00:00:00:00,00:00:01:00,He prepares himself.

00:00:15:03,00:00:19:01,The goal was beyond anything I thought I’d ever achieve in my climbing career,

00:00:19:01,00:00:21:22,honestly, beyond it.  I almost didn’t believe that it was possible.

00:00:23:06,00:00:28:12,It was the best climbing experience maybe I’ll ever have.

00:00:30:10,00:00:33:21,How could these two guys from Britain, a place that doesn’t really

00:00:33:22,00:00:36:20,have offwidths, how could they become so good?

00:01:00:15,00:01:01:15,He prepares himself.

00:01:02:03,00:01:07:10,It all started with getting into crack climbing and that started five years ago

00:01:07:10,00:01:12:17,when I had a really bad finger injury where it was so bad I couldn’t

00:01:12:17,00:01:15:04,route set. I couldn’t pull the trigger on my drill.

00:01:15:06,00:01:20:03,I almost had all of my abilities in climbing taken away from me

00:01:20:03,00:01:22:16,and then I had to look at myself and go,

00:01:22:17,00:01:25:01,is there anything open to me at all?

00:01:25:01,00:01:27:10,And it was literally just crack climbing.

00:01:27:14,00:01:29:11,I think coming across the offwidth thing was actually

00:01:29:11,00:01:30:09,a bit of a mistake

00:01:30:09,00:01:32:21,because I don’t think anyone deliberately tries to go

00:01:32:21,00:01:34:05,and do an offwidth.

00:01:35:05,00:01:41:22,An offwidth crack is something that is not the correct size for you.

00:01:41:22,00:01:44:05,It’s off for you.

00:01:44:05,00:01:47:14,Hand cracks this width are easy to climb.

00:01:48:10,00:01:50:13,I can’t fall off a hand crack,

00:01:50:13,00:01:51:21,it’s impossible.

00:01:51:21,00:01:53:23,You could hang a car on me.

00:01:54:20,00:01:57:01,When it comes to this size fist,

00:01:57:01,00:01:58:08,it gets harder.

00:01:58:14,00:02:02:03,An offwidth is just a little bit harder than your fist.

00:02:02:06,00:02:05:14,Then it becomes very easy to fall off a crack.

00:02:05:17,00:02:07:08,When you get bigger than a fist jam,

00:02:07:23,00:02:09:23,that’s when it’s starting to become offwidth

00:02:10:03,00:02:12:22,because you can’t use go handed jams,

00:02:12:22,00:02:14:14,you’re having to mix things up,

00:02:14:16,00:02:16:09,get arms in, chicken wings.

00:02:17:11,00:02:20:06,But then you get to the other end of the scale

00:02:20:07,00:02:23:06,where they get too wide and you can get inside

00:02:23:15,00:02:25:07,and then it’s not an offwidth any more,

00:02:25:09,00:02:26:13,it’s a squeeze chimney.

00:02:28:13,00:02:31:20,There’s always another limb that you can somehow get stuck in

00:02:31:21,00:02:35:22,and might just give you an extra 20 seconds and 20 inches

00:02:35:22,00:02:39:02,in an upward progress and if you can give it 100 percent on that,

00:02:39:02,00:02:40:19,you can just pull it out the bag.

00:02:44:14,00:02:46:10,A lot of people don’t get into offwidth

00:02:46:16,00:02:50:21,because they preconceive it as painful and a lot of work

00:02:51:09,00:02:56:05,and then they attach on that a negative connotation.

00:02:56:18,00:02:59:04,It is a lot of work but that’s what makes it

00:02:59:24,00:03:02:09,more rewarding in the long run.

00:03:03:09,00:03:05:06,If you want to do everything daintily,

00:03:05:06,00:03:07:20,sure, maybe you should take up ballet.

00:03:09:17,00:03:13:02,I have this correlation that I make between,

00:03:13:18,00:03:14:12,say,

00:03:14:12,00:03:15:24,boxing for instance.

00:03:17:05,00:03:21:01,You’ll hear people call boxing the sweet science.

00:03:21:16,00:03:23:24,Offwidth climbing is very much

00:03:25:05,00:03:28:05,the sweet science of climbing

00:03:28:18,00:03:32:19,because what happens is

00:03:33:19,00:03:36:04,the brutality of the act,

00:03:36:17,00:03:38:16,the  brutality of boxing,

00:03:38:24,00:03:40:22,the brutality of wide cracks,

00:03:41:06,00:03:43:23,it disguises the craft.

00:03:46:01,00:03:50:06,Good professional boxers have an incredible craft

00:03:51:01,00:03:53:03,and really good offwidth climbers

00:03:53:13,00:03:55:02,have that same craft

00:03:55:20,00:03:57:21,but the brutality of it,

00:03:58:11,00:03:59:18,the struggle of it

00:04:01:09,00:04:02:23,makes it seem...

00:04:03:03,00:04:04:10,like there’s no art to it

00:04:04:16,00:04:06:00,and there’s no craft to it.

00:04:06:13,00:04:08:10,But if you think that,

00:04:09:19,00:04:11:20,you’re on the wrong path.

00:04:13:15,00:04:16:15,I was working at The Edge, I was a route setter down there

00:04:16:15,00:04:18:04,and I watched him climb and he

00:04:18:13,00:04:20:13,took my interest to start with

00:04:20:13,00:04:22:13,because he kept on cheating his way up my routes

00:04:22:13,00:04:24:07,and finding sequences that I didn’t like

00:04:24:07,00:04:25:08,and how I hadn’t set it.

00:04:25:14,00:04:26:00,And then

00:04:26:12,00:04:28:12,one day he asked me whether I wanted to go and

00:04:29:00,00:04:31:23,try and break the world record for

00:04:32:06,00:04:34:10,how many routes we can climb in a day!

00:04:34:22,00:04:36:23,And he seemed really keen straight away

00:04:36:23,00:04:38:06,and I thought, that’s good,

00:04:38:24,00:04:41:00,and then I had this slight moment of guilt.

00:04:41:01,00:04:42:11,I thought he’s only 16,

00:04:42:11,00:04:45:03,maybe I shouldn’t be encouraging him to go and solo a lot of routes.

00:04:45:06,00:04:48:17,So I had a chat with him and said is this the kind of level of risk

00:04:48:17,00:04:49:19,you’re happy with.

00:04:50:10,00:04:51:07,So

00:04:51:07,00:04:52:23,he asked me and I said yeah!

00:04:53:12,00:04:56:23,And basically we managed to do 550 routes in a day

00:04:57:06,00:04:59:01,and pretty much from then on,

00:04:59:17,00:05:02:12,the climbing partnership has just carried on.

00:05:03:10,00:05:06:14,I think our two personalities play off on each other really well

00:05:07:01,00:05:09:21,and he’s definitely the best person I’ve every been climbing with and

00:05:09:21,00:05:11:12,everything’s just fun,

00:05:11:13,00:05:13:04,even when we’re trying really hard

00:05:13:04,00:05:14:18,and we’re serious underneath it,

00:05:15:00,00:05:20:04,we’re having fun on the exterior and it’s never too serious.

00:05:22:08,00:05:24:18,I’ve always been really competitive ever since a child

00:05:24:18,00:05:26:12,in the way that I would storm off

00:05:26:12,00:05:29:07,and just cry my eyes out when I didn’t win something,

00:05:29:18,00:05:31:24,I’d do like a John McEnroe all the time

00:05:32:18,00:05:34:02,but with Pete, it's more like a...

00:05:35:09,00:05:38:03,I guess like a younger brother because he is a bit younger than me.

00:05:38:05,00:05:40:17,But a younger brother that you’re really proud of

00:05:41:14,00:05:43:10,but always pushes me on more.

00:05:44:13,00:05:46:21,I’m always slightly following in his footsteps,

00:05:46:22,00:05:48:16,he’s always a little bit better than me,

00:05:48:20,00:05:50:13,a little bit ahead of me and things but

00:05:50:22,00:05:55:04,I like following on and being pushed to my limit with that.

00:06:04:12,00:06:08:12,I did a lot of sports up to the age of 16.

00:06:08:21,00:06:15:16,Everything else filtered out as such and climbing just seemed to carry on.

00:06:17:19,00:06:19:18,He’s climbed from a really young age

00:06:19:18,00:06:22:20,so he’s got this really good body awareness and

00:06:23:03,00:06:27:06,we all look at people like Johnny Dawes and how he’s got this 3D awareness as well

00:06:27:06,00:06:29:05,and Pete’s really, really good at that.

00:06:29:14,00:06:33:06,So for wide cracks, in many ways it’s a 3D thing

00:06:33:10,00:06:37:00,because you’re moving in and out of the crack as well rather than just on a flat face.

00:06:37:07,00:06:39:03,And he’s just brilliant at doing that.

00:06:43:13,00:06:45:21,He tries really, really hard,

00:06:46:05,00:06:49:19,harder than a lot of people realise he tries.

00:06:54:15,00:06:57:00,So we go outside and we do a move

00:06:57:00,00:06:58:14,or we try a climb

00:06:58:22,00:07:00:19,and I try it, I can’t do it

00:07:00:21,00:07:02:05,do it and I think I’m giving everything.

00:07:02:09,00:07:04:02,He’ll go up and he’ll do it

00:07:04:11,00:07:05:11,and I just go …

00:07:05:14,00:07:07:21,wait a minute, I know I’m the same strength

00:07:08:03,00:07:11:13,and then I just give it just a gut-wrenching effort

00:07:11:13,00:07:13:03,and I feel like I’m going to be sick

00:07:13:07,00:07:14:11,and then I do it and I think,

00:07:14:19,00:07:17:00,that’s what he’s doing every single time.

00:07:22:23,00:07:25:24,I think to achieve what you want to do

00:07:26:03,00:07:28:05,and to be good at what you …

00:07:28:09,00:07:29:20,I’m not saying I’m good at what I do

00:07:29:24,00:07:33:09,but to be reasonably good at something that you want to do,

00:07:33:20,00:07:36:08,you have to be obsessive about it.

00:07:36:10,00:07:38:21,You have to train a lot and focus on it.

00:07:38:21,00:07:40:17,I don’t know whether I am obsessed …

00:07:40:17,00:07:41:01,No.

00:07:41:04,00:07:42:06,I don't know!

00:07:45:04,00:07:46:13,Oh God,

00:07:46:22,00:07:49:03,didn’t think I was getting round that lip there,

00:07:49:09,00:07:50:15,got a bit stuck!

00:07:56:17,00:07:59:14,I only describe him to my friends as obsessed

00:07:59:21,00:08:01:15,that’s the only way I can deal with it.

00:08:02:05,00:08:05:02,He’s definitely, definitely got some screw loose!

00:08:11:24,00:08:14:19,Quite often, he can’t stop thinking about it

00:08:15:03,00:08:18:14,and if we, say, are having a conversation about something that

00:08:18:14,00:08:19:16,I think’s quite important

00:08:20:05,00:08:22:09,like housework or something like that,

00:08:22:09,00:08:23:17,it’s very boring my life,

00:08:23:17,00:08:25:16,but something that I find interesting

00:08:25:18,00:08:27:04,or next holiday or something,

00:08:27:15,00:08:30:14,I’ll quite often find that his hands start sweating

00:08:30:22,00:08:32:02,and I’m just like,

00:08:32:10,00:08:33:24,he’s not with me at all.

00:08:34:07,00:08:36:02,He is on a completely different level.

00:08:37:00,00:08:41:20,I have this very unrealistic goal and expectation

00:08:41:20,00:08:45:06,that I put on myself that I actually want to be the very best at it

00:08:45:06,00:08:48:03,and even though I know in almost all circumstances

00:08:48:03,00:08:49:12,I can’t do that,

00:08:49:18,00:08:52:07,there’s a really strong underlying route that says,

00:08:52:07,00:08:53:16,“You know what, Tom? You can do it,

00:08:53:18,00:08:55:11,if you just try hard enough.”

00:08:59:08,00:09:01:03,Come on, come on, that’s it that’s it, keep going.

00:09:01:17,00:09:02:17,That’s it.

00:09:04:00,00:09:05:09,Just gun it.

00:09:07:16,00:09:09:18,Come on, come on, come on, come on!

00:09:14:02,00:09:15:02,Come on, Tom!

00:09:16:06,00:09:17:10,Come on, you’re nearly there.

00:09:19:12,00:09:20:12,Come on!

00:09:21:01,00:09:22:01,Oh no!

00:09:27:22,00:09:32:05,I first found out about Century Crack from the On The Edge article

00:09:33:00,00:09:37:00,but it was years before I even thought about offwidthing

00:09:37:06,00:09:40:16,and it was almost as if it was in the bottom of my mind

00:09:40:21,00:09:42:08,and at the recesses of it

00:09:42:08,00:09:44:15,and then when I got interested in offwidthing

00:09:44:16,00:09:46:11,and me and Pete started doing a lot of things,

00:09:46:13,00:09:47:15,one of us went,

00:09:47:17,00:09:51:12,“Do you remember that thing that Stevie went and had a go at?”

00:09:51:18,00:09:54:20,And I remember finding this photo of Stevie on it hanging upside down,

00:09:54:21,00:09:57:00,halfway through the route, and I was just like …

00:09:57:05,00:09:58:09,oh my God,

00:09:58:11,00:09:59:11,that just …

00:10:00:19,00:10:03:23,we’re never going to be able to do that, that just looks insane.

00:10:04:14,00:10:07:09,They knew that I’d tried this great crack and

00:10:09:04,00:10:10:10,Tom had asked me about it,

00:10:10:11,00:10:13:20,he got all the details out of me and all the measurements.

00:10:14:10,00:10:17:12,I was quite happy to give him all of the details because

00:10:17:23,00:10:19:19,I wanted to see Century Crack done.

00:10:20:01,00:10:22:12,So that’s how we knew two years ago

00:10:22:17,00:10:26:00,the size to construct that original crack in the offwidth cellar.

00:10:26:22,00:10:28:20,We just sat do wn with a big piece of paper

00:10:28:20,00:10:30:17,and started drawing all these mad diagrams

00:10:30:17,00:10:34:22,of how we could transfer my cellar into this dungeon of doom

00:10:35:04,00:10:36:19,and all the different widths we’d build

00:10:37:01,00:10:40:00,and how we’d have all these roof cracks all the way through the ceiling.

00:10:41:03,00:10:42:16,And you come through to the main room,

00:10:42:19,00:10:44:17,this is where all the action really happens.

00:10:46:12,00:10:50:04,So here we’ve got this other hand crack that leads all the way through,

00:10:50:04,00:10:53:21,like the other half of Green Spit that I was using to train on years back.

00:10:54:15,00:10:58:22,And then first thing in here, this is the hassinator

00:10:59:05,00:11:01:01,which is this 45 degree offwidth

00:11:01:10,00:11:04:01,that you can insert half your body into.

00:11:04:12,00:11:05:17,Then over here,

00:11:07:01,00:11:09:02,we’ve got the original offwidth

00:11:09:02,00:11:12:24,that we built two years before we went out to America …

00:11:13:18,00:11:17:08,And the offwidth thing’s just this complete all body pump

00:11:18:08,00:11:21:23,and you have to try on it just like nothing else you’ve ever felt before

00:11:22:08,00:11:25:05,and that feeling that I got from doing my first ever offwidth

00:11:25:10,00:11:27:16,and just screaming my way to the top

00:11:27:23,00:11:29:24,and just feeling like I couldn’t do any more,

00:11:30:09,00:11:32:12,I can just replicate that again and again and again,

00:11:32:17,00:11:34:21,every time I train and every time I do another offwidth.

00:11:35:13,00:11:36:23,I just find it really satisfying,

00:11:36:23,00:11:38:18,I don’t know why, I just love it.

00:11:39:00,00:11:40:00,I just love it.

00:11:47:11,00:11:52:12,And so we just have to keep on recreating that addictive all body burn

00:11:52:12,00:11:55:19,where we’re just practically killing ourselves in a session.

00:11:55:19,00:12:00:11,I’ve come down here with Pete and we’ve just been sweating away

00:12:00:13,00:12:03:01,and screaming and people can hear us upstairs through the floorboards

00:12:03:01,00:12:06:01,just banging away until one o’clock in the morning.

00:12:06:09,00:12:09:05,It’s just brilliant fun, I just absolutely love it.

00:12:14:13,00:12:15:08,I think

00:12:15:11,00:12:16:11,I train well on my own

00:12:17:04,00:12:19:03,but because I know he’s training here,

00:12:19:24,00:12:22:16,then that keeps me spurred on at home when I’m training.

00:12:23:10,00:12:26:04,I’m just like, he’ll email me and it’ll be like,

00:12:26:11,00:12:29:02,“Oh yeah, just did 50 upside down sit-ups.”

00:12:29:18,00:12:33:01,I’m like oh no, I’ve only done 20 today,

00:12:33:03,00:12:34:03,I need to get on this!

00:12:34:06,00:12:35:06,I need to get on it!

00:12:35:13,00:12:37:17,I think I crushed a lot of nerves in my toes …

00:12:38:05,00:12:40:03,You get really bad pains everywhere 

00:12:40:10,00:12:42:14,on your fists and the back of your hands

00:12:42:19,00:12:43:19,and on your toes

00:12:44:09,00:12:45:09,but then after a year,

00:12:45:18,00:12:46:22,it all just numbs away.

00:12:47:16,00:12:49:22,It all numbs into nothingness.

00:12:49:24,00:12:52:07,I think I’ve lost sensation in my toes.

00:12:58:23,00:13:00:14,Oh, that smells fruity!

00:13:13:14,00:13:17:24,So we just set about just going backwards and forwards on that thing

00:13:18:10,00:13:19:21,like you’ve never seen before.

00:13:20:05,00:13:23:17,I’ve left so much rubber in there and used up so many pairs of shoes,

00:13:24:04,00:13:28:16,we’ve done thousands and thousands of feet of horizontal foot stacking

00:13:28:22,00:13:30:22,and hand stacking and everything.

00:13:31:02,00:13:35:10,And then on top of that, we’ve done a load of strength and conditioning work.

00:13:37:08,00:13:38:08,Come on.

00:13:43:03,00:13:44:03,come on.

00:13:44:20,00:13:46:04,into ten seconds,

00:13:47:24,00:13:49:04,last little bit, come on

00:13:49:05,00:13:49:23,Come on, Pete.

00:13:49:24,00:13:50:21,Six

00:13:50:22,00:13:51:21,Five

00:13:51:24,00:13:52:24,Four

00:13:53:05,00:13:54:05,Three

00:13:54:09,00:13:55:09,Two

00:13:55:16,00:13:56:09,One

00:13:56:13,00:13:57:13,Time

00:14:00:22,00:14:03:05,Yeah, I’d have friends and family round and

00:14:03:23,00:14:05:02,all you would here was like,

00:14:05:08,00:14:07:01,“Uh, uh, uh, uh!”

00:14:08:16,00:14:10:04,like this and crunch, crunch

00:14:10:11,00:14:11:11,and bang, bang, bang.

00:14:12:22,00:14:14:21,And that was frequent, that was very often.

00:14:23:07,00:14:24:07,Come on.

00:14:36:08,00:14:37:20,It was...it was

00:14:38:04,00:14:39:04,constant

00:14:39:13,00:14:40:13,for two years

00:14:40:22,00:14:41:22,yeah.

00:14:45:12,00:14:48:23,Yeah, I don’t think you can really know how hard you can try

00:14:49:09,00:14:51:04,until you’ve tried really hard on an offwidth.

00:14:51:24,00:14:54:17,On a face climb or on an overhanging sport climb,

00:14:54:19,00:14:55:23,you can get absolutely

00:14:56:23,00:15:00:18,milked in your forearms and your fingers uncurl and everything

00:15:01:07,00:15:02:07,and you come down,

00:15:02:19,00:15:03:21,your forearms are burning

00:15:04:00,00:15:04:14,but

00:15:04:14,00:15:06:05,it’s just your forearms that are burning.

00:15:06:07,00:15:07:09,You come down an offwidth

00:15:07:16,00:15:08:06,and

00:15:08:19,00:15:09:23,and your hands are crushes,

00:15:10:09,00:15:11:16,your biceps are gone,

00:15:11:20,00:15:13:06,your whole legs

00:15:13:20,00:15:15:04,are like jelly in your core,

00:15:16:00,00:15:18:13,you just can’t sit up any more and you just feel wasted.

00:15:19:19,00:15:21:02,I just think it’s good fun.

00:15:21:04,00:15:22:23,just absolutely annihilating yourself!

00:15:23:09,00:15:24:09,Come on

00:15:24:23,00:15:25:23,five more!

00:15:26:07,00:15:27:07,Four

00:15:27:22,00:15:28:22,Three

00:15:29:24,00:15:31:01,two …

00:15:31:04,00:15:32:04,last one, come on!

00:15:33:20,00:15:34:20,Come on!

00:15:38:13,00:15:40:10,When Stevie wrote to me,

00:15:41:08,00:15:44:08,he always looked at me as being just a lowly apprentice.

00:15:44:21,00:15:47:03,I suppose that added into the element for me that,

00:15:47:13,00:15:49:07,you know what? I’m going to take him by surprise,

00:15:49:12,00:15:51:00,that sort of stuff really spurs me on,

00:15:51:02,00:15:52:17,I like it when people doubt what I can do.

00:15:54:08,00:15:56:08,There are only a few great offwidths in the world.

00:15:57:06,00:15:58:09,They’re not in England

00:15:59:10,00:16:00:04,or Europe,

00:16:00:07,00:16:01:07,they’re in America.

00:16:01:15,00:16:02:16,I think it was always in

00:16:03:05,00:16:05:12,the back of mine and Tom’s mind just like

00:16:06:04,00:16:07:04,if we go out there and just

00:16:07:17,00:16:08:19,show them!

00:16:09:06,00:16:11:20,Just show them how to climb some offwidths!

00:16:15:03,00:16:17:20,There’s a scene of climbers who like their finger cracks,

00:16:18:07,00:16:19:16,ones that like hand cracks

00:16:20:01,00:16:23:03,and then a really hardcore group of climbers in the US

00:16:24:12,00:16:26:06,who are really obsessed with their offwidths.

00:16:26:18,00:16:28:16,We’re in contact with them, they know who we are,

00:16:28:17,00:16:31:14,we know who they are and we’re always scoping each other out.

00:16:31:18,00:16:35:08,To some degree we’ve been quite quiet about how we’ve developed our climbing.

00:16:35:20,00:16:37:04,They were sending us emails like,

00:16:37:04,00:16:39:06,“You know, you should come out to the States,”

00:16:39:23,00:16:41:24,and we were just like, “Oh yeah, maybe one day.

00:16:42:20,00:16:44:11,One day we might come out, yeah

00:16:44:13,00:16:46:09,all the offwidths look amazing out there.

00:16:46:18,00:16:48:00,Yeah, we’d be psyched to come.”

00:16:48:22,00:16:50:02,We were just like,

00:16:51:18,00:16:53:20,pushing away down in the cellar.

00:16:56:19,00:17:00:05,Ultimately, we’re going to have this showdown that’s going to happen fairly shortly

00:17:00:18,00:17:02:21,and we’ll know who is climbing well.

00:17:42:22,00:17:46:22,In the States there was this place where offwidths are hard

00:17:47:14,00:17:48:14,and mean

00:17:48:17,00:17:49:23,and they shut you down,

00:17:50:07,00:17:53:02,and we didn’t know whether we’d done the right training for it.

00:17:54:18,00:17:57:21,When we first went there, we went on this offwidth boulder problem,

00:17:58:13,00:17:59:13,it’s given V5, fairly

00:18:01:03,00:18:02:04,standard boulder problem

00:18:02:08,00:18:04:05,and I don’t think Tom actually managed to do it,

00:18:05:13,00:18:06:13,ever!

00:18:07:13,00:18:09:16,I was so tense and nervous, I couldn’t do it.

00:18:11:06,00:18:13:23,I had 15 goes and I couldn’t do this V4

00:18:14:21,00:18:16:02,and Pete had done it first go.

00:18:16:17,00:18:17:17,I went, right,

00:18:17:19,00:18:19:01,we need to walk away from this,

00:18:19:01,00:18:20:06,I’m getting really stressed!

00:18:20:10,00:18:23:09,I can’t do a V4 and I’ve just put two years’ effort into this.

00:18:23:20,00:18:27:04,So we went round the corner to a V8 or something like that

00:18:28:01,00:18:30:16,and did it within five minutes and then it was like,

00:18:31:04,00:18:32:13,“Phew, we’re ok here.”

00:18:39:01,00:18:43:08,Yeah, so Tom and Pete showed up and first day out,

00:18:43:22,00:18:47:13,we take them to Bob Square Pilly’s classic squat.

00:18:47:15,00:18:51:03,They flip a roll of tape I guess to decide who’s going to climb first.

00:18:53:13,00:18:56:05,Pete won the flip and he gets to climb first

00:18:56:07,00:18:57:10,and he does squat on site.

00:18:57:24,00:19:00:02,And Tom actually finished the pitch that day too.

00:19:01:00,00:19:03:00,And so what took me weeks to do

00:19:03:24,00:19:06:04,was done right before my very eyes

00:19:06:11,00:19:07:11,first try,

00:19:07:17,00:19:08:17,second try.

00:19:09:05,00:19:13:14,They spent a couple of weeks at Villa Vu and they tick everything off of the list,

00:19:14:01,00:19:15:07,Lucille included,

00:19:16:09,00:19:17:09,worm drive,

00:19:17:24,00:19:18:24,Big Pink.

00:19:19:08,00:19:21:13,They continued on down to the desert

00:19:21:20,00:19:24:01,where fairly quickly they had climbed all

00:19:24:18,00:19:26:00,of what they had on their list,

00:19:26:16,00:19:29:00,the hard offwidths, including

00:19:29:13,00:19:33:12,Pete’s on site descent of Bellyfull of Bad Berries

00:19:33:24,00:19:36:15,which that took me also several days.

00:19:37:09,00:19:39:11,That was something that I did not think

00:19:40:07,00:19:41:07,could be done.

00:19:42:15,00:19:45:17,My mind couldn’t wrap around that being done on site.

00:19:49:09,00:19:52:10,Gabriel is recognised as being the hardest offwidth in America

00:19:55:16,00:19:58:17,and in a way, is recognised as being the hardest offwidth in the world.

00:19:59:14,00:20:03:09,And you climb this starting chimney and then you get up to the top

00:20:04:19,00:20:06:20,and you have to flip upside down

00:20:07:17,00:20:10:10,and you’re fully inverted up to your head,

00:20:10:10,00:20:11:24,up to your neck

00:20:12:16,00:20:15:21,and you have to shuffle along upside down in this

00:20:15:21,00:20:18:14,invert squeeze chimney, with these chicken wings.

00:20:25:01,00:20:27:21,The tricky section is coming out of this invert squeeze

00:20:28:11,00:20:30:14,and dropping down so you’re undercutting the crack

00:20:30:22,00:20:33:20,and it’s quite beefy in this section because it starts to …

00:20:34:02,00:20:36:12,it’s not completely horizontal so you can’t put a shuffle in,

00:20:36:16,00:20:38:09,you have to move upwards a little bit.

00:20:42:19,00:20:45:05,I’d managed to work it in a couple of hours

00:20:45:08,00:20:48:05,and then did it first redpoint so when I did that,

00:20:48:22,00:20:49:22,I was pretty chuffed that

00:20:50:00,00:20:52:04,this was considered the

00:20:52:09,00:20:53:21,hardest offwidth in the States before

00:20:54:11,00:20:56:10,going on it and I’d managed to

00:20:57:13,00:20:59:00,do it in half a day.

00:21:01:12,00:21:03:08,To a lot of American climbers

00:21:03:19,00:21:05:05,it must’ve been pretty...

00:21:06:13,00:21:09:17,hard to take that some Brits from a country

00:21:10:04,00:21:12:06,where there are no offwidths to speak of

00:21:12:10,00:21:14:10,can come over here and climb the hardest offwidths.

00:21:14:23,00:21:15:23,It’s like,

00:21:16:05,00:21:17:05,what the hell?

00:21:21:03,00:21:22:03,Ok, Tom.

00:21:25:06,00:21:27:07,I was looking around this thing called the

00:21:27:11,00:21:29:22,White Rim Trail, looking for cracks to climb.

00:21:30:08,00:21:33:05,Then a guy called Crusher, a friend of mine took me there

00:21:33:19,00:21:38:01,He said, “I’ve found the perfect 120 foot hand crack.”

00:21:39:10,00:21:40:10,We got there.

00:21:40:23,00:21:44:06,It wasn’t hand size, it was seven inch size

00:21:46:00,00:21:47:11,so I cursed him a bit.

00:21:47:12,00:21:50:11,But then I realised it was maybe on to do.

00:21:50:17,00:21:51:21,And he had this vision

00:21:52:10,00:21:53:14,of what was feasible

00:21:54:05,00:21:57:14,and his vision consisted of finding the most gnarly,

00:21:57:14,00:21:59:16,impossible things he could find

00:21:59:18,00:22:01:06,and just launching himself at them.

00:22:01:12,00:22:04:08,In France, they gave him the nickname,

00:22:04:15,00:22:05:18,'The Mad Cow'

00:22:06:03,00:22:09:02,because of his attitude, bull headed, really strong.

00:22:09:02,00:22:10:02,Unstoppable.

00:22:11:14,00:22:13:16,Went on it five times, I think.

00:22:14:10,00:22:18:19,It’s quite hard to understand that you want to do it.

00:22:19:16,00:22:21:08,There’s going to be a lot of pain involved.

00:22:23:09,00:22:25:20,He put his best bull headed effort in

00:22:25:20,00:22:26:23,but the sheer

00:22:27:06,00:22:28:06,physical

00:22:28:15,00:22:31:15,gruelling nature of 120 foot of roof crack

00:22:32:17,00:22:34:02,was too much.

00:22:34:10,00:22:37:18,He just didn’t have that superhuman level of strength.

00:22:38:17,00:22:42:19,Century Crack lived with me for ten years in my mind, in the back of my mind.

00:22:43:13,00:22:46:09,I would think about it and how to climb it and

00:22:46:12,00:22:48:04,it was always a problem for me

00:22:48:05,00:22:51:01,and it was always a magical beauty to it.

00:22:51:17,00:22:53:04,You just don’t get climbs like that.

00:22:53:16,00:22:54:16,They’re not common.

00:22:55:18,00:22:58:18,So it was left gathering dust for a bout a decade.

00:22:59:03,00:23:00:18,I mean, if Stevie who is

00:23:00:18,00:23:03:00,one of the strongest climbers I’ve ever seen,

00:23:03:14,00:23:05:05,if it was beyond him,

00:23:05:16,00:23:08:02,then who the hell’s ever going to be able to do it?

00:23:08:08,00:23:09:08,Nobody.

00:23:10:12,00:23:13:24,So this thing, I guess Stevie is calling it the Century Crack,

00:23:14:04,00:23:16:23,from what I’ve heard is several grades harder

00:23:17:01,00:23:19:05,than the hardest established offwidth currently,

00:23:19:14,00:23:21:03,that might be …

00:23:21:09,00:23:24:18,obviously would take the throne then as the

00:23:25:08,00:23:27:02,hardest offwidth in the world.

00:23:28:20,00:23:32:20,So I got an email out of the blue ten years later from this guy,

00:23:33:00,00:23:34:00,Tom Randall.

00:23:34:13,00:23:38:13,Tom was asking about the location of this mysterious roof crack

00:23:39:11,00:23:42:13,and he was interested in maybe free climbing it.

00:23:43:09,00:23:45:17,So I thought ok,

00:23:46:10,00:23:49:00,you come over and I’ll take you down there and show you,

00:23:49:00,00:23:51:02,if you think you’ve got a chance of doing it.

00:23:51:21,00:23:53:23,We didn’t have a truck to get down there

00:23:53:23,00:23:55:24,and Crusher drove us down there and everything

00:23:55:24,00:23:58:18,and it’s a three and a half hour, four hour four wheel drive.

00:23:59:24,00:24:02:22,You can see it’s like this perfect splitter,

00:24:03:03,00:24:06:05,like size five cam for the whole way along and you’re like,

00:24:06:21,00:24:09:06,oh man, yeah, that is a beefy offwidth.

00:24:10:13,00:24:13:19,It just takes you out of your comfort zone, you can’t comprehend it.

00:24:14:17,00:24:16:03,They just looked at it and thought,

00:24:16:03,00:24:19:13,“Wow, this is every bit of what we thought it might possibly be. 

00:24:20:14,00:24:22:03,Let’s get started!”

00:24:25:03,00:24:28:05,The main goal throughout the two years was always Century,

00:24:28:17,00:24:31:06,that’s what we basically trained for all the time.

00:24:34:08,00:24:37:09,And so they went out there and to begin with, just worked the route,

00:24:37:11,00:24:38:11,go out a ways,

00:24:38:20,00:24:40:02,put in a cam,

00:24:40:03,00:24:41:03,hang on it,

00:24:41:06,00:24:42:06,rest,

00:24:42:15,00:24:44:14,do another ten or fifteen feet,

00:24:44:16,00:24:45:16,put another cam in,

00:24:45:18,00:24:46:17,rest.

00:24:46:17,00:24:48:24,They really had this figured out.

00:24:49:13,00:24:52:04,If the climb was what they were expecting,

00:24:52:17,00:24:54:16,then they kind of knew what to do

00:24:55:08,00:24:58:14,but of course the question remained whether they still were going to be

00:24:58:14,00:24:59:18,able to do the whole thing.

00:25:03:18,00:25:07:01,We worked it the first day and we put all the cams in

00:25:07:06,00:25:08:23,and because we knew we were down for …

00:25:09:10,00:25:11:17,we’d be back down the next day for another go,

00:25:11:23,00:25:14:11,we were like, there’s no point in taking them all out again

00:25:14:11,00:25:16:00,because that would just flipping beef us.

00:25:18:19,00:25:21:13,The next day, we did what we’ve done on all other important routes

00:25:21:14,00:25:23:20,which is to flip a roll of tape

00:25:25:09,00:25:27:23,and mostly you’re nervous about being the person who goes first

00:25:28:04,00:25:30:12,so you don’t want it to land on your side sometimes.

00:25:30:22,00:25:33:14,But with Century, it was both of us flipping this roll of tape going,

00:25:33:18,00:25:36:15,“I want to go first, I want to go first, so badly want to have a go on this.”

00:25:37:06,00:25:38:08,Then it landed on Tom,

00:25:38:19,00:25:39:19,so Tom went first,

00:25:40:07,00:25:41:17,weren’t really any expectations of

00:25:42:12,00:25:43:24,what he was going to do or anything.

00:25:45:13,00:25:46:13,I was really nervous

00:25:47:05,00:25:47:16,but

00:25:47:21,00:25:49:17,I just knew that I had to knuckle down,

00:25:49:23,00:25:50:23,start to get back

00:25:51:06,00:25:53:06,that feeling that I did when I trained in the cellar

00:25:53:14,00:25:54:17,of just getting to a zone,

00:25:55:03,00:25:56:11,think about how hard I’m trying,

00:25:56:11,00:25:57:02,just breathe,

00:25:57:06,00:25:58:06,keep going,

00:25:58:09,00:26:00:01,pace your arms, pace your legs.

00:26:16:12,00:26:17:12,Nice one, Tom.

00:26:30:00,00:26:31:00,Come on, Tom,

00:26:33:03,00:26:34:03,good skills.

00:26:37:16,00:26:38:16,Keep it going.

00:26:50:15,00:26:53:11,I had this mantra of ‘focus on performance not the goal’

00:26:53:24,00:26:56:10,as I was going through the route to keep me in this zone

00:26:56:14,00:26:58:22,because I didn’t want to become aware of my surroundings because

00:26:59:02,00:27:03:03,it was so intimidating to be on that route and know the situation that you’re in

00:27:03:12,00:27:06:13, and the kind of effort and the pain that you’re putting yourself through.

00:27:06:19,00:27:08:02,If you became aware of that,

00:27:08:07,00:27:09:13,you lost your performance

00:27:09:21,00:27:13:01,so I just had to think about how I was climbing

00:27:13:02,00:27:15:01,and the way in which I was doing it

00:27:15:01,00:27:16:22,and not thing about that top-out either.

00:27:28:18,00:27:31:13,So he’s in his hand fist stacks and he’s not shouting

00:27:31:19,00:27:34:10,but you can hear him, like it’s a loud whisper,

00:27:34:11,00:27:35:10,it’s like,

00:27:35:11,00:27:38:19,“Focus on performance, not the goal, focus on performance, not the goal,”

00:27:39:00,00:27:41:20,it’s just like that for the 120 foot, like 15 minutes!

00:28:53:11,00:28:57:08,Just going, “Focus on performance, not the goal, focus on performance, not the goal,”

00:28:57:08,00:28:58:07,and you’re just there,

00:28:58:08,00:28:59:23,doing it again and again and again.

00:29:00:03,00:29:01:18,and I was like, got round the lip

00:29:01:19,00:29:04:20,and through this hardest crack section and into that top niche,

00:29:05:10,00:29:08:05,I was shaking.  I was really nervous because

00:29:09:00,00:29:09:15,I was thinking,

00:29:09:16,00:29:10:16,“Shit,

00:29:10:22,00:29:13:18,I could do this, this is fucking insane!

00:29:14:10,00:29:15:15,I’m not ready for this route 

00:29:16:03,00:29:16:17,but

00:29:16:22,00:29:18:13, I’ve got to do it, I’m nearly there,

00:29:19:02,00:29:20:22,but I’ve got to focus on performance, I can’t think about the goal.”

00:29:21:06,00:29:23:05,Because the goal was beyond anything

00:29:23:17,00:29:25:15,I thought I’d ever achieve in my climbing career,

00:29:25:15,00:29:26:11,honestly,

00:29:26:14,00:29:28:14,beyond it. I almost didn’t believe that it was possible.

00:29:29:01,00:29:30:16,And then when I arrived at that last bit

00:29:31:00,00:29:32:12,before the last 15 foot of climbing

00:29:33:04,00:29:34:04,it was just …

00:29:34:04,00:29:35:22,it was like a dream, really strange.

00:30:04:14,00:30:05:14,Oh God!

00:30:12:19,00:30:16:24,I topped out on that route and I just burst into tears,

00:30:16:24,00:30:18:06,I just completely lost it because

00:30:18:14,00:30:22:00,it was just a massive outpouring of emotion

00:30:22:23,00:30:23:23,and effort

00:30:24:15,00:30:28:19,of two years and belief in myself and putting together a goal

00:30:28:19,00:30:30:03,and putting everything into it.

00:30:33:00,00:30:35:11,I haven’t even got words for it.

00:30:37:04,00:30:38:04,I just feel like …

00:30:41:22,00:30:44:04,I don’t know, it just feels like a story that I'll

00:30:45:03,00:30:47:23,tell someone one day, that someone I knew did

00:30:48:04,00:30:49:16,and it wasn’t really me!

00:30:50:10,00:30:51:21,I’ve never done anything like that,

00:30:51:22,00:30:52:22,never.

00:30:53:21,00:30:56:03,I never even believed I’d ever do anything like that.

00:31:01:04,00:31:03:12,Yeah, thank God I’ve got such a supportive wife!

00:31:04:01,00:31:06:15,Probably owe at least half of this to her, to be honest!

00:31:10:24,00:31:14:18,Right, onwards, onwards and supportive, let’s do this.

00:31:21:22,00:31:23:07,It was kind of like half an ascent

00:31:24:05,00:31:25:03,when I topped out,

00:31:25:03,00:31:26:21,it really needed for Pete to do it as well.

00:31:29:13,00:31:32:00,We were going to walk out of that route

00:31:32:00,00:31:34:00,and walk out of the valley in four hours’ time

00:31:34:07,00:31:37:09,and he now had one chance, one slot to do the route.

00:31:42:23,00:31:45:19,So get nice strong arse shuffles when you need them.

00:31:47:13,00:31:48:13,Good.

00:31:48:13,00:31:51:08,I was just like, man, I’ve got to flipping do this now.

00:31:51:14,00:31:52:16,You’re going really well.

00:31:52:23,00:31:53:23,I was just

00:31:54:07,00:31:56:18,breaking it down into these sections, these ten foot sections

00:31:56:18,00:31:58:12,basically, what we had down in the cellar

00:32:00:03,00:32:04:11,and every time I got to a cam that we’d placed,

00:32:05:02,00:32:06:02,it was just like …

00:32:06:10,00:32:08:11,just one more lap, take it bit by bit.

00:32:13:08,00:32:14:08,I was

00:32:14:13,00:32:18:10,really nervous that he wouldn’t do it and he would have some problems

00:32:18:10,00:32:20:13,with the pressure and he would make a mistake.

00:32:22:16,00:32:25:23,And he was hanging underneath there for 20 minutes or more,

00:32:27:00,00:32:28:15,which I couldn’t believe.

00:32:29:13,00:32:31:21,You can’t just hang upside down for 20 minutes

00:32:33:04,00:32:35:11,without being completely wrecked,

00:32:36:02,00:32:37:13,just physically destroyed,

00:32:37:20,00:32:38:20,surely?

00:32:40:06,00:32:43:21,It gets to where it turns into nearly 45 degree overhanging,

00:32:45:02,00:32:48:18,where you have to invert and start doing like real regular moves

00:32:49:15,00:32:51:21,and at that point, he wasn’t even breathing hard.

00:32:53:03,00:32:54:06,I couldn’t believe it!

00:33:19:04,00:33:20:15,And then that was it, he’d done it,

00:33:20:19,00:33:22:22,he’d redpointed the thing, his second day on the thing.

00:33:24:04,00:33:26:22,It was just unbelievable, one of the most impressive bits of climbing

00:33:26:23,00:33:28:11,I’ve ever seen in my life.

00:33:29:21,00:33:31:07,I was just blown away by that.

00:33:31:24,00:33:35:08,It was just the best climbing experience

00:33:37:10,00:33:38:10,like ever.

00:33:39:12,00:33:41:11,I don’t like to admit it but

00:33:41:11,00:33:42:22,I did cry a little bit!

00:33:44:13,00:33:46:04,Tom did as well!

00:33:47:15,00:33:48:15,Hopefully more than me!

00:33:50:20,00:33:53:02,It just completed it and when we both came down to the base

00:33:53:04,00:33:55:11,and had a good old man hug at the bottom,

00:33:56:04,00:33:57:04,it was just like,

00:33:57:13,00:33:59:17,“Oh yes!” that’s an amazing day

00:33:59:18,00:34:01:05,and I won’t forget that day.

00:34:08:21,00:34:09:21,So psyched.

00:34:11:01,00:34:12:01,So psyched.

00:34:14:23,00:34:15:23,It’s done.

00:34:18:01,00:34:20:15,Just two years of work, just boshed in one go.

00:34:21:15,00:34:24:07,They both redpointed the thing, their second day on the route

00:34:24:11,00:34:28:05,and for me, it seemed like wow, that’s just fabulous, it was amazing.

00:34:28:07,00:34:31:02,I couldn’t believe that and for them, the same thing,

00:34:31:02,00:34:32:18,they were just so happy, so overjoyed.

00:34:33:03,00:34:34:18,They’d done what they’d come here to do.

00:34:35:06,00:34:36:13,And then when they started

00:34:37:13,00:34:39:23,posting things on the web, telling people about it,

00:34:41:05,00:34:43:19,then they got all these complaints from people about,

00:34:43:23,00:34:47:14,“Oh, there was pre-placed gear?  That doesn’t count, it’s a trad climb,

00:34:48:07,00:34:49:13,you can’t redpoint a trad climb.

00:34:50:13,00:34:52:07,You’re supposed to place the gear as you go.”

00:34:52:14,00:34:54:14,There was a lot of people who were really psyched,

00:34:55:12,00:34:58:01,a lot of people we knew back in Sheffield and then

00:34:58:17,00:35:00:11,there was obviously the usually kind of

00:35:01:10,00:35:03:07,UKC banter.

00:35:04:00,00:35:05:23,It just went downhill

00:35:06:04,00:35:08:05,and then Stevie posted something on his blog,

00:35:08:10,00:35:11:09,just like how he didn’t think it was the first ascent.

00:35:13:16,00:35:16:01,The style and ethic of this kind of crack,

00:35:16:07,00:35:17:06,offwidth

00:35:17:06,00:35:18:06,crack climbing

00:35:18:09,00:35:19:11,is very strict.

00:35:21:14,00:35:23:20,You have to put the gear in on lead

00:35:26:03,00:35:27:18,and that’s it, that’s the rule.

00:35:28:00,00:35:29:17,If you don’t do it that way,

00:35:30:12,00:35:31:21,your ascent doesn’t count.

00:35:32:16,00:35:33:16,When somebody just

00:35:34:07,00:35:37:03,puts you down like that, I mean it shouldn’t really because

00:35:37:03,00:35:38:23,you know what you’ve done but

00:35:39:08,00:35:40:24,you’re just like, “Oh man, just...

00:35:42:13,00:35:43:20,what are you on about?"

00:35:45:05,00:35:47:08,To do the route on fixed gear,

00:35:49:23,00:35:52:10,for me personally that wouldn’t be an ascent.

00:35:55:00,00:35:56:00,Not when you're...

00:35:57:09,00:35:59:06,Not when you set yourself up

00:35:59:24,00:36:01:16,the way that they set themselves up.

00:36:01:22,00:36:02:22,You’ve got

00:36:05:05,00:36:06:05,you know

00:36:08:02,00:36:10:00,you’ve got an obligation.

00:36:11:01,00:36:14:20,They were there for a fucking month saying that they couldn’t fucking go there.

00:36:16:06,00:36:17:19,You know what this means?

00:36:18:18,00:36:19:18,This is Maltese.

00:36:20:11,00:36:22:01,It means don’t try and fucking pull it …

00:36:22:22,00:36:23:24,pull one over me.

00:36:24:08,00:36:25:10,‘Oh, we were busy.”

00:36:26:13,00:36:28:18,That’s the whole reason they went to America,

00:36:29:03,00:36:30:03,that crack.

00:36:31:15,00:36:34:16,A week to two weeks after we’d done Century

00:36:35:06,00:36:37:15,and we’d done it in this imperfect style,

00:36:38:00,00:36:39:00,I said to Pete that

00:36:39:13,00:36:40:21,I thought we should go back

00:36:41:11,00:36:45:00,but it was kind of like a joke, just to see how it would sit with him.

00:36:47:01,00:36:51:19,I was basically exchanging emails with my parents back home and Dad sent this email.

00:36:52:04,00:36:54:24,He was saying, “You know, you’ve done these two years’ training,

00:36:55:12,00:36:58:09,maybe when you get home you might reflect on this and think

00:36:58:12,00:37:00:00,"Oh no, you know,

00:37:00:05,00:37:03:06,I think you could’ve gone back and had another go,”

00:37:03:19,00:37:07:07,and he started to make some hints back to me that maybe we should go back.

00:37:08:11,00:37:11:02,And then I came back and reassessed what I was thinking again

00:37:11:02,00:37:14:10,and I became a little bit more sure about it again and then he would say

00:37:14:10,00:37:15:23,something that would make it positive.

00:37:16:02,00:37:17:14,And before you know it, we’re going,

00:37:17:18,00:37:20:02,“Yeah, yeah, let’s go back!  It’s going to be ok!”

00:37:23:11,00:37:26:04,We didn’t want to think it but deep down, you do know that

00:37:29:22,00:37:32:09,it’s best to place gear on lead when you’re trad climbing.

00:37:32:13,00:37:34:14,That’s the ethics with it, isn’t it?

00:37:34:14,00:37:35:16,That’s trad climbing.

00:37:35:18,00:37:37:07,You start at the bottom with your rack,

00:37:37:21,00:37:39:03,you climb, you put the gear in,

00:37:39:24,00:37:40:22,you get to the top.

00:37:40:22,00:37:42:11,But I think because we’d put that,

00:37:42:19,00:37:46:06,it felt so flipping hard the first time that we were just like,

00:37:46:16,00:37:49:14,“Oh God, this is going to be epic!”

00:37:51:09,00:37:54:18,We’d climbed it once to the top already and we knew how far that

00:37:54:18,00:37:56:09,pushed ourselves to your physical limit.

00:37:57:02,00:37:59:05,And when you’ve done that once in your life on a climb,

00:37:59:20,00:38:03:06,it’s like a heart of dread thinking about it again

00:38:03:20,00:38:05:05,because you know you’ve got to sum it up again.

00:38:06:06,00:38:07:24,We made a decision to

00:38:08:00,00:38:10:14,run it out lows on the gear so the chances

00:38:10:16,00:38:12:14,of hurting yourself if you fell off the route

00:38:13:00,00:38:14:07,were really, really bad.

00:38:15:01,00:38:16:08,Yeah, you’d just fall,

00:38:16:18,00:38:17:18,you’d just be falling

00:38:18:03,00:38:19:07,head first...

00:38:20:13,00:38:21:13, into the ground!

00:38:24:00,00:38:25:00,Doing it this way

00:38:26:13,00:38:28:01,has turned it from just a really

00:38:28:10,00:38:29:10,hard crack

00:38:30:01,00:38:32:00,that’s just loads of physical effort

00:38:33:02,00:38:34:02,to being hard and

00:38:36:24,00:38:39:08,definitely it’s got a risk element to it now.

00:38:40:06,00:38:43:08,And when we came before, it was at the beginning of the trip

00:38:44:12,00:38:46:14,so we were ready for it.

00:38:48:19,00:38:50:24,And now I just feel weak, like a punter!

00:38:58:08,00:39:01:22,`You’d run it out and you’d look back at your cam you’d just be like,

00:39:02:15,00:39:04:13,“Oh, my God,” like Tom

00:39:04:16,00:39:07:06,is not even close to being able to keep me off the floor on that.

00:39:07:14,00:39:08:21,Like, no way,

00:39:10:02,00:39:11:06,I’d just hit the floor!

00:39:11:15,00:39:14:16,You’ve just got to not think about it, try not to think about that!

00:39:18:03,00:39:21:10,It’s dangerous the way they’ve run it out, it’s good,

00:39:22:21,00:39:24:19,it’s a good tactic but

00:39:25:05,00:39:28:13,only someone of the calibre of Pete and Tom

00:39:28:13,00:39:29:24,could probably do it like that.

00:39:30:18,00:39:33:03,I’d have trouble doing it like that, put it that way,

00:39:33:24,00:39:35:17,I wouldn’t like to do it that way.

00:39:35:19,00:39:37:15,I’d prefer another cam or two, you know!

00:39:39:22,00:39:44:05,You know, to place the gear on lead on an offwidth pitch is bold.

00:39:46:09,00:39:49:08,You’re not only figuring out how to keep yourself on this thing

00:39:49:14,00:39:51:22,and how much anaerobic threshold you can handle but

00:39:51:24,00:39:53:19,now you’re also protecting your neck

00:39:54:06,00:39:55:06,from the ground.

00:39:57:01,00:39:59:02,It definitely felt harder the second time

00:40:00:17,00:40:03:00,Don’t usually shout on routes but

00:40:04:00,00:40:06:01,I just had to shout, for some reason!

00:40:06:05,00:40:08:09,It’s not good, I don’t like shouting on routes!

00:40:09:02,00:40:10:16,It was amazing to watch because

00:40:10:21,00:40:14:08,I know he tries really hard but in terms of screaming and shouting,

00:40:14:08,00:40:15:12,you never see that from him.

00:40:16:01,00:40:17:24,It was like watching Sharma on Century Crack,

00:40:18:00,00:40:19:00,it’s amazing

00:40:19:03,00:40:20:11,and he was just,

00:40:25:23,00:40:27:23,puffing out and full on giving it.

00:40:28:06,00:40:29:23,The screaming and it was amazing.

00:40:29:23,00:40:30:23,I was gripped belaying.

00:41:22:16,00:41:24:09,Let’s draw back here.

00:42:12:19,00:42:13:19,Come on!

00:42:14:04,00:42:16:12,Come on.  Focus.

00:42:20:07,00:42:21:07,Focus.

00:43:25:05,00:43:26:05,Oh shit!

00:43:49:06,00:43:50:06,Yes!

00:43:56:21,00:43:57:21,Yes!

00:43:58:13,00:43:59:13,Safe!

00:44:13:08,00:44:15:11,When I left Century last time,

00:44:16:16,00:44:18:08,I never thought I’d come back down here,

00:44:18:20,00:44:19:23,I really didn’t.

00:44:20:07,00:44:22:15,I don’t really know why I’ve changed my mind.

00:44:28:23,00:44:30:07,We’re going back to make it

00:44:31:01,00:44:34:21,a more perfect style ascent and we’re going back for reasons of what

00:44:34:22,00:44:38:10,other people have said and that didn’t feel right and I was unsure about

00:44:38:11,00:44:42:18,how that level or risk sat with me and the reasons for doing that.

00:44:46:19,00:44:47:19,Yeah, come on!

00:44:55:15,00:44:56:15,Come on!

00:45:32:02,00:45:33:02,Yes! 

00:45:33:11,00:45:34:11,Nice one.

00:45:48:24,00:45:50:23,Thank God that’s over! 

00:45:55:24,00:45:57:06,They had to go back.

00:45:57:06,00:45:58:12,They knew they had to go back.

00:45:59:02,00:46:01:17,I told them that they would be able to do it also.

00:46:02:19,00:46:05:02,They were the candidates for this route.

00:46:06:01,00:46:07:04,They had to go back.

00:46:07:09,00:46:08:09,They went back

00:46:08:21,00:46:09:21,and they did it

00:46:11:08,00:46:13:14,so well done, boys, good job!

00:46:15:13,00:46:18:09,The main thing I’ve learned from this whole experience is

00:46:18:15,00:46:21:04,setting a goal towards something that you didn’t think was possible

00:46:22:00,00:46:24:15,and I’ve now got this belief in myself that

00:46:24:17,00:46:25:22,I can do that again and again.

00:46:27:02,00:46:29:06,You wouldn’t believe how m any times I’ve heard,

00:46:29:11,00:46:32:24,“This is the last thing I’m going to do and then I’m not going to do any more.”

00:46:33:14,00:46:35:12,I already know that he goes to

00:46:36:05,00:46:38:21,the next stage and then he thinks of something new

00:46:39:07,00:46:40:24,and then it just carries on.

00:46:41:01,00:46:42:13,And I’ve learned to accept that

00:46:43:11,00:46:44:11,sometimes!