Buster has been climbing since childhood. He competed for his country as a junior competitor where he made European Championship finals, World Cup semi finals and numerous domestic comp victories. Buster's main focus now is rock climbing. He's the second brit to climb 9a+/36 with his ascent of First Ley in Margalef. Buster has also climbed countles…

Krystal's journey is an inspiring one. She knew what she wanted and went after it. Capturing moments in crazy locations of crazy people doing crazy things, all around the world. We covered some good ground in this conversation and I really appreciated Krystal's honesty to just dive in. You can follow Krystal on instagram here Krystal's website Baff…

Steve is the founder of Climb Strong. He’s a climber for more than 30 years, and established over 300 new routes across the globe, from big wall free climbs to 25-foot sport routes on his home crags near Lander, Wyoming. An exercise science graduate of the University of Wyoming, Steve has been studying and experimenting with climbing training metho…

Maddy Cope has climbed Freerider 28/7c+ in Yosemite, La Scimma Nuda, (9 pitch) 29/8a in Switzerland and countless other hard multipitch/trad routes. She's also cranked out a couple 33/8c's, Mind Control and Bat Route, and smashed out 32/8b+ on gear! She's a true allrounder. We talk about her process on Freerider and desire to keep seeking adventure…

Ollie Torr is one of the founders of Lattice Climbing, a Sheffield based training and research company. Perhaps best known for their research and accumulation of testing data to help predict performance. In doing so, they have helped answer the big question in climbing. How strong do I need to be? In this episode however, we don't get buried in the…

In December 2020 Oceana qualified to represent Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games. She did this proudly when climbing made its debut in Tokyo during August 2021. Oceana is a Bouldering World Cup Finalist, won basically every domestic competition she's ever entered, plus on the real rock front, shes bouldered V11! Pretty impressive for someon…

It’s hard to know where to start in telling this story. It’s been a wild journey. After qualifying for the Olympics in December 2020, we thought things were going to get a bit simpler. We have a date when the Olympics are going to run and a training plan to execute, easy. The reality was a fair bit different. We naively underestimated the path to g…

Dave Jones is one of the rare ones. Growing up in Victoria, he quickly ended up spending many of his early climbing years making his way out to Arapiles and The Grampians. It wasn’t long before Dave started finding his own lines to climb, searching out unclimbed features which caught his imagination. Some of his notable First Ascents include Punks …

You walk into a climbing gym, look around at all the nice fiberglass shapes, the funky volumes and order yourself a coffee. A coupe hours later you walk out having had a blast of a time with your friends and a few layers of skin down. In a few days time you'll be back and do the same thing again. You are a climber and the sport has taken over your …

I'm almost certain many of you have done one or all of these things. A generation ago, employing some of these tactics may have resulted in being chased out of the crag. Perhaps there are still a few strong holds which keep the torch burning in a quest for pure ascents. The question is, do these tactics sit within the lines of fair play or have we …

On 19-20 December 2020 at Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym Villawood, the Oceania Climbing Championships were held, giving one last chance for a ticket to the Tokyo Olympic Games for one athlete per gender from the region. Tom O'Halloran qualified for the male category and talks to us about his journey. Tom talks about his early climbing journey, (unknow…

Each one of us tells a story of a time we stuffed up a send. Hopefully through talking about a few of these things, you'll learn from our mistakes and navigate your way around them. If you have experienced them before, feel comforted that you're not alone. It happens to us all. Here's the video Tom references for his big dummy spit https://www.yout…

Duncan Brown has been a climber for decades now. He has travelled all over the world in this time, including a stint in China as part of the big wave of development 10 years ago. He was apart of the team being flown across the country being paid to bolt the countless limestone caves, granite faces and sandstone walls. What a dream! Duncan is also t…

It’s easy to believe the popular overseas destinations are the bee’s knees. They’re in the movies, on the posters and clogging up your instagram feed. But what about back home, in the land girt by sea? Turns out it’s pretty darn good! We talk the progression of our sport in the last decade and predictions of things to come. A few years ago we’d hav…

Mum climbing life with Amanda Watts, Andrea Hah, Helen Day and Carlie LeBreton. This group of crusher climbing mums have over 80 years of combined climbing experience, bouldering, sport and trad climbing and competing at the highest levels. For each of them, finding a balance between climbing and mum life was important for their mental health and q…

Madeleine Crane started Climbing Psychology out of a passion. She is a professional psychologist, specialised in sport psychology and has experienced the pinnacle of competition climbing, having competed for Austria at World Cups. She wants to help you find the tools to give yourself every opportunity to express yourself fully on the wall. In our c…

We speak to Yossi Sundakov-Krumins, owner and manager of Skywood Climbing. Yossi is the master mind and creator of one of the best woody’s I’ve ever seen so he’s the perfect person to give you a few tips and ideas to make the most out of your setup.https://www.skywoodclimbing.com/home-2Par Tom O'Halloran, Yossi Sundakov-Krumins

If you don’t know who Steve Bechtel is already, he’s one of the big names in global climbing training. He studied Exercise Science at University and in 2002 opened Elemental Performance and Fitness in Lander, Wyoming. We love Steve’s no nonsense approach to climbing training. He looks from above with an insightful eye and makes the complicated, sim…

In this episode Amanda Watts and Tom O’Halloran sit down with Lee Cossey, one of the best climbers Australia has ever seen and one of the best coaching minds in the business. We talk about how you can get the most out of your training while climbing gyms are shut and our access to the outdoors is limited. Finger boarding, strength, mindset and tech…

Par John Sheridan, Tom O'Halloran, Amanda Watts

Par Stuart Wyithe, Amanda Watts, Tom O'Halloran

You’d be hard pressed to find a rock magazine from 2000-2010 that didn’t have a photo or mention Vince Day. He's even on the cover of the 2010 Blue Mountains guidebook. The guy was very much in the middle of the scene for that time. He repeated some of Australia’s hardest routes and boulders, as well as putting up a few of his own. His name was syn…

The 2019 Australian open climbing Nationals have come and gone. This year's were different to previous ones, not only the format of all three disciplines being run over 4 consecutive days, but also because of the Olympics. This is the beginning of the Olympic dream for all of our athletes. Those competing in all three disciplines were vying for a t…

Duncan Brown is has been running his own coaching business, Athlete by Choice for several years. In the last few years he has moved into also being the coaching director for Sport Climbing Australia, the governing body for competition climbing in Australia. In this chat we get into the inner workings of the competition side of SCA as well as the Ol…

We don’t get into finger boarding protocol breakdowns, or energy system nuances. That stuff is far too confusing and gets in the way of actually showing up to the gym and trying hard. I’ve listened to a million hours of nuanced nonsense that’s hard to then apply into a training plan. Let alone a normal life of work, family and all the other things …

Emma Horan talks to Amanda and Tom about her own climbing, managing a new climbing gym in the middle of Sydney and her experience of being a female in the climbing scene. We also talk about nutrition and body image in our chat and I was truly grateful to Em for her openness on this subject. Follow Emma on instagram @emmawarriorprincess…

Rob LeBreton is an Australian climbing legend. Starting climbing in the early 1980’s Rob took to the cliffs with an open mind and buckets of psych. His first climbing experiences were in Glenbrook Gorge at the base of the Blue Mountains. He and a friend tied a rope around their waist and armed with a fistful of rudimentary gear they climbed a stack…

Lee Cujes has been prolific in the scene for his entire climbing life, starting in Townsville in 1994. He then moved to Brisbane and became one of the biggest route developers in South East Queensland for the next 20 years. Chances are if you've climbed a good route in Queensland, Lee’s hand was probably involved with its development. He was also r…

Leah Dempsey moved from Brisbane to the Blue Mountains in 2014 and has been crushing routes and boulders since. Her story is one of finding her own path through the established climbing scene of the Blue Mountains. She has climbed grade 32 and bouldered V12. Her ability to back herself to get on the routes and boulders she chooses and to execute th…

Anna is a WA climber who’s been on the up and up for the last few years. In this time she’s been focused on making the Australian team and based on her results from last year’s nationals, she’s made it. At the end of April she’s off to China to start her Bouldering World Cup season. The last few years have been hard for Anna battling both life and …

In this episode we get into the juicy bits of training, how he went from sport climbing 31/8b, to being a climber capable of climbing The Wheel of life. A climb that is considered to be somewhere around 35 or 36 which is 9a 9a+ in Frenchy speak. This is a huge and somewhat audacious jump but one that he committed fully to and pulled off in style. I…

Lee Cossey is a proper legend of the Australian climbing scene. He has climbed and first ascented some of the hardest routes in the country for the past two decades as well as bouldered hard double digits and done some bloody good ascents on the big walls in Australia, Yosemite and Patagonia. Lee and I talk about his time big walling, which in cont…

Luke Hansen is a Blue Mountains local crusher. In 2017 he finished his psychology degree at University and decided to do the dream euro climbing trip. He booked a plane ticket, bought a van and started the 6 month tour of the A list Euro crags. We talk about him realising on the trip that he wanted to make climbing a bigger part of his life. He has…

Tom chats with Jake about his ascent of The Wheel of Life this year. We talk about his journey to get to climbing his big dream. A bit about his training, his injury struggles and the approach he took to make it happen. We also talk about his motivation in the early years, going to Europe to live in Innsbruck, Austria to learn from the best climber…