Obsessive Climbing Designs

They wanted to know if I would come down (on the Monday) to Pinewood studios for the filming of a new show called Guinness World Records Smashed.

The idea was to have a new climbing world record. The challenge involved Leah Crane and myself climbing simultaneously on a revolving wall which moved at 40ft/min whilst angled at 45°. Whoever lasted the longest on the wall without touching the ground would be El Championé.

I, needless to say, was up very up for it and picked up Leah in Sheffield for the long drive down to the big smoke.

After a lot of hanging around the studio and a short ride in a golf buggy.....we were up. The audience were screaming and then we were in front of the camera having an awkward conversation with the hosts (Steve Jones and Konnie Huq). Before we knew it we were pulling onto the super polished holds of the walls, which had been arranged facing each other.

I knew that Leah was a boulderer and she knew that I was a stamina monkey.....I was confident.

After a few minutes of steady cranking I looked over my shoulder and saw Leah had fallen off and was stood on her crash mat. I was feeling good, but I had to start looking tired or it might look like I was taking the Mickey. I let my feet pop and slapped about a bit, then came down....It was a great experience, but pitting a boulderer against a route climber in a pure stamina event was alway going to be unfair.

Anyhow, it's a World Record and I'm kind of proud of it, can you tell?