The Inside Climbing Podcast

British Bouldering Championship 2026 Debrief

Inside Climbing — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Natalie Berry and Louise Flockhart join me to chat about the 2026 British Bouldering Championship, which Louise competed in.

Natalie is a freelance journalist with work published in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic Traveller UK, WIRED UK, and New Lines Magazine. She was the editor of UKClimbing, a former GB competitor and the first Scottish woman to climb 8b on rock. She won bronze at the 2018 British Bouldering Championship.

Louise is a former GB Climbing athlete and content creator. She won bronze at the 2024 and 2023 British Boulder before deciding to take 2025 off competing.

Chapters:

(00:00) - Intro
(02:30) - Women
(09:30) - Selection events
(15:55) - Men’s Competition
(19:32) - BBC Final format
(20:50) - Broadcast woes
(24:00) - PCL format
(25:48) - Max Milne’s Final
(27:47) - Routesetting
(38:53) - Weird boulders
(42:27) - What is next for Louise

Links:
Natalie's Instagram
Louise's Instagram, TikTok and YouTube channel
British Bouldering Championship Results
Louise getting stuck on the women's semi-final mantle problem

Support:
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
Sign up to my newsletter to stay up to date about everything competition climbing.

Behind The Pro Climbing League

Inside Climbing — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 21:03:00 +0000

In this podcast, I talk with Charlie Boscoe and Danaan Markey about the Pro Climbing League.

We chat about how it all started, why they wanted to create it, and convince investors to invest in a climbing league.

We also talk A LOT about their new format, which pits athletes head-to-head on identical boulders.

Chapters:

(00:00) - Intro
(00:52) - Origin of PCL
(06:18) - Moment (of lack of) when they thought it would work
(10:49) - Understanding the Finances
(13:41) - Selling Climbing to investors
(19:52) - Vision for the League
(22:38) - First event in London
(24:00) - Origins of the format
(31:55) - Athlete vs Athlete instead of the wall
(41:03) - Routesetting in PCL
(47:37) - Most challenging aspect for routesetters
(48:58) - Breaking ties
(53:01) - Similarities with Lead climbing
(59:08) - How they making both boulders identical
(01:03:01) - Final words
(01:04:41) - Outro

Links:
Pro Climbing League Website
Instagram
YouTube
Charlie's Instagram
Danaan's Instagram

Supprt
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
Sign up to my weekly newsletter to stay up to date about everything competition climbing.

2025 Para Climbing World Championship Preview

Inside Climbing — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 16:46:20 +0100

Para Climbing athletes Eva Mol, Sebastian Depke, and Anita Aggarwal l join me to talk about the 2025 Para Climbing World Championship in Seoul, South Korea.

For more coverage of the Para Climbing World Championship, follow Inside Climbing on Instagram.

Chapters

(00:00) - Intros
(01:24) - World Cup vs World Championship
(06:42) - Para Classes
(18:45) - Paralympic Classes for Para Climbing
(22:26) - Seoul
(00:40) - Who to watch out for
(01:04:48) - Future of Para Climbing
(01:15:11) - Final Words

Note: I pronouncing Pavitra Vandenhoven's first name wrong.

2025 Climbing World Championship Preview

Inside Climbing — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 16:16:19 +0100

Natalie Berry, Tyler Norton and I chat about the upcoming World Championship.

Tyler Norton founded Plastic Weekly, a YouTube Channel and podcast covering the indoor climbing and the World Cup circuit, including regular debriefs with John Burgman.

For more coverage of the World Championship, follow Inside Climbing on Instagram.

Chapters

(00:00) - Intro
(01:11) - World Cups vs World Championships
(10:03) - Lead
(33:44) - Speed
(51:15) - Boulder
(01:14:29) - Eulogy for Combined