's some nice stuff in there.
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You wouldn't know when listening to this episode, but Hamish is a very talented climber, but one who hasn't taken the obsessive path and has left his mind open to experience life outside of climbing as well. As two climbing obsessives, Aidan and I wanted to explore that a bit! They say you can tell a lot about someone from the company they keep, well in this case I think you can. Hamish is one of Aidan's closest friends, and it's not hard to see the similarities in the way they think.
Hamish & Aidan are two thirds of a print magazine about climbing called 'Spotter' so we chat a lot about the motivations behind that as well.
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Tom O'Hallaran on the pod this week and we had a great chat talking about the Olympic build up as well as the Australian climbing scene and lots of the bits and pieces that he gets up to. It's a long one and we had so much more to cover so hopefully we'll be able to persuade him to come back at some point!
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Jonny Kydd has recently climbed an 8C called The World is Yours at Biblins cave. It took him multiple seasons and over 110 sessions. Not the sort of siege many of us would be willing to take on but Jonny has demonstrated incredible mental resilience and tenacity and when listening to him speak it's infectious. He's also a Lattice coach with a sports science background so is able to provide some great takeaways for all listeners. I really hope you enjoy!
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A real home team ramble this week. Goes all over the place, mostly pretty light hearted but we do touch on the RED-S issue in climbing and mention the IFSC medical resignations so be aware if that's a sensitive topic for you.
The main topic of the day was trying to define what success and failure is to us when it comes to climbing, it turns out to be a hell of a lot more difficult than we were expecting!
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Storytime is a bit of a format change and will appear on the thread every now and then, the concept is just anyone with a really good story comes on and tells it to us more or less, not exactly genius but it's fun!
This week it's a friend of mine coming to help me provide proof of concept, Elliot White has a couple of loosely Trad climbing based stories and we end up chatting about what makes climbing so special and wondering what it is we're looking for in all of it.
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It was great to get an opportunity to chat to David this week. He has some great thoughts and perspectives about enjoying the ride as well as the destination. He's notorious for having some of the worlds strongest fingers and he gives us some of his pearls of wisdom, as is always the way it's more than just dangling off small edges.... well.. it is that, but there's nuance. Great guy, great chat.
It was a chat that also made me value the climbing community, I was left thinking about how David moved to America and was so quickly welcomed into the community there. Climbing still retains the magic to draw people together from all round the world and I failed to really highlight it much in the podcast, but that's actually pretty special.
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It was an absolute pleasure to chat to Keenan Takahashi, he has lots of really well thought out views about the pursuit of climbing as well as the climbing industry as a whole. Is climbing more than chasing numbers and ascents? What can the climbing scene learn from that of skateboarding? Why are highballs so alluring? How can a man cultivate such a powerful moustache? You can find the answer to some but not all of those questions within!
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We put a Partridge amongst the pigeons this week as Jon joins us for a wide ranging and introspective chat. We cover his comp climbing, his regrets, his ever changing relationship with the sport and also the ups, downs and hard truths that come with building a climbing wall. Jon is a well known and universally well liked character on the British scene and it was a pleasure to have him.
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to support us, please consider checking out our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
If you're in and/or around the London area, why not head over to Hounslow to have a climb at Hang. With a disproportionate amount of partridges on staff you might even be lucky enough to witness one roosting amid the boulders or giving a spreadsheet a peck down.
Tiba Vroom joins us this week for a wide-ranging chat with a lot of ground covered. As well as Tiba's own climbing we chat about Wildflower, her non-profit climbing gym in the Netherlands, route-setting, the benefits of learning to climb on a spray wall, women in boulder development and we also run through Tiba's desert island boulders!
If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Omar Bobat joins us for a general chat this week. Omar is the eponymous creator of the Bouldering Bobat YouTube series and co-owns a climbing wall but unlike many of our guests is not an obsessional climber and so brings a slightly different perspective which I hope you'll enjoy. We cover a lot of ground, definitely more of a pub chat with a fun and interesting guy.
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to support us, please do check out our Patreon! : https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Beth has had one of the most dramatic careers in climbing. Competition and Rock success, being kidnapped in Kyrgyzstan as well as struggling with injuries and under fuelling. She is introspective and philosophical and she's learnt so much through climbing which I think will resonate with everybody. There's also a triumphant return for Desert Island Boulders which is now equipped with what I can only describe as a market leading jingle so listen out for that.
We loved getting an opportunity to chat and learn from her and I hope you'll all get something out of it as well.
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep the lights on: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
It's a special episode this week, and by special I mean something has been taken away. Brace yourselves everyone, Aidan isn't here for this one.... Right, who's still here? Don't be too disheartened because we have a great episode with my own dear brother Ben and we've got a mixture of advice and funny stories about opening climbing walls. Not a lot of actual climbing chat but I think it's a good episode nevertheless, big thanks to Ben for being game to record it!
Thanks very much for listening and Aidan will be back next week.
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to support us, please do check out our Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Great chat with Jake Mason, a brilliant routesetter, rock climber, hold producer, content creator and most importantly an all round good guy!
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to support us please check out our Patreon page, we're completely ad free so this whole house of cards is held aloft by our fantastic community of Patroons! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Another set of rambles with just the home team. We discuss the beginnings of the IFSC season, Sam's project, Aidan returning to indoor mode and training with a parkour pro and whether climbing media is too number focussed.
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help it to keep going, please consider drafting yourself into the patroons! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Just Aidan and Sam this week mostly chatting about Aidan's nearly 3 month climbing trip in Switzerland but also infused with the standard mishmash of rambles and tangents.
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help it keep afloat against the odds, then please consider drafting yourself into our fantastic community of Patroons! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Sofya Yokoyama joins us this week for a chat about the upcoming comp season and also about a post she recently made on social media where she opened up about some past struggles with disordered eating. Lots of tips and advice that will be relevant to all climbers. This chat was recorded a few weeks back, and since then Sofya has had a great start to the comp season, finishing 12th in Hachioji! That hadn't happened at time of recording but we'd still like to congratulate her on a great first comp of the season.
If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to help us keep it going then please consider drafting yourself into the Patroons: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
This week Justin Brown joins us for a chat. Justin started Rhinoskin 8 years ago and in that time he has learnt a huge amount about skincare for rock climbers. Aidan and Sam both learnt a huge amount from this one and I think Justin had a lot of wisdom to impart as well as being a fun guy to talk to.
If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us, please consider drafting yourself to the Patroons: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
We had to up our game a little this week as we welcomed Jenya Kazbekova onto the pod. It was a really powerful opportunity to get to listen to a first-hand account of the impact of the death and destruction that has been wrought on Ukraine for over a year. We also spoke about the situation with the various governing bodies currently deciding whether or not to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes the opportunity to compete under a neutral flag, and how that will impact the opportunities for Ukrainian athletes.
If you would like to support Ukraine the two organisations that Jenya recommended are:
https://savelife.in.ua/en/
and
https://climbarmy.org/
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to support us - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Sam Lawson joins us this week, Sam is the creator of the Wedge channel on YouTube. He has worked a lot with Aidan in the past and has recently released the brilliantly well shot film 'Mastery' about Aidan's exploits last year. He's also a strong climber personally, but he's pretty modest so it'd be hard to tell from the chat!
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help support us : https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
This week we get a trip update from Aidan and we choose our 5 desert island boulders that we would most like to get stranded with! Just a bit of fun, nothing too heavy this time!
If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support us, we have a new tier on our Patreon! It is now just £5/$5 per month to join our discord community! (The brits are definitely getting a raw deal on that exchange rate!) : https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Just us again this week, we chat about Aidan's time in Switzerland, life updates as well as answering a bunch of questions from our mighty community of Patroons that are keeping this whole ship afloat!
If you enjoy our podcast and would be interested in supporting us, please do check out our patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Dan Turner joins the chat this week to add his perspective. Dan is an incredibly well accomplished British climber with a known penchant for big, impressive lines. What's more impressive is how much hard climbing he has managed to get done whilst holding down a full-time job, and now with two kids as well! He is also known for his perseverance and is not afraid of a siege! We cover all that and more...
If you're enjoying our podcast and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Another guestless episode this week because the last one was pretty well received. We had a bunch of questions and talking points from our Patroons but in typical careless talk fashion we ran out of time, so there will be another episode very soon where we cover those.
Lots of general rambles, life updates and tangents but there is a decent amount of climbing specific stuff in there this time... I promise!
If you're enjoying our podcast and would like to hear me trying to explain what a Lip Sync battle is to Aidan, check out our Patreon page!: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Alex Waterhouse joins us this week. I promise I didn't know he had given up the comps when I booked him! Although since he has the chat ended up being at a very opportune moment. Alex is a very eloquent chap and has a mind that seems to be effervescing with endless ideas and opportunities so it was really fun to chat to him about all of it!
If you like our podcast and want to help us keep it going: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Part 2 of our chat with Dan Varian, very laid back and casual natter to help while away your commute or whatever you're doing whilst listening to us... hopefully not as a sleep aid. We could talk to Dan all day so we'll hopefully be able to persuade him to come back on and give us more pearls of wisdom at some point in the future.
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep it going: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
This week we have one of the most accomplished outdoor climbers in the UK, Dan Varian joining us for a relaxed, meandering chat about a whole host of topics. We had 6 main discussion points to chat about with Dan and over the course of a three and a half hour conversation, we vaguely covered two of them. There is another part of this chat to come next week.
If you like the podcast and would like to support us, you can check out either of our two tiers at: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
This week it's just Aidan and Sam rambling about various topics, let us know if you like this format and we might do it a bit more regularly, as well as the awesome guest episodes of course!
If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support us check out our Patreon page! : https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
The second part of our chat with Drew, loads more ground covered, I think you probably know the format by now, the conversation just went where it went! Drew is not just an absolute beast, he's also a really bright guy with some very fascinating opinions and hot takes.
If you like the podcast and would like to support us : https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
What's this!? An international! Thanks to the reddit community we have the American mega wad Drew Ruana joining us for a chat about climbing, and a chat about everything that isn't climbing as well! We were super psyched to have him and he's great to listen to.
If you're enjoying our podcast and would like to help us keep it going, please consider becoming one of our Patreon members!
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The second part of our chat with Dave Macleod where we actually talk about climbing on a climbing themed podcast! Covering all kinds of things, Scottish climbing, development, how first ascenting changes your mindset and how Dave feels like he's still improving despite getting a bit older!
If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us and help keep it add free, please consider becoming one of our patroons!
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
In part 1 of a 2 part chat with Dave we discuss his radical Mcdonald's diet and how diets impact the environment. The modern zeitgeist would suggest that a meat heavy diet takes a heavy toll on the environment, but perhaps it's not always quite that simple!
If you're thinking 'forget this, just inject the climbing chat straight into my veins' then part 2 will probably suit you better!
If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support us, please check out our patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Robbie Phillips dials in this week! A chat that covers quite a lot of ground. We talk (somewhat carelessly) about The Long Hope sea cliff, hard trad climbing, traumatic injuries in Madagascar and Robbie's journey as a producer of fine media or 'content creator' as the kids absolutely insist on calling it.
If you enjoy the podcast and want us to keep doing it for a bit longer, please do consider joining our prestigious community of Patroons: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
This week Nathan Phillips joined us to chat about his recent decision to retire from competitions as well as discuss his future. Nathan is a good mate of both of us so it's really bridging the gap between an interview and just a zoom chat between friends. Lots of rambles, Aidan briefly responds to the Tristan Chen video 'why climbing needs a villain' and we go off on all sorts of tangents.
If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support us https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Tim Blake joins us this week for a bit of a chat about his personal climbing, and then quite a lot more chat about environmentalism, social media and Northumberland. Sam and Aidan reveal all the ways in which they're awful people who are destroying the planet.
If you like the podcast and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
An article on how chalk impacts wildlife: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7593172/
If you're here looking for the Julie Wurm article Sam kept prattling on about then I'm sorry I can't find it again! When I find it I shall be sure to link it!
This week we chatted with Buster who has recently climbed Action Directe, becoming just the second person to have climbed both Action Directe and Hubble. He is also an experienced climbing coach and has recovered from one or two nasty injuries in record time so he has loads of interesting insights!
If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Or just leave us a nice review!
The second part of our chat with Molly, loads of really good stuff in this one, Molly is really unguarded and open with some tough topics which gives us all an amazing insight into the mind of an elite rock climber.
If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support us, check out our Patreon page! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
It's gone old school again here and we've split our chat with Molly into two parts. Not just to pad out our episode count, but also because we've hit our upload cap for the month! Part 1 has us talking to Molly mostly about competitions and the setbacks that she has suffered in pursuit of those precious medals. Very real, very genuine stuff, hope you enjoy!
And if you're enjoying the podcast and would like to help us keep it going, to consider checking out our Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
This week we chat to Mina who has had a really successful and interesting climbing career. She's done competitions she's done hard boulders and hard routes but she has also had some injury setbacks and we talk about all of it!
If you enjoy our podcast and would like to support us please do consider becoming a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
This week we have Huffy joining us. Huffy is one of the leading physiotherapists that specialise in climbing injuries. He attended the Olympics as a physio for Shauna Coxsey and has a stellar reputation for being able to diagnose and treat all the weird and wonderful injuries that climbing throws at him!
A huge thanks to out Patrons who are really helping us to keep this show on the road! If you are enjoying the podcast and would like to help out please consider signing up!
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
If for any reason my smooth luddite brain has failed to provide a working link you can just search for the careless talk climbing podcast on the website and we'll pop right up. Thanks!
Sam Pratt joins us today to talk about climbing photography. You may or may not have heard his personal story but you will have seen some of his photos so this chat gives us an opportunity to hear the perspectives of the man behind the lens.
There is also an opening message from Aidan and I to introduce our Patreon. Membership is totally optional but is very welcome. All our material will stay free.
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
We interrupt our rigorously strict schedule of podcast release dates (sometimes Monday, sometimes Tuesday, sometimes never) to bring you a surprise news exclusive and here at The Careless Talk Climbing Podcast we make our own news!
Alex Lemel the head setter at Mile End climbing wall comes for a chat this week. We chat about his route setting and training philosophies and ask him about how he stays so motivated as well as nerdy board climbing chat.
Fun chat with Scottish comp climbing phenom Max Milne. Max on his internet persona, his intro to climbing, his incredible comp season and how he reckons Janja would get on competing in the men's category!
The second part of our insightful chat with Tom Herbert, we talk a lot about weight management for climbing and how it can be done safely as well as some thoughts about how our weight naturally fluctuates due to what we've been eating, perhaps there's a way to take advantage of that!
Some of the thoughts in this podcast come from Tom's article 'Influences and Management of Acute Bodyweight Change' which is available through his website https://access.useful.coach and you can use the promo code: CARELESS for £5 off the annual fee.
Aidan and Sam chat to Tom Herbert about all things related to climbing nutrition. Lots of really interesting learning points in this episode (well there was for me at least!).
Check out Tom's website at https://access.useful.coach and use the promo code: CARELESS to cross the velvet rope into the forbidden section and learn some of the secrets that are valuable enough to lock away behind a paywall!
Second half of our chat with David Mason, we talk about living in Sheffield, how outside climbers can take better care of their environment and we get some of Dave's training advice as one of the top climbing coaches.
David Mason joins Aidan and Sam for a climbing themed pub chat this week. Lots of topics covered about the climber's experience. Dave has such a lot of experience in every avenue of climbing and he's a very analytical thinker so he's great to chat to and hopefully listen to as well!
Jim comes back to chat about rock climbing, how he trains for 47 different types of climbing and his encouraging performance at the European Championships. We also consider a new way of evaluating boulders, bang on about the schoolroom in Sheffield for a bit and discover if Jim likes drinking tea or not.
On this episode we chat to the accomplished allrounder Jim Pope about the competition side of his climbing life and delve into why he likes to do it all and why he's willing to persevere with the psychologically and financially draining competition schedule.
Sam and Aidan having a chat about what they've been up to over the last 6 weeks. Aidan regales us with the story of his ascent of Isles of Wonder Sit, which is a candidate for the hardest problem in the UK.
Frances joins Aidan and Sam for a chat about her climbing, her ascent of Fat Lip (8B) at Raven Tor and joins in for the regularly scheduled climbing discussions.
P.S Apologies for the slightly less frequent episodes at the moment, I (Sam) am out in South Africa at the moment and haven't had much time for editing, big thanks to Calrin Curtis and his housemates for letting me use their place to get this one finished!
Climbing phenomenon Will Bosi comes on to chat to Aidan and Sam about Comps, Rocks, Training and Oat Cakes. Do you want to hear two of the strongest climbers in the world (and Sam) chatting to each other? Well here's your chance!
So who is this Sam Prior bloke and what's he doing hosting a podcast about rock climbing? A discussion about Sam but also general climbing based discussions about cultivating a life outside of climbing, chain climbing walls versus independents and training. Next week we actually have a real life human guest on again! Exciting!
Another episode with Sam chatting to Aidan, this time we talk a bit about nutrition, John Gaskins and answer a few listener questions as well as discover that we're mercilessly out of our depth when trying to talk about some other heavy climbing topics!
The second part of our chat with Billy Ridal, some more comp stuff, some rock stuff and a bit of climbing 'pub chat' hope you enjoy it! I've turned the volume up a little this time!
Billy Ridal gets the dubious honour of being our first guest as he joins Sam and Aidan for a light-hearted chat about competition climbing. If you're interested in getting into the head of a World Cup climber, give it a try!
In this second part to our chat with Aidan we ramble on about social media, Burden of Dreams (The rock climb not the philosophy), Aidan's monk life (The philosophy not the boulder) being an environmentally conscious pro-climber and training.
In this first clumsy effort at podcasting, Sam Prior (Co-Host) chats to Aidan Roberts (Co-Host) about his early years in climbing, his days in competition and his conversion into becoming a world class rock climber.