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Scotland Outdoors

Robbie Phillips on Climbing the World's Hardest Sea Cliff in Orkney

Scotland Outdoors

BBC

Nature, Society & Culture, Science

4.7709 Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rachel Stewart chats with Robbie Phillips about his climbing endeavour and film.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

He tells her that she will be sent to France as a secret agent, and if she's caught, she's going to be shot.

0:09.3

I'm Helen Obalam Carter, and this is history's secret heroes, where I shine a light on extraordinary stories from World War II.

0:17.6

What they wanted was someone to get themselves arrested and sent to Auschwitz.

0:22.0

Tales of deception, an incredible acts of resistance and courage.

0:26.3

She was a born soldier.

0:27.4

She's a freedom fighter in its widest sense.

0:29.9

The brand new series of History's secret heroes.

0:32.8

Listen first on BBC Sounds.

0:35.6

This Scotland Outdoors podcast from BBC Radio Scotland.

0:45.3

Hello and thanks for choosing to listen to this. I'm Rachel Stewart. In this week's

0:50.9

Scotland Outdoors podcast, I speak to one of the biggest names in Scottish climbing, Robbie Phillips.

0:58.0

Now the 32-year-old loves a challenge and earlier this year he decided to attempt the Long Hope direct route at St John's Head in the Orkney Island of Hoy, the highest vertical seacliff in the UK.

1:12.6

Now there were several obstacles in his way, including some rather feisty seabirds,

1:18.6

but he and climbing partner Alex Moore successfully completed the audacious mission.

1:24.6

Now Robbie captured it all on camera and has now released a film called

1:29.6

Not a Hope in Hoy and you'll hear extracts of it throughout the following interview which

1:35.7

was recorded at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena in Ratho. He starts by explaining

1:41.5

why so few people have ever managed to complete the route.

1:46.7

The whole climb in itself is around 400 metres long from sea to summit.

1:53.1

Now, within that 400 metres, there are many smaller pitches that you climb,

1:59.2

which are all varying levels of difficulty.

2:02.1

And the difficulty is a combination of physical and technical difficulty,

...

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