The whims and motivations of climbers really are another world to the person in the street. Understanding them is crossing a threshold, it requires a certain suspension of disbelief to start to see the world of risk, adventure, suffering and mo

Hateja - Louise Thomas and Glenda Huxter

Jun 24th, 2021 44m 23s

If you had to select your late 90s dream team for a British, all-female Himalayan big wall trip, you couldn’t go far wrong with this one. Glenda Huxter was onsighting E7, Kath Pyke had extensive experience on rock and alpine routes, and Louise

Finding the Balance - Katherine Schirrmacher

Mar 23rd, 2021 41m 45s

We all get enjoyment from climbing for different reasons. For many of us those reasons change over time, according to our geography, time, money and other pressures in our lives. I’ve read Katherine Schirrmacher’s blog for years, and she’s unus

El Capitan - a film by Fred Padula

Dec 10th, 2020 54m 42s

In the spring of 1968 San Francisco film maker, Fred Padula, drove into the Yosemite Valley and gazed up at El Capitan. He had been approached by one of his film students, Glen Denny, a talented climber and photographer, to advise on making a f

Hard Grit - Rich Heap, Niall Grimes and Seb Grieve

Oct 28th, 2020 38m 11s

When it was released in 1998, Hard Grit gave us an insight into something we didn’t often see - the actual ascents of the hardest, most dangerous lines on grit. In an era before everyone had a smartphone, before digital photography was even mai

A Play for Voices - Helen Mort and Anna Fleming

Sep 16th, 2020 42m 11s

When you look at the books on a shelf of mountaineering literature one thing is quickly apparent: the vast majority are written by men. The same is true with the episodes I’ve produced for Factor Two. The simple fact is that there have historic

Brave New World - Tom Livingstone and Twid Turner

Aug 6th, 2020 53m 53s

It’s hard to be truly disconnected these days. Even in the weirdness of isolation over the past few months many of us have been working from home, constantly bothered by the connections around us. Sometimes it’s just a little too much. I’ve mis

Deep Play - Neil Gresham and Dr Rebecca Williams

Jul 7th, 2020 41m 46s

"I climb better when I'm scared." I've heard this quite a few times. I even thought it was true about myself for a while in my earlier climbing career, but it surely can't be true? After speaking with Hazel Findlay about maintaining the bubble

Walking the Magic Line - Hazel Findlay and Dr Rebecca Williams

May 27th, 2020 32m 54s

Flow is a concept that can divide in climbing. For Dave Thomas it was the joyous experience that removed him from other problems in life. For Mina Leslie-Wujastyk it was a performance tool. Mina told me that a lot of her understanding of flow h

The Moment You Doubt - Ben Bransby

Apr 14th, 2020 39m 7s

Many of the stories in Factor Two feature the same scenario - What next? You always imagine ticking the big goal might be enough, but it rarely is. For Ben Bransby and Jvan Tresch it seemed obvious what was next. Patagonia has long been the mos

Freebird - Ben Bransby

Apr 6th, 2020 32m 21s

After hearing from Leo Houlding and Patch Hammond about their legendary Yosemite season in 1998 there was one obvious gap in our story - Ben Bransby. Before attempting Freerider with Patch, Ben had made an ascent of the Salathe Wall with Mark R

Living in the Shadows - Franco Cookson

Mar 3rd, 2020 30m 34s

Internet forums wouldn’t be the same without their villains and heroes, would they? Franco Cookson appeared on the UKC forums back in February 2008. He began posting prolifically from the off and rarely stopped to consider the responses from ot

No More Heroes?

Sep 11th, 2019 43m 48s

Patch Hammond has remained a bit of an enigma in the climbing world. If you flick through the magazines from the late 1990s you’ll see a scruffy youth with an impressive climbing CV – onsighting E6 and E7 in North Wales and climbing with the li

No More Worlds - Leo Houlding

May 24th, 2019 25m 28s

Back in 1998 Leo Houlding and Patch Hammond achieved something almost unthinkable – a near onsight ascent of El Capitan. They were just 18, had no big wall experience and headed to Yosemite without any great ambitions for the big faces. They ha

Bonus

On and Off - A headpointing story

Jan 30th, 2019 11m 55s

Prompted by Franco Cookson’s article on headpointing recently I thought I’d dig out this interview I recorded in November 2017 with Tim Lowe. Tim is a climber from Yorkshire with an enviable ticklist of routes, including the Yorkshire Triple Cr

Clouds Come and Go

Jan 22nd, 2019 39m 5s

In the last two episodes we looked at aspects of flow, whether seeking the euphoria as an escape or chasing it as a performance tool. But there’s an area of climbing where flow won’t be enough. The objectives are too long, too complex and too u

Me and My Shadow

Dec 17th, 2018 32m 26s

Mina Leslie-Wujastyk has already established herself as one of the best sport climbers in the country, with redpoints up to 8c. For the past few seasons she has been attempting Rainshadow, Steve McClure’s iconic 9a at Malham. It’s more than a s

More Than a Dream - Dave Thomas

Nov 6th, 2018 33m 52s

The young Dave Thomas was motivated by one thing above all others – soloing. In his own words he’s “Never climbed a hard route”, but anyone looking at his climbing C.V. would beg to differ. In 1989 he soloed the classic E6 Lord of the Flies at

Sally Can Wait

Feb 5th, 2018 29m 45s

There's something both romantic and illogical about taking the ultimate risk in climbing; leaving the rope behind and going solo. Justifying that is a question which has always fascinated me. For many people it's such an absolute risk that the

The Black Dog

Jan 1st, 2018 31m 40s

Katy Forrester is a former member of the British bouldering and ice climbing teams. She's a fell runner and an accomplished trad and sport climber, with routes up to 7c+ and E8 under her belt. She also has a black dog. Katy is open in talking a

Alone - Off the Wall

Dec 11th, 2017 28m 43s

In part one of this story we saw how Duncan Critchley's quick judgment of his partner for The Nose resulted in a piece of big wall history. Despite his good judgment, he was left with the regret that they never climbed together again. In part t

Nine and a Half Hours

Dec 4th, 2017 28m 47s

The Nose on El Capitan is perhaps the most iconic rock climb on the planet. Its been big news even outside of the climbing world since its first ascent by a team led by Warren Harding in 1958. The crowds in El Cap meadow became so unmanageable

Becoming the Master

Nov 6th, 2017 21m 27s

Every generation of climbers looks to improve on the performances of the last. The saga of the Great Wall on Clogwyn Du'r Arddu provides one of the best examples of this in British climbing.The climbers looked to improve the style and the

Trailer

Oct 15th, 2017 2m 29s

Factor Two is a climbing podcast with impact, brought to you by Wil Treasure and UKClimbing.com. It brings you the best climbing stories straight from the people at their heart - and the best climbing stories are always about a little bit more