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.co…

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 whe…

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…

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! If you're enjoying the podcast …

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)…

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. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=70353823 Support the show…

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 peop…

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 …

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 …

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…

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. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the showAv Sam Prior & Aidan Roberts

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 le…

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. If you're…

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! If you're enjoyin…

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…

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. If you're enjoying…

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 ple…

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 …

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 announc…

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 i…

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 t…

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 …

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 interv…

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 Et…

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 ver…

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 relationsh…

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 …

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 mos…

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? If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to hear the extended edition of this podcast then do check out our Patreon pa…

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 …

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... If you're enjoying the podcast and would…

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 o…

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 cl…

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! 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 Suppo…

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 I…

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 …

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…

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! If…

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…

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 ri…

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 witho…

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 c…

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 toget…

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 …

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…

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 enjoy…

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…

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. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support t…

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 …

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! If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show…