At Factor Two we make some of the best climbing podcasts in the business.
If you’re new to our podcasts there are a lot of places you could begin, but here are our three favourite episodes to get you started.
More Than a Dream
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 differ.
In 1989 he soloed the classic E6 Lord of the Flies at Dinas Cromlech. It wasn’t a spur of the moment thing. He’d been putting the miles in on the Rubicon traverse in the weeks leading up to the day. In his mind he had set a date with destiny – but it was an experience at the Old Redoubt that really gave him that.
Walking the Magic Line
Flow is a concept that can divide in climbing. For Dave Thomas it was the joyous experience that removed him from other problems in life. For Mina Leslie-Wujastyk it was a performance tool. Mina told me that a lot of her understanding of flow had come from conversations with Hazel Findlay and it had helped her to develop a different mindset both on and off the rock.
Nine and a Half hours
The Nose on El Capitan is perhaps the most iconic rock climb on the planet. Its been big news even outside of the climbing world since its first ascent by a team led by Warren Harding in 1958. The crowds in El Cap meadow became so unmanageable that the park rangers asked Harding to halt his work on the route until the autumn when the tourists had left. Today a major first ascent or speed record is news even in the mainstream media. Back in 1984 mild-mannered British climber “Sir” Duncan Critchley set out for Yosemite with a picture book dream and made his mark in the history of Yosemite climbing.
