This last week has been a very strange one indeed. It’s been hectic, frantic and surreal – I’m not really sure if any of it has happened to be honest….

 

The 5.10 Boots that did it all............

Since coming back from the USA last year, there’s been loads of great feedback from mine and Pete Whittaker’s trip and it’s amazing to see (and hear) of some people that are now inspired to climbing some offwidths. God help your souls! Mostly, it’s been reassuring to be back in the climbing community talking the same old banter and getting grief off everyone for how bad my grading on routes is.

This week though, things took a turn for the more weird as an interview that I did with a journalist a few weeks back seemed to slowly seep from the woodwork. The London Metro said “Jammed in a Crevice” the Daily Mail said “They’ve Cracked It” [ha, ha, ha] and the Star stated “It’s Tough at the Top”. What made the popular media interested in this obscure niche of climbing, I really don’t know. Within just a few hours I was asked to do an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield and one for BBC News 24 – crikey, I thought – do they actually know what an offwidth is??!!

Daily Mail antics http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2098610/Theyve-cracked-Two-British-climbers-conquer-160ft-fissure-Utah-national-park.html

All in all, it was pretty good fun and I had an interesting insight into some TV and radio studios. I also found out that the Daily Mail comments pages are much funnier than UKC and that climbing forums are proper friendly bunch really. The fun hasn’t quite ended though, as both Pete and I have been asked to do something with Channel Five TV and I have a slot on BBC Sheffield this coming week at 10.35-10.55am (22nd Feb) if you’d like to hear about decisions that changed my life. Makes me sound old and past it?

Here’s the programme’s interviewer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d7gs

Finally……………

Pete and I are very honoured to have been awarded a Golden Piton Award for crack climbing. I’m not totally sure what it all means, but with any luck I might be able to melt down the piton to make some ultra-soft RPs???

http://www.climbing.com/exclusive/features/2012_golden_piton_awards/index2.html
 

Myself and Pete Whittaker are doing some lectures this Spring to tell you all some tall (and wide) stories from our recent trip to the USA where we went off to maul ourselves in a load of upside down offwidths!

 

 

We've got a few shows/lectures this Spring and then we're going full on "roadee stylee" in the Autumn when the Hotaches film from our trip comes out! The lecture is neither serious, nor normal. Lots of cool slides and pics from Alex Ekins and exclusive training footage from the offwidth cellar underneath my house that gave the beans for Century Crack, 5.14b. 

 

We will keep the Wide Boyz blog up to date with lectures as they're sorted, but here's a few to keep you going in mean time. Hope to see you there!

 

23rd Feb - Sheffield, expert night at Adventure Film Festival

2nd March - Kendal Wall, Lake District

31st March - Outside Cafe, Hathersage

 

 

A few more blog posts  up on the filming of the Wide Boyz Tour! The UK leg of our tour is now mostly in the bag... all the hard UK stuff visited or re-visited. One more month til USA. Bring it on!!

 

Here's the links for the filming:

 

http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/07/filming-wide-and-wonderful-part-1.html

 

http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/07/filming-wide-and-wonderful-part-2.html

 

And, by the way - The 5.10 Grandstones are the absolute business when it comes to offwidths!!

Hi guys, I've just updated mine and Pete Whittaker's blog about our wide adventures and forthcoming USA trip.

 

http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/07/fuck-pain-one-more-lap.html

 

Those new 5.10 Grandstones are the shizzle!!

 

Cheers

 

Tom

Sketch City, E6 6b

Taken from UKclimbing.com:

 

"Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall have climbed two new routes at a 'new' crag - Rainroach Rock in Staffordshire.

The routes, Captain Cutloose (E7 6c) and Pieces of Eight (E8 7a) took a fair bit of cleaning, but after the hard work produced two good lines.

Tom Randall explains how they were tipped off:

...I got chatting to Gary Gibson about new crags and new routes to be developed in the Churnet region. Quite surprisingly, he actually gave me a rather good tip-off about this place called Rainroach Rock...

After trekking through quite a bit of dense woodland and the dreaded Rhododendron bushes we eventually found the fabled Rainroach Rock. As promised, the crag was totally obscured by vegetation, so we got work with a load of bow-saws and cleared a substantial area of land. Once cleaned up a bit, we were greeted with a really awesome bit of rock – perfect Churnet grit, capped with a massive horizontal 7-foot roof!

...We returned on Friday to find perfect conditions. A quick check of our routes from the comfort of a tight rope confirmed they were ready to go, so we later dispatched them that day. My route features a huge cut loose move across the roof and a bit of spicy climbing up the final arete, which was very enjoyable – this created 'Captain Cut Loose' probably about E7 6c. Pete crimped and gnarled his way up the very bold lower arete of his route and ran it out on the upper headwall to create a desperate E8 7a – 'Pieces Of Eight'."

 

Check the video out HERE