to to to go for root like like when are you in the right uh headspace when are you in the

right headspace It's a tricky one because sometimes you also have these kind of elements that are out of your control to deal with when you're climbing, especially in the UK.

You know, the weather's not perfect.

So often you're kind of obsessively looking at what the weather forecast for you know days or weeks before waiting for this moment that you think is going to potentially light up with with maybe you've been being in good shape maybe you need a b layer um there are lots of other things that need organizing so sometimes you don't necessarily have the luxury of perfect choice obviously you can still choose on that day to say no um I think if I've ever done that, I've ever said no, it doesn't feel like a good day.

No, I have.

I have.

Very recently, Echo Wall, actually, I did say no on one day on Echo Wall.

Yeah, I

Seems

like it's kind of got out there into the ether that I'm like the Exodia whisperer or like the Elias whisperer.

um but um no it's it's it's true that i'm i think i'm i'm now there's actually a few more people who have been to try it uh i think and this is secondhand information so maybe it's incorrect but um i think kami kude has been to try it a Um, but that might be, I might be making that last bit up.

Definitely Jules.

I'm not sure if Dave was there.

Um, and I think a few people, I keep chatting to Adam about it.

I think he's keen to, to go look at some, some point, but it's, um, it's funny how, yeah, it had such, it made such a buzz.

I don't think we'd write you off as a complete slouch, James.

our pleasure

i feel like i'm in fine company looking at some of the other people that you guys have interviewed um so i'm a climber from the uk i live in the start of france now but i was born close to the gritstone um near to a city called sheffield i lived in a little town called matlock She's basically right on the edge of the Peak District.

She's full of grit stone.

The English climbers call it God's Own Rock, to give you an idea of how special we think it is.

I mean, it is a nice rock type, but in the grand scheme of things, that might be a little over exaggerated.

Anyway, I started climbing relatively late, around 16. got into it like most people do these days through indoor climbing but just because it was the easiest way to do it however i'd first become really interested in climbing through seeing people climbing outdoors so my family didn't climb but we hiked a lot so i'd often go out in the peak district i'd see people climbing and from a really early age you know maybe like four or five years old i remember thinking wow this looks amazing and this is something that i'd love to do but it was hard in the uk because at that time trans climbing was kind of the main focus in the uk and you know what sane parent wants their kids to get into something where the public opinion at the time was literally like hanging on for dear life by your fingertips with your certain death awaiting like most public opinion it's slightly exaggerated um but the climbing on the gritstone can be quite high consequence and that's luckily my parents didn't really know at the time because I chose not to tell them but that's the kind of climbing I got into at an early age so from sort of 17 through to I'd say maybe like 21 or something everything was just it felt like a dream felt like everything i touched kind of turned to gold i was the youngest person to repeat um all these really hard dangerous routes on the gritstone you know constantly getting coverage in magazines front covers like this was a time really kind of before or just at the beginning of the internet it was enough to give myself a very very very big head and um so then fast forward to yeah 2008 you already you already mentioned it so i had done a couple of these these things that were considered the last great problems um on the grit stones these are the you know projects that have been talked about for generations uh tried by people like Johnny Dawes, who maybe a lot of maybe your listeners don't know, but was an absolute legend in the UK climbing scene, kind of probably 30 years ahead of his time.

You look at how Johnny climbed.

but to get specific like uh how did you actually get the rope up like do you walk around or climb

Exactly.

But he just kept on climbing because Daniel is a machine.

Yeah.

If I decide I can do something, I can do something regardless of what obstacles stand in my way.

Anyway, so I went to Chinabalu.

We did lots of things in the Philippines.

We were in Japan, Faroe Islands, all sorts of crazy places.

It