Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others.

My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland.

It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here,

but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world.

And because the team is such a diverse range of skills and strengths,

we have trained journalists, people who love digging through archives,

we've got drama and even comedy experts.

We really can do those stories justice.

So if you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds

where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK.

What I love about rock climbing is that the rock is kind of like a blank canvas.

And so no matter who it is pulling onto this same blank surface of rock

that doesn't change for thousands of years, they're bringing to that blank canvas the

colours that make the experience what it is.

You go through quite a range of different feelings.

You end up wrestling with your mind.

Climbing gets seen probably from the outside in

as this very physical experience,

but I feel like the internal experience

is the hardest to grasp

and the thing that makes it as potent

as, you know, of an experience as it is for people.

...