BAFFLE DAYS - Australian Climbing

The 2019 Australian open climbing Nationals have come and gone. This year's were different to previous ones, not only the format of all three disciplines being run over 4 consecutive days, but also because of the Olympics. This is the beginning of the Olympic dream for all of our athletes. Those competing in all three disciplines were vying for a top 8 finish which would give them a place in the A...

Duncan Brown is has been running his own coaching business, Athlete by Choice for several years. In the last few years he has moved into also being the coaching director for Sport Climbing Australia, the governing body for competition climbing in Australia. In this chat we get into the inner workings of the competition side of SCA as well as the Olympics and what it means for our sport. Also, we t...

We don’t get into finger boarding protocol breakdowns, or energy system nuances. That stuff is far too confusing and gets in the way of actually showing up to the gym and trying hard. I’ve listened to a million hours of nuanced nonsense that’s hard to then  apply into a training plan. Let alone a normal life of work, family and all the other things outside of climbing that make our lives feel full...

Emma Horan talks to Amanda and Tom about her own climbing, managing a new climbing gym in the middle of Sydney and her experience of being a female in the climbing scene. We also talk about nutrition and body image in our chat and I was truly grateful to Em for her openness on this subject. Follow Emma on instagram @emmawarriorprincess

Rob LeBreton is an Australian climbing legend. Starting climbing in the early 1980’s Rob took to the cliffs with an open mind and buckets of psych. His first climbing experiences were in Glenbrook Gorge at the base of the Blue Mountains. He and a friend tied a rope around their waist and armed with a fistful of rudimentary gear they climbed a stack of routes that he now looks back on as some of th...

Lee Cujes has been prolific in the scene for his entire climbing life, starting in Townsville in 1994. He then moved to Brisbane and became one of the biggest route developers in South East Queensland for the next 20 years. Chances are if you've climbed a good route in Queensland, Lee’s hand was probably involved with its development. He was also responsible for pushing the level in QLD sport clim...

Leah Dempsey moved from Brisbane to the Blue Mountains in 2014 and has been crushing routes and boulders since. Her story is one of finding her own path through the established climbing scene of the Blue Mountains. She has climbed grade 32 and bouldered V12. Her ability to back herself to get on the routes and boulders she chooses and to execute them with a stubbornness and determination that allo...

Anna is a WA climber who’s been on the up and up for the last few years. In this time she’s been focused on making the Australian team and based on her results from last year’s nationals, she’s made it. At the end of April she’s off to China to start her Bouldering World Cup season. The last few years have been hard for Anna battling both life and climbing hurdles but she is on the charge now and...

In this episode we get into the juicy bits of training, how he went from sport climbing 31/8b, to being a climber capable of climbing The Wheel of life. A climb that is considered to be somewhere around 35 or 36 which is 9a 9a+ in Frenchy speak. This is a huge and somewhat audacious jump but one that he committed fully to and pulled off in style. It has inspired me more than I can articulate with...

Lee Cossey is a proper legend of the Australian climbing scene. He has climbed and first ascented some of the hardest routes in the country for the past two decades as well as bouldered hard double digits and done some bloody good ascents on the big walls in Australia, Yosemite and Patagonia. Lee and I talk about his time big walling, which in contrast to the time he has spent sport climbing and b...

Luke Hansen is a Blue Mountains local crusher. In 2017 he finished his psychology degree at University and decided to do the dream euro climbing trip. He booked a plane ticket, bought a van and started the 6 month tour of the A list Euro crags. We talk about him realising on the trip that he wanted to make climbing a bigger part of his life. He has now made the move to the epicentre of climbing in...

Tom chats with Jake about his ascent of The Wheel of Life this year. We talk about his journey to get to climbing his big dream. A bit about his training, his injury struggles and the approach he took to make it happen. We also talk about his motivation in the early years, going to Europe to live in Innsbruck, Austria to learn from the best climbers at the time. As well as the adventures he had in...