The Future

Is somewhat in your hands

It’s been a busy month at F2HQ. This month’s newsletter is a roundup and some future ideas which are open to your feedback. That includes what this newsletter is, so the first question is: Do you like getting a full article in your inbox, or would you prefer a collection of other reading and news and a link to an article on the website?

I’ll open it to the floor:

New Website

I’ve been putting together a new website to host Factor Two and its related projects as I think about what I’d like it to become in the future. You can find it at factortwo.co.uk. It’s still a work in progress and I think it’ll start to make more sense once there’s more content on there. It’s also got a great new logo, designed by my friend Mark Evans:

New Ideas

On the site you can find some information about new projects I’m working on, but here’s the big one. I’m hoping this will be a podcast series, but it could also be a book, or both.

This series will document the innovations and the innovators of the climbing world, telling the story of how climbing became the sport it is today, one idea at a time.

The first series will tackle ideas like the rise of Alpine Style climbing in the Himalaya, how sticky rubber changed the game in the 1980s and how portaledges opened the door to ascents of the most spectacular rockfaces in the world.

I’ve been sent a few great resources to get me started on this. My dream is to create something in the vein of 20 Thousand Hertz - a series where they pick apart the sounds that are familiar to us and pick apart the story behind them, often in a slightly tangential and unexpected way.

It’s a big project and it doesn’t seem to be something documented in this way before, although there are some great essays and histories on some of the topics.

Coming Up

We’ve got episodes in the pipeline with Katherine Schirrmacher, the elusive expat Pete Oxley, high-altitude and big wall climber Lydia Bradey and expedition new router Louise Thomas.

I’ve also penned a piece for UKClimbing’s Crag Notes series which should go out next month.