EP 223: Aidan Roberts — Navigating Pro Climbing, Establishing His Two Hardest Boulders, and Glimpsing Mastery

Aidan Roberts returns to the podcast! Aidan is at the cutting edge of bouldering and is one of the most genuine people I’ve had the pleasure of talking to. We talk about professional climbing and today’s media landscape, and he brings us up to speed on the last year and a half of his climbing and shares the full stories of ‘Spots of Time’ and ‘Arrival of the Birds’, two new boulders proposed 9A/V17.

We recorded this a couple of days after my chat with him and Sam on their podcast. I was honored to join them and I loved the conversation. Check it out for some reflections amongst the three of us about our podcasting and climbing.

Watch the Video Interview:

EP 223: Aidan Roberts Returns — Uncut Video

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Show Notes:  

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/aidan-roberts-returns

Nuggets:

(00:00:00) – Intro

(00:04:59) – Recooperation phase

(00:08:18) – Powering through

(00:10:24) – Course corrections

(00:13:58) – Climbing as his work

(00:21:45) – Enduring austerity

(00:24:17) – His role as a pro climber

(00:29:28) – Our relationships with climbing

(00:35:54) – Navigating pro climbing

(00:45:44) – Valuing integrity

(00:49:11) – Climbing media & being impressionable

(00:52:51) – Reflecting on experiences

(01:04:23) – Aidan’s last year and a half

(01:08:54) – The Midnight Project (Arrival of the Birds)

(01:33:30) – Trying Burden last Fall

(01:41:47) – Ticino with Shawn Raboutou

(01:46:41) – Back to The Midnight Project

(01:50:28) – The Helvellyn Project (Spots of Time)

(02:03:39) – Training in the UK last winter

(02:07:03) – Sending Spots of Time

(02:08:18) – Sending Arrival of the Birds

(02:30:31) – Glimpsing mastery

(02:33:33) – Appreciating the places we climb

(02:38:06) – Proposing grades

(02:52:01) – Is Arrival of the Birds 9A+?

(03:08:35) – Exhausted & reexamining eating

(03:12:42) – His foot injury & next climbing steps

(03:14:23) – Plans for an EXTRA

(03:18:22) – An adventurous attitude

(03:20:04) – Burden of Dreams

(03:26:03) – Finnish bouldering

(03:32:48) – Wrap up