I love visiting and climbing in Wales. Some great mountains to explore and as wide variety of crags.
Routes (Ropes)
Before climbing, my sport was parkour and I frequently used to enjoy jumping around in the streets!
I got into climbing in 2015, after trying bouldering with some friends. It was a new challenge for me, a new way to challenge my body and the drive to rise my level to the international standards drove me to train harder.
My childhood hero was a footballer actually, called Stewart Downing! But I have always followed, and been inspired by, the parkour group Storror.
I do think others with oner hand, look up to me, and I am a big believer in the power of representation. By showing the things I do, I could give that first step into the next one handed climber, trying iour sport.
I think the biggest milestones for me were finding a group of people I could train with that gave me pysche and adaptive energy. I realised that the biggest key to success is happiness, and if I focus on that, I will in turn create a more healthy mindset for when I compete.
At a World Cup in 2023, I let my brain takeover. I was so disappointed with the climb on my first route, that I gave up and did not prepare correctly for the second. Trying hard is my thing, and not doing this on my second route was a massive disservice to that.
I learnt from this by really focus on the joys of climbing, and simplifying my success outcomes to “Try hard”, “Breathe” and “Have fun”. Three super important things that I could focus on.
I then attended the 2025 World Championship in Bern with a “everythings a bonus” attitude, and this reduction in pressure and simplistic focus viewpoint, allowed me to get a really strong finish of 5th, one place off finals.
The day before a World Cup in Salt Lake City, I met some Americans drinking at a restaurant. They said they would come watch me compete then take me on a day trip to the Moabs. I was skeptical but they followed through on their offer and I ended up having the most amazing day climbing on the sandstone and travelling around the desert.
I have done this in the past but life constantly put pressure on it, and I wanted to create simpler success measures. I now journal every Sunday and plan the kind of sessions I want to achieve for the week, based on whats realistic. I don’t schedule in the day, just set out my focuses – even if thats just to climb socially or to recover.
There is no one size fits all. Take time to try different things and to learn what works best for you. My main advice would be to just climb in lots of different ways and to show up at the wall as much as possible. Duration isn’t so important, just making the most of the time you have there.
I compete, so need to train on indoor ways during the summer. I do prefer being outdoors and getting vitamin D but it is harder to train and you rely more on other people. I use outdoor climbing as a way to escape and scale down my expectations on myself.
I am working on it! Can do an assisted one arm at the mo!
I would say it mainly comes down to skill and technique. There is no one size fits all and everyone must play to their strengths. The more you climb, the better you get.
Yes – as with everything, it just takes commitment. If achieving a goal is your priority then you build your life around it as much as you can. But you need to enjoy the process to get there and not just the final product, otherwise the results will not come as easily and you will not enjoy it when you achieve it as much.
I think setting goals is important for motivation but you need to be willing to change them, and to enjoy the micro successes along the way. My goals is to compete at the LA28 Paralympics but I want to enjoy the process of training to become a Paralympians as well. My goal is also to inspire others and focusing on the community is part of my identity within ther sport.
I have adapted my mindset to enjoy trying “hard s**t”. You don’t get better without pushing yourself and being willing to fail. For example, my first international climb was on the steep comp wall in Briancon and as soon as the 45 degree overhang came, my heart starting beating furiously and I lost my cool. I had barely practiced that kind of terrain, and was mainly a slab climber. But after this, I forced myself onto the steep climbing and I am now more confident on the steep wall than I am on the slab! I regularly get frustrated with myself. I either get stuck in a “comparison trap” or I feel I have let myself down. I am my biggest critic but this willingness to improve motivates me to give everything to every climb. I like to power scream my way up the wall!!
I want there to be less focus on grades and for there to be more adaptive route setting in gyms. I also would like to see an increase in funding into our sport, but I'm sure thats a problem many sports share!
I think its a really exciting time for the sport. I think we will continue to see expressive and creative routes being set, and our athletes will get stronger and stronger. I would love to play my part in the journey to the LA28 Paralympics and to help inspire the next generation of paraclimbers to believe they can be as paralympian one day too.
