Internet forums wouldn’t be the same without their villains and heroes, would they? Franco Cookson appeared on the UKC forums back in February 2008. He began posting prolifically from the off and rarely stopped...
Patch Hammond has remained a bit of an enigma in the climbing world. If you flick through the magazines from the late 1990s you’ll see a scruffy youth with an impressive climbing CV –...
Back in 1998 Leo Houlding and Patch Hammond achieved something almost unthinkable – a near onsight ascent of El Capitan. They were just 18, had no big wall experience and headed to Yosemite without...
Prompted by Franco Cookson’s article on headpointing recently I thought I’d dig out this interview I recorded in November 2017 with Tim Lowe. Tim is a climber from Yorkshire with an enviable ticklist of...
In the last two episodes we looked at aspects of flow, whether seeking the euphoria as an escape or chasing it as a performance tool. But there’s an area of climbing where flow won’t...
Mina Leslie-Wujastyk has already established herself as one of the best sport climbers in the country, with redpoints up to 8c. For the past few seasons she has been attempting Rainshadow, Steve McClure’s iconic...
The young Dave Thomas was motivated by one thing above all others – soloing. In his own words he’s “Never climbed a hard route”, but anyone looking at his climbing C.V. would beg to...
There’s something both romantic and illogical about taking the ultimate risk in climbing; leaving the rope behind and going solo. Justifying that is a question which has always fascinated me. For many people it’s...
Katy Forrester is a former member of the British bouldering and ice climbing teams. She’s a fell runner and an accomplished trad and sport climber, with routes up to 7c+ and E8 under her...
In part one of this story we saw how Duncan Critchley’s quick judgment of his partner for The Nose resulted in a piece of big wall history. Despite his good judgment, he was left...
At Factor Two we like to tell climbing stories a little differently. Every episode is a little piece of cinema for your ears. We tell the big stories, with big characters, but we’re also interested in the minutiae of the climbing world and the people that are a part of it.
We’ve told stories about grief and joy, speed records and rescues, identity and losing yourself, and it’s all led us back to basics with our new series.
In Ideas That Changed Climbing we’re telling the story of how climbing became the sport it is today, one idea at a time.