Name: Rich Simpson
DOB: 02/08/1983
Interview By: Ben Moon

Rich Simpson is the new kid on the block and a new and welcome addition to the Moon climbing team. Aside from the fact that he is a very strong climber and will quite likely climb Action Direct later this summer the thing that struck me most was his enthusiasm and not only for climbing. I don’t think I have met anyone quite like it and it rubs off on you. As you will see from his interview he likes his training and is not a big trad climber!

I reckon the boy will go far.

BM - When and where did you start climbing?
RS - I started when I was 15 in my last year at school, when one of my science teachers who was a keen climber began taking out some students to the local climbing wall on a weekly basis, I went along a few times and really enjoyed it so started from their.

BM - Do you have a favorite style of climbing (traditional, sport, bouldering etc)?
RS - I prefer sport routes, power endurance climbing up to about 20/25 meters, this is what I train for.

BM - What would be your top route recommendations in the UK?
RS - There are a lot of good routes in Britain, so long as you travel around for them. My favorites have been,

Buoys will be Buoys 6c Portland
Night Glue 7a+ LPT
Empire of the sun 7b+ Ansteys cove
Bad Bad boy 7c LPT
Statement of Youth 8a LPT
Revelations 8a+ Raven Tor
Melancholie 8b LPT
Mecca 8b+ Raven Tor
Liquid Amber 8c LPT


BM - And abroad?
RS - God what a hard question, go to any well known crag overseas and you will climb some classics whatever the grade, but some that stand out are.

TCF 7a Buoux France
Mandagora 7b+ Siurana Spain
Pota Elephant 7c+ Siurana Spain
Slimline 8a Frankenjura Germany
Chouca 8a+ Buoux France
Le Mur Du 6 clopes 8B+ St Leger France
Ursus 8c Monstant Spain
Azincourt 8c Buoux France
Powerplay 8c Frankenjura Germany


BM - What would be your top boulder problem recommendations in the UK?
RS
Crescent arête 6a stanage
Pebble Arete 6b Stanage
Green Traverse 7a Stanage
Jerrys Traverse 7b cratcliffe
Barrel Traverse 7b+ Llanberis
Jerrys roof 7c Llanberis
Mushin 7c+ Roaches
Superman 8a+ Crag x
Pool Of Bethesda 8a+ Llanberis
8ball 8b Gardoms

BM - And abroad?
RS - I haven’t really bouldered much abroad, but there must be a lot of good problems in font at all grades.

BM - How often do you climb?
RS - Depends on what type of training/climbing I’m doing, if I’m on a sport climbing trip I usually climb 2/3 days on and one days rest, if I’m training, anything from 4 days per week to 6/7 days per week.

BM - How often do you train and for how many hours per session?
RS - Again depends on what period of training I’m in, if I train endurance I will climb 6 days per week of about 5 hours per day, if I’m training power I will usually climb 5 days per week, with about 2 _ hours per session


BM - Where do you train?
RS - On my home board and campus board, in the school-room in Sheffield and the foundry in Sheffield, this seams to be a good variety of walls to train on

BM - What kind of training do you do?
RS - Lately a lot of campus boarding on one and two fingers on first joint rungs, and also some power endurance circuits and one armed pull ups, but again it depends what I’m working towards

BM - Your top training tip or tips?
RS - Stay motivated, without motivation there's no point training and with motivation you will always improve, also the hardest part of training is making the decision to start at all, its really easy to sit down when tired from work and not train, but once you start you will always feel ok.

BM - Your best achievement?
RS - I don’t really know, I did the 2nd ascent of the hardest problem in the school room a month or so ago, and then re-climbed it with a 5kg weight belt on shortly after, that was good for me as I new it was a hard problem, but I know I can climb a lot harder than that. Also campussing 1-4-7 on one finger on a first joint rung was a good achievement for me.
As for outside, I have never been really tested by anything I have done or tried, Liquid Amber 8c and Azincourt 8c made me feel very pleased, as did Malcs start font 8b, but none of them where that testing, they where well within my capabilities and I climbed them relatively quickly, I just need to find something that inspires me a great deal and is also hard enough to fully test my abilities, I am prepared to put a lot of effort into climbing things, but they first need to stand out and inspire me to do so.

BM - What is your opinion on competitions? Good, bad or indifferent?
RS - For me they are not inspiring, I feel they are to much based on ego’s and beating other people, it think to do well in competitions you need to be a showman and want to show everyone how good you are, and also enjoy performing in front of big crowds. I very much dislike these situations, busy crags and competitions make me feel uneasy, I am much more happy climbing on my own or in a very small select group. I have nothing to prove to any one about my climbing abilities and would prefer to focus my time on climbing hard things outside, as they for me are the main challenge, I feel if you are very good at climbing outside theirs no need for competitions, as the rocks can give you all the challenges you need. I feel if you are able to perform well climbing on your own then you have the right motivation and will succeed in climbing, if I could only perform well when a lot of people where watching me, then I would have to question my motivation and why I climb but if it competitions give people the same satisfaction that I get from climbing then they must be a good thing.

BM - Your goals for 2005?
RS - God I have way to many, I wrote a ticklist the other day for the year and their where over 40 routes of 8c and above, but for this year, my main goals would be Hubble, Action directe, Dreamtime and the Never Ending story, if I do all these this year my hard work will have been worth it.