Latest Boulderer Podcast Episodes
Birth Pains of New Nations - Pete Oxley
Factor Two - August 12, 2021 12:54 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsThe whims and motivations of climbers really are another world to the person in the street. Understanding them is crossing a threshold, it requires a certain suspension of disbelief to start to see the world of risk, adventure, suffering and more in a different light. Those thresholds exist w...
Hateja - Louise Thomas and Glenda Huxter
Factor Two - June 24, 2021 15:37 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsIf you had to select your late 90s dream team for a British, all-female Himalayan big wall trip, you couldn’t go far wrong with this one. Glenda Huxter was onsighting E7, Kath Pyke had extensive experience on rock and alpine routes, and Louise Thomas brought even more big wall and expedition exp...
Finding the Balance - Katherine Schirrmacher
Factor Two - March 23, 2021 12:19 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsWe all get enjoyment from climbing for different reasons. For many of us those reasons change over time, according to our geography, time, money and other pressures in our lives. I’ve read Katherine Schirrmacher’s blog for years, and she’s unusually good at expressing all of those little thing...
El Capitan - a film by Fred Padula
Factor Two - December 10, 2020 12:00 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsIn the spring of 1968 San Francisco film maker, Fred Padula, drove into the Yosemite Valley and gazed up at El Capitan. He had been approached by one of his film students, Glen Denny, a talented climber and photographer, to advise on making a film about climbing The Nose. Denny had been part o...
Hard Grit
Factor Two - October 28, 2020 16:12 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsWhen it was released in 1998, Hard Grit gave us an insight into something we didn’t often see - the actual ascents of the hardest, most dangerous lines on grit. In an era before everyone had a smartphone, before digital photography was even mainstream, many of the photos we saw in the magazine...
Hard Grit - Rich Heap, Niall Grimes and Seb Grieve
Factor Two - October 28, 2020 16:12 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsWhen it was released in 1998, Hard Grit gave us an insight into something we didn’t often see - the actual ascents of the hardest, most dangerous lines on grit. In an era before everyone had a smartphone, before digital photography was even mainstream, many of the photos we saw in the magazine...
A Play for Voices - Helen Mort and Anna Fleming
Factor Two - September 16, 2020 06:00 - 42 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsWhen you look at the books on a shelf of mountaineering literature one thing is quickly apparent: the vast majority are written by men. The same is true with the episodes I’ve produced for Factor Two. The simple fact is that there have historically been more men engaged in the kind of adventur...
Brave New World - Tom Livingstone and Twid Turner
Factor Two - August 06, 2020 14:37 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsIt’s hard to be truly disconnected these days. Even in the weirdness of isolation over the past few months many of us have been working from home, constantly bothered by the connections around us. Sometimes it’s just a little too much. I’ve missed the isolation of the mountains, but even they ...
Deep Play - Neil Gresham
Factor Two - July 07, 2020 11:36 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratings"I climb better when I'm scared." I've heard this quite a few times. I even thought it was true about myself for a while in my earlier climbing career, but it surely can't be true? After speaking with Hazel Findlay about maintaining the bubble of a flow state in the last episode, there was o...
Deep Play - Neil Gresham and Dr Rebecca Williams
Factor Two - July 07, 2020 11:36 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratings"I climb better when I'm scared." I've heard this quite a few times. I even thought it was true about myself for a while in my earlier climbing career, but it surely can't be true? After speaking with Hazel Findlay about maintaining the bubble of a flow state in the last episode, there was o...
Walking the Magic Line
Factor Two - May 27, 2020 14:34 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsFlow 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...
Walking the Magic Line - Hazel Findlay and Dr Rebecca Williams
Factor Two - May 27, 2020 14:34 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsFlow 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...
Walking the Magic Line - Hazel Findlay
Factor Two - May 27, 2020 14:34 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsFlow 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...
The Moment You Doubt - Ben Bransby
Factor Two - April 14, 2020 11:23 - 39 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsMany of the stories in Factor Two feature the same scenario - What next? You always imagine ticking the big goal might be enough, but it rarely is. For Ben Bransby and Jvan Tresch it seemed obvious what was next. Patagonia has long been the most difficult and revered home to big walls in the w...
Freebird - Ben Bransby
Factor Two - April 06, 2020 12:00 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsAfter hearing from Leo Houlding and Patch Hammond about their legendary Yosemite season in 1998 there was one obvious gap in our story - Ben Bransby. Before attempting Freerider with Patch, Ben had made an ascent of the Salathe Wall with Mark Reeves. It was his first taste of big wall climbing...
Living in the Shadows - Franco Cookson
Factor Two - March 03, 2020 05:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsInternet 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 to consider the responses from others. In those early days, he was the classic antago...
No More Heroes?
Factor Two - September 11, 2019 12:00 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsPatch 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 – onsighting E6 and E7 in North Wales and climbing with the likes of Tim Emmett, Neil Gresham and Leo Houlding. ...
No More Heroes? - Patch Hammond
Factor Two - September 11, 2019 12:00 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsPatch 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 – onsighting E6 and E7 in North Wales and climbing with the likes of Tim Emmett, Neil Gresham and Leo Houlding. ...
No More Worlds
Factor Two - May 24, 2019 15:35 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsBack 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 any great ambitions for the big faces. They had intended to try to headpoint some bold, hard new...
No More Worlds - Leo Houlding
Factor Two - May 24, 2019 15:35 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsBack 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 any great ambitions for the big faces. They had intended to try to headpoint some bold, hard new...
On and Off - A headpointing story
Factor Two - January 30, 2019 18:38 - 11 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsPrompted 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 routes, including the Yorkshire Triple Crown of The Groove, Urgent Action and Supercool. Ov...
Clouds Come and Go
Factor Two - January 22, 2019 12:54 - 39 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsIn 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 be enough. The objectives are too long, too complex and too unpredictable. At altitude everything becomes harde...
Me and My Shadow
Factor Two - December 17, 2018 10:37 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsMina 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 9a at Malham. It’s more than a step above her previous ascents, and initially some...
Me and My Shadow - Mina Leslie-Wujastyk
Factor Two - December 17, 2018 10:37 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsMina 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 9a at Malham. It’s more than a step above her previous ascents, and initially some...
More Than a Dream - Dave Thomas
Factor Two - November 06, 2018 20:45 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsThe 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 thi...
More Than a Dream
Factor Two - November 06, 2018 20:45 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsThe 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 thi...
Sally Can Wait
Factor Two - February 05, 2018 05:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsThere'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 such an absolute risk that the answer is easy, but I've always thought it was more ...
The Black Dog
Factor Two - January 01, 2018 05:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsKaty 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 belt. She also has a black dog. Katy is open in talking about her experience of depression and how she tackle...
Alone - Off the Wall
Factor Two - December 11, 2017 11:55 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsIn 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 with the regret that they never climbed together again. In part two Duncan's judgment isn't so good, but it leaves hi...
Nine and a Half Hours
Factor Two - December 04, 2017 05:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsThe 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...
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