Climbers

Sam is the co-host of the Careless Talk Climbing Podcast alongside Aidan Roberts. He also owns two climbing walls, The Ballroom and Social Climbing.

References

[1] Interview with Xa White for ukclimbing.com, May 2023 https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/sam_prior_on_projects_parenthood_and_new_perspectives-15173

Mark Pretty on the first time he met Andy:

One grey and rather bleak day I had hitched in and met, by chance, Stevie Haston. We'd gone up to Windy Ledge [at Stoney Middleton] where a team had assembled to attempt Circe. I was well out of my depth so settled down to watch the heroics on display. A young lad with lots of hair and enthusiasm who had repeated the route the day before (as he kept reminding everyone!) volunteered to clip the bolt. At the wire before the bolt he had a bit of a wobble, grabbed the wire which promptly came out and he then hit the ledge and bounced off it! The belayer fell over and was dragged towards the 70 foot drop. The quick thinking of Stevie, who jumped on the belayer and stopped his slide, saved the day. The youth re-emerged on the ledge, brushed himself down and was keen to go again...! Needless to say he wasn't allowed that opportunity! [5]

References

[1] North Stack Wall, 1980s https://www.facebook.com/climbing.in.the.80s/photos/a.270388289694020/3463204157079068

[2] Andy in Longland's Cafe, Hathersage 1987. By Bernard Newman https://www.instagram.com/p/CZYqXzmNuWS/

[3] https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/goodby-to-british-rock-climbing-icon-andy-pollitt.html

[4] https://www.thebmc.co.uk/remembering-andy-pollitt

[5] Interview with Mark Pretty September 2017, https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/mark_zippy_pretty_and_andy_pollitt-9762

References

[1] Ask Me Anything on reddit, 2014 https://www.reddit.com/r/climbing/comments/1whcrp/hi_folks_im_ethan_pringle_ask_me_anything_be_my/

Vadim Timonov is somewhat of an enigma in global climbing. Due to his Russian citizenship it makes travel inaccessible for him. Despite this he boasts a wealth of hard boulder ascents, including Monkey Wedding 8C/V15 and The Understanding 8C/V15. He has also flashed Mirta 8B+/V14.

In 2022 Vadim begun projecting Blackflip SDS and in May 2023 he got the first ascent giving it 8C+/9A and later retro upgrading it to 9A/V17.

John was a prolific and gifted climber who established a host of hard, classic routes on his local gritstone crags in the peak district.

Lines that had been eyed up by many fell to this prodigious young talent. He climbed Old Friends when he was just 14 and continued adding quality new first ascents from there, such as Hairless Heart, White Wand, Profit of Doom and London Wall which were climbed within a 2 week period at age 16!

While later climbers pushed the numbers up John added a plethora of high quality lines such as West Side Story at Burbage West.

References

[1] Obituary on UKClimbing.com by Graham Hoey, 27th May 2020 https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/the_day_the_music_died_-_remembering_john_allen-12803

References

[1] https://www.climbing.com/people/katie-lamb-interview/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STfiakiPNCY

Welsh prodigy living in the shadow of his father Rich Skinner.

References

[1] https://open.spotify.com/episode/5d7YwIqK2q5RnOEOLeD9bX?

Robbie is an experienced all rounder. He is particularly experienced with big alpine routes, and in particular he has completed the Alpine Trilogy of three iconic 8b+ multipitches: Silbergeier, Des Kaisers neue Kleider and End of Silence.

Tyler Landman is considered by many as one of the greatest British boulderers of all time, and at one point one of the worlds best. Ty has displayed excellent ability from a young age with him impressively repeating Voyager (8B), The Ace (8B) and Dreamtime (pre break) (8B+) at 17!

The following year he repeated the legendary Jade (8B+) and Ode to the Modern Man (8B+). Over the next year he would repeat serval hard boulders including Practice of the Wild (8B+), New Base Line (8B+) and Radja (8B+).

In February of 2009 Ty went to Fontainebleau where his exploits were captured in Between The Trees by Keith Bradbury, in which he ascended multiple hard boulders, but most notably Satan i Helvete Assis (Pre December 2013) (8C). He was also the 2017 British Bouldering Champion.

Interestingly with Ty despite being at the top of the global bouldering world his focused switched to that of a career as a doctor. In 2024 Ty achieved this goal graduating as a doctor in America.

References

[1] https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/outspoken_-_tyler_landman-13258

[2] https://soundcloud.com/user-569917310/outspoken-tyler-landman

References

[1] Second 8a.nu account https://www.8a.nu/user/peter-satt/bouldering

Neil Gresham is a British climber who is notable for his had trad ascents, including early repeats of notable test pieces such as Johnny Dawes' Indian Face E9 and Neil Bentley's Equilibrium E10 as well as making his own contributions to hard trad in the uk with routes such as Lexicon E11 and Final Score E10.

As well as his trad climbing Neil was an early adopter of deep water soloing in the UK, establishing some of the harder DWS lines in the UK such as

• Cutlass 8a
• Excalibur 8a
• San Simian 8a
• Hydrotherapy 8a+
• Olympiad 8b

References

[1] Interview with Dave MacLeod 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2wgXc_blao

[2] Interview with Niall Grimes part 1, 2024 https://open.spotify.com/episode/4H9lcr8Fp4lR6lMMmJa8Yt?

[3] Interview with Niall Grimes part 2, 2024 https://open.spotify.com/episode/5cac0uPMB1TYDaUF8XN06f?