Climbers

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

References

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

One thing that one sees in climbing is that over the period of years influential figures come along...and because of their activities they seem to trigger other people off, and I think that Livesey is one of these. Ok he may not be the finest climber, maybe there are others that are better, but his activities were so widespread, diverse and sensational in nature that people were talking about it. He was the controversial figure of the day. [1]

Livsey was an early proponent of training for climbing, a practice that was then taken on board and used to great affect by the following generation of climbers including Ron Fawcett, Jerry Moffatt and Ben Moon.

Mick Ward:

In running, kayaking and caving, he'd been prevented from being the absolute best by lack of natural talent. Pete looked at climbing more carefully, saw an athletic curve just beginning to take off, knew the time was ripe for him to make his move. [2]

References

[1] Ken Wilson in Rock Athlete

[2] https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/the_stone_children_-_cutting_edge_climbing_in_the_1970s-13297

Shawn Raboutou is an extremely strong boulderer from the USA. He's the son of Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou and Didier Raboutou and brother to Brooke Raboutou.

Since his 2018 ascent of Off the Wagon SDS Shawn has continued to cement his reputation by establishing many hard problems at 8C+ and above, including Big Z, Fuck the System and The Story of Three Worlds. More recently he's pushed the highest levels with his ascent of Alphane for which he proposed 9A and Megatron, another 9A.

References

[1] Down and up Karma https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ9sCAhRh1M?t=481.

[2] Interview with Magnus Midtbø 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BiC-ypXGLU

Tyler Landman is considered by many as one of the greatest British boulderers of all time, and at one point one of the world’s best. Ty displayed outstanding ability from a young age with impressive repeats of Voyager (8B), The Ace (8B) at 15 and Dreamtime (pre break) (8B+) shortly after turning 16.

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 climbed multiple hard boulders quickly, was perhaps the first person to climb The Big Five in a day, and made an early repeat of Satan i Helvete Assis (Pre December 2013) (8C).

In 2013, on a flying visit from the US, he solved one of gritstone's 'last great problems', Smiling Buttress, at a highball 8B+. This remains one of the sternest challenges on grit.

He also won the 2017 British Bouldering Championships.

Rather than pursuing climbing full-time, he has focused on becoming a doctor in America, graduating in 2024.

References

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

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

The most successful competition climber of all time and first gold medalist in climbing in the Tokyo 2020 olympics.

References

[1] A profile of Janja from Reel Rock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_W2hT-HDY

[2] Winning the olympic gold medal in Tokyo 2020 https://www.instagram.com/p/CSPRpH_l81i/

[3] Interview with Natalie Berry for UKClimbing.com, 3rd May 2022 https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/climb_for_gold_-_janja_garnbret_olympic_champion-14458

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmlSSD7jDSI

[5] Interview with John Bergman for climbing.com, August 2024 https://www.climbing.com/people/janja-garnbret-post-olympic-2024-interview/

[6] Video with Magnus Midtbø, July 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EsdeUBBVNM

Ryan Pasquill is a British climber known for his bold, intuitive climbing style as well as his ability to crimp.

References

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

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

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

[3] Interview with Sam MacIlwaine (2026) https://www.climbing.com/culture-climbing/golden-piton-2025-katie-lamb/

Sam is the co-host of the Careless Talk Climbing Podcast alongside Aidan Roberts. He also owns the Social Climbing, chain of climbing centres, in Solihull, Coventry and Leicester

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

References

[1] https://www.rockandice.com/climbing-news/interview-japanese-crusher-shinichiro-nomura/

References

[1] https://fanatic-climbing.com/babsi-zangerl-nous-parle-trad-et-grimpe-en-general-babsi-zangerl-on-trad-and-climbing-in-general/

[2] Interview with Sonnie Trotter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_KQe7o3zoc

[3] https://www.onsight.com.au/2014/04/barbara-zangerl/