This sweek Katherine Schirrmacher and I wag on about: chatting; The School; Broomgroove Wall; female climbing; freedom; the future; Stevie Wonder. Check her out on Love to Climb.

Staffordshire local Andi Turner wags his chin with Niall Grimes about black dogs, fairies, stars, sandstone, Staffordshire Nose and many other things.

Crackanory. It’s a story episode. Maddy Cope reads her account of her ascent of El Capitan’s Freerider. Badass.

Mark Pretty has spent three decades at the heart of British climbing. Hear his tales of: Himalayan epics; Stoney woodshed; the 1970s;  the birth of sport climbing; the great climbers; the birth of sport climbing; coaching; Raven Tor; surviving.

A portrait of British mountaineer and rock climber, Andy Cave. This episode was produced by UK-based outdoor film-makers, Hotaches Productions. That's what it sounds better than your usual Jam Crack Podcast.

Buenos Dias muchachas, welcome to Jam Crack Podcast. This sweek we have one of the young stars of the British competition scene, Molly Thompson-Smith coming atcha both barrels. Molly takes you inside the game of comps and we get to see what climbing looks like to a nineteen-year-old London plastic puller. And loads more besides. 

Niall Grimes has a chat with Russian / Crimean climber, Yuri Kruglov, about life and climbing in Yuri's himeland. In this interview the interviewer reveals his lack of any real knowledge of Russia beyond its space ships and the odd battle in WW2.

The Boss. John Allen put up most of the best routes on gritstone. In the 1970s, as a teenager, he sizzled up most of grit's coolest lines and led the charge in what was later called the Gritstone Renaissance. Then in the 1980s he upped the technical standards of the day by styling what are today's prized ticks for any boulderer and high baller. 

She smashed it in the mid-90s, one of the first UK women to climb the magical 8a, when not that many women in the world did that. Then she pioneered 8a+ and 8b in the UK. Her ascent of Zeke the Freak, Ben Moon's 8b at Rubicon, was not bettered for many many years. Hear her crack on.

In this episode I read a couple of my own stiories: first there's my account of Seb Grieve doing the second ascent of Parthian Shot at Burbage South, as featured in the film Hard Grit, then I read my short story, The Medium.

This sweek, US bouldering badass Chris Schulte reads Bernard Amy's The Greatest Climber in the World. This is frequently cited as people's favourite piece of climbing literature. Hope you like it.

This week we have for you the life and times of Maddy Cope. With a free ascent of El Capitan via the notorious Freerider, sport redpoints up to 8b, Maddy is among the most accomplished all rounders in the land. Yet you don’t hear much about this young gun. Perhaps this young gun has a silencer fitted? Let's hear her story.

Joe Healey relates the arc of his life, from his Mersey childhood, early climbs on Pex Hill, early repeats of Ron Fawcett desperates, gettinging into the pub, party and rave scenes, then the impacts that these would later have. A touching story full of hope and humanity.

This week we have a whole a-whooping and a-hollerin bunch of silly fun brought to you from the depths of the Wideboyz training cellar. The two gents in question, Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker, allowed me full access to the cellar of doom where to talked nonsense for days. I've whittled this down to a downloadable length, which is what you have ahead of you. Enjoy.

Top 1980s sport climber, author of some of the hardest sport climbs anywhere at the time, recalls Lancashire, Malham, Sheffield, the Peak, France and Lycra.

Badass alpinist cat, committed artist, lovely guy Andy Parkin lays it on the line this episode. Andy is an utter legend in the mountaineering world, setting standards, walking the walk and living a life of utmost commitment which shows itself most obviously in his mountaineering approach. It's virtually impossible to find out what Andy has done - how cool is that?

Scottish climbing legend Rab Carrington reads two stories: His own An Early Ascent of Raven Gully, about a winter ascent of the classic line on The Buchaille and Tom Patety’s A Short Walk with Whillans, in which the fondly-remembered Tom Patey recounts a typical attempt on The Eiger in the company of Don Whillans.   

At this year's Kendal Mountain Festival i dragged various people into the art room for a chat. One of my victims was top film maker, Jen Randall. Jen's films have a confident, winning style and have picked up awards across the fglobe, especially for her's and Clare Jane Carter's Operation Moffat. Read more about Jen on her website.

Wilkommen, Kameraden! This week Jam Crack Podcast goes all Euro as we corner the 23-year-old German master, Alex Megos. Alex first appeared on the screen as the forst cat ever to onsight 9a. Wow-wah! Since then he's gone on to crimp and crush the world over making as many friends as admirers, with a rootsy, mellow style and smiley little face.

Now then, this week we have a story story Jam Crackanory for you, courtesy of Sheffield-based climber / alpinist Ben Silvestre. A lot of people have been loving Ben's look at the darker attractions of climbing on his blog and in his features on UKClimbing. In this episode he shares a couple of fairly unflincing pieces about the lure of risk, in its darkest and most terminal guise. I'm sorry but I over-rambled at the start - flip on to about 20 minutes (!) for our feature presentation.