Wow, what form Zach Galla is in! Recent sends of Hypnotised Minds, Devilution, Return of the Sleepwalker and Shaolin, could be the most impressive run of ascents ever recorded. We really wanted to try and discern what could have led to such form, is it a mentality thing or improvements in strength? What is the optimum level of confidence for repeat sending? Knowing that rich veins of form are often ended with injury when do you take your foot off the gas? Can you stop to enjoy it? All these questions and more are at least partially answered or vaguely talked about in the podcast!

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We're back! Just the reunited home team this week. Shockingly we hadn't spoken that much for a month so we had quite a lot to catch up on. Aidan is hard focussed on his 6 degrees project but has also had a couple of trips, and Sam continues his expansionary quest for global domination by having another child and building another board. We chat about outdoor climbing comps and weigh up whether they're worthwhile, and we couldn't not have a chat about Honnold's full metal solo at the behest of Netflix.

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So, I never intended to make this episode. When I did the episode with independent gym owners I felt like I should probably reach out to a CEO of a chain gym for comment. I should have, but I didn't. I was planning to leave that thread as it was, but Ged from the Hangar got in touch to say he'd listened to it and would be up for having a chat to offer his thoughts from the other side of the partition. I originally thought it would probably just be a little bonus add on to the independents episode, but in the end I found the chat really interesting so Aidan and I agreed it should be on the main feed as the weekly episode. I hope you enjoy it, I think Ged knows a lot more than I do about where the sport is going, and he has more to lose than anyone if he can't help it to move in the right direction which is an interesting situation to be in by itself!

Normal service to resume next week!

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It's the 'Sam can't record anything this week' special! Where one of the knights of our round tables Katie hosts an ask me anything with questions from our Patroons (Patreon members). If you want to be one of the people throwing questions out then you too can join our fantastic community of Patroons via our Patreon page. Lots of insights into the inner workings of Aidan's (and occasionally Katie's) brains, hope you enjoy!

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Hello all, I come to you with a different offering this week. There's no Aidan this week, it's just me chatting to three different independent climbing gym owners in London. Sounds a bit niche but I was hoping to get a bit of a conversation going and I thought that there would be good parallels to other areas of the climbing world.

What do you reckon? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks for giving it a go!

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The ever popular Jim Pope is back on the pod for his third time this week. A chap said to me he only knows Jim as a board climbing aficionado, which is quite funny really when in reality he is the hardest climber to put in a box that we know of. It's impossible to tell what he'll do next but he tends to do it pretty well and it's fun to talk to him about it afterwards.

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A round table episode with the A team, so Katie Lamb and Benn Wheeler joining Aidan and Sam to ramble about some climbing or vaguely climbing related topics. Does climbing need grades? Why are we so obsessed with maintaining the grading scale when other sports (that are similar but generally considered to be cooler) like skateboarding or surfing don't need them. Is climbing being underserved by those of us in the online space watering down our controversial opinions to avoid standing on the wrong side of a stand off with a mob? Then it devolves into a therapy session, can Aidan climb his best and maintain his relationships, can Katie ever live up to the high standards she sets herself? Did Benn really fail his maths exam? Can Sam justify allowing Frodo carry the one ring to Mordor? Find the answers to some of these and more in this week's episode!

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Happy New Year! We're back with a bang with a return guest that we haven't had on since episode 6 of this podcast! Back then Will was a comp climber taking a break from competing and showing huge promise on rock. Since then... Well, he's done all the things and now his hat is in the ring when people talk about the strongest climbers of all time! We chatted to him about a bunch of the rocks he's climbed as well as his mindset and hopes for the upcoming year!

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