Explore every episode of the podcast The Careless Talk Climbing Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| E203: A 'big year' for climbing, commercial boards and how much could you suffer for gains? | 17 Jun 2026 | 01:42:41 | |
A home team episode, just us chatting about some various bits and pieces. Most of the bits and pieces are in the title and in the episode description so I probably shouldn't write them out here again should I? Maybe I should, but that's starting to feel like hard work so I won't... It's just dawned on me that in the time it took me to write that I could have just written a proper description but ah well.. In too deep to turn back now. If you think I'm still writing just so it looks like a big enough word count for a podcast description you'd be very very very very wrong. Lots of general natterings, you know the drill by now I'm sure. If you're enjoying the pod and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 | |||
| E202: Tristan Chen - Recovery, pottery and the similarities between bouldering and birding | 10 Jun 2026 | 02:10:32 | |
Long overdue, but we managed to get Tristan on the podcast. We've wanted him to come on for a long time. Tristan is a really strong climber from the south east who also has a witty and dry sense of humour which we really appreciate. Known for his hot takes and funny way of phrasing things he was great fun to have on and we enjoyed the chat immensely. Tristan recovered from Leukaemia a couple of years back and we talk about that at the start of the podcast if that's something that you wouldn't like to listen to then you can skip the first 40 minutes or so. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 | |||
| E193: Max Milne - Winning the PCL, campusing The Ace and injury comebacks | 08 Apr 2026 | 01:27:33 | |
*Warning the sound quality in the first 5 minutes is pretty dodgy but improves after that :) We had one of our favourites back on the pod for this week's episode! Max Milne has recently won the new Pro Climbing League after qualifying as a wild card and he's been putting in great performances on the World Cup circuit for a while now. He's also dabbled in rock climbing, flashing The Ace and Bewilderness as well as climbing Forgotten Gem and even returning to The Ace to campus it in a protective boot! If you're enjoying the pod and would like to support us, please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 | |||
| E103: Sean Bailey - Cutting edge climbing, comps and grading | 26 Jun 2024 | 02:04:35 | |
This week we were really excited to be joined by Sean Bailey! Sean is one of the world's best climbers. He is right at the cutting edge in both bouldering and sport climbing. We didn't go much into any of that though! We had a general chat about the state of climbing, including comps, grading and media. Definitely one of our 'we do chats not interviews' pods! Hope you enjoy! | |||
| E102: Ethan Pringle - Projecting, motivation, passion and social media rambles | 19 Jun 2024 | 02:27:29 | |
Could a guest be much better suited to our favourite topics and recurring themes throughout the pod history? Ethan enthusiastically joins us on our tangents and rambles into psychology, Newtonian physics and other topics we don't know enough about to be qualified to give an opinion on. But fear not, we get some questions in from time to time and Ethan shares some gems from his already long, adventurous and varied climbing career! Cliche perhaps, but a legend of the sport! | |||
| E101: Aidan & Sam - Chalk, Nocturnal Climbing and Swiss Bats | 12 Jun 2024 | 01:15:16 | |
We're going back in time to the halcyon days of a couple of months ago this week! An episode we recorded and then forgot about! Shockingly the climbing world hasn't moved on unrecognisably in two months so it's all still relevant. We chatted about climbing at night, Sam's time in Font and ideal chalk strategies. | |||
| E100: Steven Dimmitt - Podcasting, training and changing perspectives | 05 Jun 2024 | 02:46:42 | |
This week we're joined by a voice you'll probably recognise! Steven Dimmitt, the host of The Nugget joins us to chat about podcasting as well as his personal climbing and we all ramble on about our personal climbing philosophies and what motivates us. We get to hear how being the host of a successful climbing podcast has changed Steven's relationship with his own climbing and what he is working towards for the future. In classic CT style, the conversation is wide ranging and varied so there should be something in there for everyone. We really enjoyed the conversation and we reckon it'll make for some good listening. | |||
| E99: The Magic Wood Special with Thomas Saluz and James O'Neil | 29 May 2024 | 01:44:26 | |
Something a little different this week as instead of focusing on a climber we're focusing on a crag! Magic Wood is one of the most famous climbing destinations in the world. It's seen development from too many icons to name over the years and has been incredibly popular for many years. With such popularity has come some challenges though. The crag is home to lots of polished rock and eroded foot paths. Thomas Saluz has been looking after the campsite, guesthouse and restaurant for a very long time and nobody knows as much about the place as him. In a classic example of how small the climbing world is, James O'Neil was once Sam's housemate in London but is now also involved in the organization that is trying to preserve the area and keep it alive and magical for the next generation. We chat about a bunch of the challenges Magic Wood faces and just a bit about the place as well. | |||
| E98: Greg Chapman - Guidebook writing, boulder development, crag preservation and The Lake District | 22 May 2024 | 01:53:32 | |
The author of the Lake District (Aidan's home area) boulder guide, Greg Chapman joins us this week. We have a wide ranging discussion covering lots of things that relate to the writing of guidebooks and developing boulders. This episode is a little more esoteric than most as a lot of the conversations pertain to the Lake District but I think it mostly all carries over to any other boulder area as well so there's something for everyone I hope!
| |||
| E97: Aidan & Sam - Moral conundrums, building a Frankenstein climber and trip updates | 15 May 2024 | 01:54:01 | |
Aidan and I this week chatting about a bunch of stuff. I'm in Magic Wood and Aidan is in Finland so we chat about that. If we could build the best climber in the world using attributes from existing climbers, who would we use? | |||
| E96: Sébastien Berthe - Big Walls, Boats and Bouldering Challenges | 08 May 2024 | 01:39:40 | |
No pies are safe from Seb's fingers! Sébastien is an incredibly accomplished climber. He's climbed at an elite level across a range of climbing disciplines and he's doing it all in an eco friendly way. In the episode we talk about his recent mission to climb 100 font 7As in a day, sailing the Atlantic to climb the Dawn Wall, free climbing the nose and climbing James Pearson's Bon Voyage (E12). What a guy. | |||
| E95: Sam & Aidan are talking CASH! | 01 May 2024 | 01:34:19 | |
In this episode, amongst other things, we're pondering about the remuneration for top climbers. Are they being exploited? Are they underpaid? Should they just be grateful to be able to climb for a living and accept that they can't expect to be set up for the future? We dive in, in a roundabout sort of way... | |||
| E94: Ashima Shiraishi - Rediscovering passion in climbing | 24 Apr 2024 | 01:50:26 | |
The great Ashima Shiraishi joined us for a chat this week! Ashima has been on the climbing scene in a big way for what feels like forever, but somehow she's still in her early twenties! Ashima broke many records on her way through the grading scale as a young climber which culminated in her climbing V15 at just 14 years old! She has also competed on the world cup circuit and has been in the spotlight of both climbing and mainstream media. Like is often the case, the story behind the headlines was actually a little more nuanced and it was great to be able to hear from Ashima as she reflects on her early years but also moves into a new and exciting chapter of her climbing life. | |||
| E192: Round Table - We've got to talk about Ondra and D&D alignment chart | 01 Apr 2026 | 01:50:39 | |
A round table with Benn and Katie again this week. We had to talk about Ondra a bit because he's been busy! Then the main goal was to fill out a D&D style alignment chart we stole from Reddit. We had a laugh with it and I tried to herd the cats as best I could but it all got a bit messy! If you're enjoying the pod and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/c/u70353823 | |||
| E93: Emil Abrahamsson - Grappling with the Big Island, gripping with strongmen and grafting with YouTube | 17 Apr 2024 | 02:04:10 | |
This week we were excited to be joined by Emil Abrahamsson! You probably know Emil from his exploits on YouTube, his sends of hard rock climbs and perhaps from his competition days as well. He's an accomplished climber both inside and outside but he's also a really lovely and super psyched guy with a nice optimistic take on lots of things around climbing. Join us for a nice wide ranging ramble about a bunch of climbing topics. | |||
| E92: Aidan sends his projects! | 10 Apr 2024 | 01:36:45 | |
It's a good episode for the Aidan fans this week as Aidan has sent his projects and has learnt a great deal in the process. Perfect time to stick a microphone in front of the chap and press go. Hope you enjoy! | |||
| E91: Bernd Zangerl - Himalayan bouldering, development and climbing beyond the numbers | 03 Apr 2024 | 01:57:37 | |
It was great to be joined by Bernd Zangerl this week! A true legend of bouldering he's been involved in the development of loads of classic areas like Ticino and Magic Wood and has been climbing elite level boulders for over twenty years. In more recent times Bernd has been pouring everything he has learned into the development of Rakchham in the Indian Himalayas. We talked about that as well as a bunch of other things, I could write them here, but you could also just listen and that'd save me the trouble! | |||
| E90: The Climbing Backpackers - How to go on your dream climbing adventure for £10 a day! | 27 Mar 2024 | 01:26:45 | |
Something very different for you all this week. Nettie & Dave a.k.a The Climbing Backpackers are on an adventure climbing across Asia. They might be on their dream climbing trip but they're also setting out to prove that just because you don't have a huge chunk of savings that doesn't preclude you from living an adventurous lifestyle. To prove the point they are living on a budged of just £10 ($12.5 or €11.7) per day! | |||
| E89: Simon Lorenzi - The triple 9A climber and best non-professional climber in the world! | 20 Mar 2024 | 01:35:47 | |
Simon Lorenzi on the pod this week! Simon is the first man to have climbed 3 9A boulders with Soudain seul, Alphane and Burden of Dreams. He's also a mainstay on the world cup circuit and has made finals on more than one occasion. Despite being one of the best boulderers in the world Simon is slightly more under the radar than most of his peers and so it was great to be able to sit down with him and hear a bit more about what makes him tick. | |||
| E88: David Mason - The new finger strength hack, the psychology of injury and how much of finger strength is purely genetics? | 13 Mar 2024 | 02:22:37 | |
The renowned coach and climber David Mason is back this week! This time we nerd out about some training ideas, talk about how he is mentally dealing with a recent serious knee injury and we ponder how much of climber's finger strength is really within their control at all. | |||
| E87: Neil Gresham - Training, grading, the social media landscape and the most physical form of climbing | 06 Mar 2024 | 02:13:35 | |
Neil is one of the original performance coaches in rock climbing, known for his elite level trad ascents as well as his efforts to demystify the obscure and hazy world of climbing training and his ability to deliver it in a way that makes sense. We chatted about a wide range of topics from social media, the online trad climbing mob, the stresses of grading and training for climbing. Perhaps one day I'll go through the whole thing and give links to every topic we discussed.... but not this day. | |||
| E86: Noah Wheeler - The next generation crusher sleepwalking into defying gravity | 28 Feb 2024 | 01:40:29 | |
Noah jumps on the pod this week! He's recently repeated some of the hardest test pieces the US has to offer and in relatively quick time whilst sporting at least 5 or 6 taped tips! We chatted a bunch about Sleepwalker and Defying Gravity, how the style in which he climbs lends itself well to flashing hard boulders, his training, how his meteoric rise in climbing grades might not be quite as fast as it appears from the outside and so much more. He came across as a really humble guy, but I guess when you're on this kind of form, you can just let the climbing do the talking! | |||
| E85: Aidan & Sam - We're talking about GRADES and to a much lesser extent, ancient Egypt | 21 Feb 2024 | 01:54:37 | |
Oh yes, it's a grades pod. Aidan's least favourite subject, and it's hardly in Sam's top 10 either. We end up having a bunch of discussions relating to grades, getting a history lesson from Aidan for first of the grades (possibly all wrong) and we give some recommendations for climbs at each grade bracket... Or at least some that came to mind without thinking about it for all that long... | |||
| E84: Ben Moon - One of Britain's greatest ever climbers talking about his career, getting put into a headlock by Jerry Moffat and Victorian trains | 14 Feb 2024 | 02:08:34 | |
It was a treat to have living legend Ben Moon on the pod this week. A lot of ground covered in an absolutely whistle-stop tour of Ben's career and replete with a fine selection of totally random tangents and rambles. Bailing from O levels because of too much physics, dossing in a cave, the birth of sport climbing, training and board climbing, how comps paid better in the 80s than they do today. It's a chat that goes all over and it was great fun for us so I hope it makes for a good listen. | |||
| E191: Allison Vest - Climbing 'big boy' boulders and the work behind the success | 25 Mar 2026 | 01:52:36 | |
Fan favourite Allison is back on the pod this week! Thankfully Allison had a phenomenal run of form recently, culminating in some big sends, namely The Mantra, a three move V14 on tiny crimps, and The Expanse, a V15 boulder that had previously only been climbed by some of the tallest men in the sport! Climbing either of these boulders would be a good enough excuse to ask Allison to come back on the pod but to do both of them in just a few days is a feat that very few people could manage! We chat about that and her tactics, and why she's not fingerboarding (in the same way) anymore! If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon page! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 | |||
| E83: The role of climbing in our lives, thought provoking questions from Mimi White | 09 Feb 2024 | 02:01:02 | |
A follow-along survey for the role of climbing in our lives: Sam and Aidan are joined by Mimi White a climber and psychologist as she collects data and runs us through her recently published survey (now closed). Complex and thought provoking, we both had to really think hard to answer these and it really got us pondering as we tried to cobble together our thought processes. I hope you enjoy trying to answer these questions for yourselves as much as we did and perhaps you'll even learn something along the way (a bit of a shock on this podcast). | |||
| E82: Yannick Flohé - Chatting comps and rocks with the ultimate German powerhouse | 31 Jan 2024 | 01:47:18 | |
We're joined by the man Alex Megos described as the strongest on the world cup circuit! We had a great evening chatting with Yannick about rocks, comps and training. Give it a listen to hear some brilliantly quotable lines from one of the strongest climbers on the planet. Our personal favourite was 'bouldering is not a physical sport'. Top guy and really enjoyable to listen to, thanks for joining us Yannick! | |||
| E81: Toby Segar - Jumping about between all things climbing and Parkour | 24 Jan 2024 | 02:22:12 | |
Something different this week! Toby Segar from Storror joins us to chat all things parkour and how they can all be related back to climbing. Toby is a big star in the Parkour world but has also been taking part in a lot of climbing recently as well! Storror is an incredibly successful YouTube channel with nearly 10 million subscribers so Toby knows a thing or two about content creation and we chat about what it's like to be on the other side of one of these huge channels, and also how and why a Parkour pro has ended up doing so much climbing. | |||
| E80: Matthew Phillips - A Paraclimbing World Champion's pursuit of challenge | 17 Jan 2024 | 01:46:23 | |
Matthew Phillips joins us this week! He's only young but he's already had a sparkling career in the sport. A world champion, but also an incredibly humble and laid back guy who's now getting more involved with the routesetting and coaching side of the sport. His pragmatism and fearlessness in the face of challenges is infectious and we really enjoyed having an opportunity to chat to him! | |||
| E79: Alex Fry - Routesetting, wooden hold making and how to set the world's most popular indoor V8 | 10 Jan 2024 | 02:14:59 | |
Alex joins us this week! One of the UKs most experienced and best known setters as well as one of the brains behind Hardwood Holds, Alex has been on the UK scene for a really long time and he's an absolute font of knowledge when it comes to all things routesetting and holds (as well as I'm sure a many great other things but we weren't talking about them). Give it a listen if you like delving into the nerdy side of indoor climbing, I always enjoy hearing what he's got to say. | |||
| E78: Sam & Aidan - Sam climbs 8C and Aidan philosophizes about the balance between fun and performance | 03 Jan 2024 | 01:17:16 | |
Happy New year everyone! Just Aidan and I back this week with some updates and some chat before we dive back into the guests again from next week! | |||
| E77: The Christmas Special! | 20 Dec 2023 | 01:36:31 | |
Yo ho ho!... Wait that's pirates... Ho ho ho Merry Christmas everyone! Aidan and Sam team up to shambolically attempt to give the 12 recommendations of Christmas. All pretty chaotic but we hope some of you have a journey home to kill or want to stave off the boredom of having to listen to your family for a few minutes! | |||
| E76: Shauna Coxsey - In conversation with a two time bouldering champion | 13 Dec 2023 | 02:05:52 | |
A big guest for us this week, Shauna Coxsey joins us for a chat. We cover a lot of ground from her competition days, her injuries, working with the IFSC and climbing post motherhood. Give it a listen, there's a lot in there! | |||
| E75: James Pearson - There and back again, the online and physical dangers of trying to push Trad climbing | 06 Dec 2023 | 02:15:37 | |
A fantastic story, and one the climbing community would do well to learn from. James Pearson joins us this week to tell us about how he tried to push trad climbing, and how severe a community kickback can be even over something as trivial as slightly inflated grading. We hear about what James learnt from the experience, and how he improved himself as a climber to be ready to be in more or less the exact same situation many years later... | |||
| E74: Billy Ridal and Alex Waterhouse free climb the nose! | 29 Nov 2023 | 02:31:29 | |
Very exciting episode for your listening pleasure this week as Alex and Billy, two previous guests, return to talk us through their fantastic adventure in Yosemite. Not many people believed two retired comp climbers who've barely done a multi-pitch between them could wander over to Yosemite and free climb a thing that has still to this day only seen a handful of free ascents. | |||
| E190: Keenan Takahashi - 10 seconds of fear a year, the pros and cons of large egos and getting distracted by trees | 18 Mar 2026 | 02:06:51 | |
Keenan is back! A pod favourite for sure and someone Aidan has spent a lot of time with over the past few years. Keenan has been putting up more incredible first ascents, which we chat a bit about, namely Dreadnought but he also came equipped with a few of his own talking points! I've recently learnt that some more professional podcasts actually ask this of their guests the cheaters! Whilst we were chatting there were some large trees being felled in the valley, these relatively humdrum goings on were vastly more interesting than the rubbish I was coming out with so the boys were occasionally completely distracted. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us to keep doing it totally sans ads and available for all then please do consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 | |||
| E73: Taylor McNeill - Tall enough to climb V16, living in a school bus and searching for projects | 22 Nov 2023 | 02:12:16 | |
Taylor joined us this week for a typically wide ranging conversation. We joke a bit about Taylor being 'tall not strong' but it's all in an ironic way, he's clearly a beast! Lots of stuff on the agenda, first ascenting, climbing in the south east, living in a school bus in a commune, all standard fare. Taylor is a super humble guy and it was great to get a chance to chat to him, hope you enjoy! | |||
| E72: Ollie Torr - Coaching the pros, being one of the brains behind Lattice and long baths with jockeys | 15 Nov 2023 | 02:40:20 | |
We were thrilled to have Ollie Torr this week. The guy really knows his stuff when it comes to coaching climbing. As well as being a strong climber himself, the people he coaches have enjoyed massive success. We got him talking about all kinds of stuff, and some of it might just be useful! | |||
| E71: Aidan and Sam - The Sisu project, the burden of Burden and objective boulder quality scale revisited | 08 Nov 2023 | 01:22:40 | |
All in the title really, just Aidan and I catching up about how his Finland trip has been going mostly, but also trying to assess boulders by way of their objective qualities not our experiences on them or their difficulty. | |||
| E70: Hazel Findlay - Exploring the mental side of climbing with a leading coach and pro climber | 31 Oct 2023 | 02:27:51 | |
We were excited to have Hazel join us this week, she's the head coach at Strong Mind, the company that is working to redress the balance by exploring the psychological side of our sport. It's pretty easy to talk about the physical side of climbing, hangboard protocols and shoulder conditioning or whatever, but it was a lot of fun to dive into the murkier waters of the mental side with someone who really knows their stuff. | |||
| E69: Sam and Aidan - Aidan heads back to Finland, Sam partying like it's 2020 with the 'Vid and more moral conundrums for Aidan | 25 Oct 2023 | 01:30:27 | |
Just the home team this week! Chatting about Aidan returning to Finland, being ill (as in the covid not being cool), battery powered planes and teasing Aidan with more ridiculous moral conundrums. You know, the usual drivel. | |||
| E68: Orrin Coley - Tying self-worth to performance, head games and growing up | 18 Oct 2023 | 01:51:42 | |
Orrin dropped in to join us this week. We know Orrin pretty well, he's a strong climber based in Leicester, which is not exactly the hub of UK climbing, but Orrin has definitely made the most of it! He's climbed up to 8C on the boulders and he's competed for Great Britain at world cups so he's had a great deal of success in the sport. That said he's been really open and honest with this struggles when things aren't all going his way. He has the ability to really confront his flaws and talk openly about them, which I think is very rare and I hope what he says resonates with some of you. | |||
| E67: Isabelle Faus - 8B+ first ascents, developing in teams and the Colorado scene | 11 Oct 2023 | 01:50:50 | |
We were thrilled to have Isabelle join us for a chat this week. She is one of the best boulderers around and has been responsible for a large amount of boulder development. She has the hardest first ascent by a female to her name, and yet her accomplishments have often seemed to fly slightly under the radar, especially the ones that we thought would have been big news in the climbing world! We chat a little bit about why that might be and also a lot about boulder development, including how the groups she often climbs with keep their projects open and their reputation for being generous with showing others their projects. | |||
| E66: Alex Megos - Comparison, diet and Yorkshire tea | 04 Oct 2023 | 01:38:50 | |
66 the number of the beast, and the beast in this case is Alex Megos. One of the world's greatest rock climbers, it was a right treat to have him on one of the world's podcasts. A nice chilled out chat about a range of topics, you know who he is, and you know we don't have a format, just give it a listen! (Thank-you for listening) | |||
| E65: Aidan and Sam - Aidan's 'work phone', trip stories and moss shoe sponsorships | 27 Sep 2023 | 01:27:24 | |
A classic ramble pod this week as we discuss a whole lot of absolute rubbish. Should you take your phone climbing? Should Aidan have a Nokia 3310 instead of an iPhone. If you could wear a pair of shoes that benefitted the rock but were rubbish would you wear them? You know, that kind of gubbins. | |||
| E64: Solly Kemball-Dory - 8C FAs, tidal bouldering and FA ethics | 20 Sep 2023 | 02:08:29 | |
This week we were joined by South-West crusher Solly. Solly has done a bunch of hard FAs and repeats in recent years so we've been meaning to get him on for a while. We had a really fun chat talking about all sorts of things, Solly has had his fair share of mishaps and misadventures to go along with the big successes so there's something for everyone. | |||
| E189: The Pro Climbing League, tactics and general chat | 11 Mar 2026 | 01:27:46 | |
We got stood up! Some say we should send links and reminders to our guests but we've never bothered before, and now it's cost us! So Aidan and I just chatted happily amongst ourselves. Largely about the Pro Climbing League which is a new competition format that recently happened in London. Could this be the new more exciting competition format we've been hoping for? If not could it be something the organisational previously known as 'IFSC' and now WCWCWC or something, could pick up a few pointers from? If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us, please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 | |||
| E63: Billy Ridal - Comp retirement, rock success and Yosemite goals | 13 Sep 2023 | 02:02:24 | |
Billy is back! Our very first guest returns with an update on all that's been going on since last we spoke.. And it's quite a lot! Billy is a top bloke and a good mate of both of ours so it's always a fun chat when he's around. We chat about him taking a step back from the comp scene (he's not actually officially retired but that made for a snappier title), some successful rock trips and he's got some big and exciting goals to chase on his upcoming Yosemite trip. | |||
| E62: Ravioli Biceps - Your friendly neighbourhood Moonboarder and metalhead. | 06 Sep 2023 | 02:36:32 | |
Ravioli, he reminds me of that kid in school who everyone wanted to be friends with because he would beat up the bullies. I reckon he's the de facto leader of the Moonboarding community. Insanely strong but equally friendly, supportive and encouraging of everybody else. We don't just talk about the Moonboard though as he's no stranger to hard rock climbs, and Aidan doesn't know all that much about the Moonboard so that prevented us from spending the whole conversation nerding out about individual holds. | |||
| E61: Simulation Sam and Android Aidan discuss AI in climbing | 30 Aug 2023 | 01:46:45 | |
It's a peek into the near future this week as we discuss how artificial intelligence or 'AI' to us in the biz is going to change absolutely everything in climbing. As is traditional we don't know anything about AI so we had to get AI to tell us about itself. A bit like the plot of Ex Machina (one of my favourite films) but Chat GPT so far hasn't gone into a murderous rampage. | |||