Mental Health and Breaking Barriers with Hannah Morris

Hannah Morris started her YouTube channel as a way to share her love for climbing and as an outlet for anxiety. We discuss mental health, body image, and the pushback she has received as a woman with a prominent climbing platform. Mel and Hannah chat about inclusivity, her collaborations, and her aim to work with climbers pushing the sport in a positive direction. Hannah shares her most memorable experiences from her storied YouTube career.

Links:

instagram.com/_hannahmorris_

hannahmorrisbouldering.com

notyourtypicalclimberpodcast.uk

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About your host:

Mel Reeve is an experienced writer, casual climber and enthusiast, bringing her knowledge and passion to the podcast. With a background in writing, copywriting and content creation, Mel is dedicated to sharing the diverse stories and perspectives that shape the climbing community.

Transcript

Please note, transcripts are AI generated. 

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"Not only am I a woman operating a business and having a voice in a historically male -dominated industry, but I'm also an amateur."

Welcome to the Not Your Typical Climber podcast. Today I'm joined by Hannah Morris, who runs the largest female -led climbing community on YouTube. We discuss her YouTube channel, her aim to work with climbers pushing the sport in a positive direction, and Hannah shares some of her most memorable experiences from her YouTube career so far. We also discuss mental health, body image, and the pushback she has received as a woman with a prominent climbing platform.

Welcome Hannah, I'm really excited to chat to you today. So just to start things off, could you give a quick introduction for maybe anyone who's not familiar with your content about who you are and what it is that you do? So first off, thank you very much for having me

I'm really excited to chat a bit about my climbing journey and talk all things climbing and YouTube. But I am Hannah Morris and I'm an amateur climber, but I have been climbing for just over a decade now and sharing my climbing journey and working in the climbing industry for maybe half of that. Primarily I run

a climbing YouTube channel that's geared towards sharing tips and techniques and guess educational content from a practical standpoint. I also share a lot of my climbing experience and really try to delve into climbing storytelling and a little bit of journalistic style content, but just sharing experiences that I've had in climbing that have pushed me from my comfort zone.

How did you first discover climbing? What was it that drew you to the sport, do you remember? So I started climbing in university, so I would have been 21. And at the time, I was like a super unlikely candidate to take up climbing. And I'd caveat that by saying that I really strongly believe and try and thread into my content as much as possible the idea that anyone, honestly anyone can be a

But I say that I was a super unlikely candidate to start because at that time I wasn't in a very good place in my life and I wasn't looking after myself very well. So climbing kind of had this like strength requirement that at the time like I didn't have. But I think that was probably what drew me to it because though I was kind of fairly unwell at the time and I physically,

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wasn't a climber yet. It was a really transformative thing for me to find because I think it was one of the first things in my life that kind of gave me the belief that I could work towards something that was important to me that was not inside of myself. Really relate to that, idea you said there

how climbing can be transformative. And I've only been climbing just over a year, so I'm quite a new climber. But even in that time, I've seen my abilities and how I feel about myself change a lot. So I can really see how it can bring so much to your life. I definitely want to get into more of that later on, but before we get onto that side of things, you are the creator of the biggest women -led bouldering platform on YouTube, which is awesome. But what inspired you to create content about your climbing? I started the channel towards the end of the first lockdown.

when I kind of like reflect about what it is that motivated me to start the channel, aside from the fact that I've always kind of been interested in film and photography, and I think just kind of wanted a creative outlet. I've been stuck in the house a long time, along with everybody else. I wanted to start sharing something that I love for that creative outlet. But I think more than that, I think the channel was really kind of born out of a want to communicate and a

to story tell. So I've been like fairly open on the channel about my experiences with anxiety and social anxiety specifically. And I think throughout most of my adult life, I've really struggled to feel comfortable communicating. It's always something that I have felt kind of insecure about is my ability to communicate with other people. And so I think the channel gave me a way to do that in a format that was kind of on my

I was sharing a passion with other people. I was able to connect with other people in a way that didn't feel scary and intimidating at first. Since then, that's changed quite a lot and I think that's been a really interesting part of my journey on YouTube is how something that started because I was shy and didn't know how to communicate with people has kind of gotten out of hand to the point where I've

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I'm a big audience now and a lot of my work is centred on social interaction and community building. When I reflect on why it is that I started the channel, I think I wanted to my love for climbing in a creative way, but also the channel gave me a voice. Sharing my climbing journey gave me a voice that I didn't always believe I had. To me, as someone who has experienced anxiety but does not run a really popular YouTube channel, I can imagine that that also has its own anxieties as well.

Yes, for sure. think that the development of the YouTube channel, I maybe didn't realise it at the time that starting the YouTube channel was part of this kind of like putting myself out of my comfort zone process. Almost ironically, like the start of the YouTube channel was quite within my comfort zone and like, yeah, develop.

My climbing journey and my time on YouTube, there's definitely been this kind of like parallel process of, it sounds really kind of cliche, but like finding my voice and figuring out who I am and what I want to talk about and what motivates me in like life generally. And it's been a real kind of process of confidence building, which has been really nice. And I guess like a lot of what I'm trying to do is pay that forwards because I see a lot of people that are maybe new to climbing are kind of starting that process for themselves and being like, wow, I found this sport

Like it's fun and I love it, but actually underneath the surface level, it's this brilliant way for me to connect to myself and to, yeah, like find my voice. How does it feel now? I mean, you've obviously gone on a really big journey with your YouTube channel and have developed this amazing following. And as you said, it was something you started to process your anxiety, guess, would that be fair to say? Yeah, I think I'm not too sure it was a a mindful thing that I was doing. I think it was

finding its own way, yeah, like re -channeling my anxiety, like doing something with this like energy that I had that wasn't just directed towards worrying. I'd say the challenges have changed or kind of like slowly been replaced, I suppose. I think the process of putting myself out of my comfort zone, I suppose it doesn't end. It hasn't ended. Like I haven't figured it out by doing it and being like, cool, like that's now I've like cured myself of

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the need to do that, I guess. But think now I feel kind of like at different kinds of pressures or maybe I've experienced like imposter syndrome a little bit more or just have slightly different experiences that kind of like circle around that starting point of being quite an anxious person. Obviously we've talked a bit about the values of your YouTube channel and your content and as a viewer, I feel like it really emphasises inclusivity, fun and the idea, as you've mentioned, that climbing can be and should be for everyone.

that something that was important for you to embed from the beginning? right from the beginning or the start of my YouTube journey I think I've always known that what sets my content apart is made by an amateur climber. I think historically a lot of climbing media has not been from the angle of amateur climbers and I think I was aware of something new that I could bring to the space that showed

climbing content didn't have to be centered on hard climbing or serious climbing and it could just be for fun. I think, yeah, it's definitely been a decision that has informed the direction of my content. I think because my experience of climbing has kind of run alongside climbing changing a lot. And I definitely wanted to reflect some of the positive changes or in my opinion, positive changes that I was seeing in climbing and kind of like run with those and try and

Yeah, just really be aware of sharing all the different reasons why people might climb rather than like performance. So yeah, it's always been important to me to make sure that my channel is, it does emphasize inclusivity, that everybody is welcome. And I kind of, I position myself as like the biggest woman led platform and that I'm really proud of that. And it's super important to the messaging of the channel, but I'm also really clear on the fact that the channel is for everybody.

and not just women. And I think that's what makes climbing, one of the reasons why I love climbing so much is that it's the coming together of lots of different people of different abilities into this like really unique space where everyone's kind of on a more equal footing in that space. So I definitely wanted to have that as an area of focus. Yeah. And I think again, as a viewer,

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You see such a range of people collaborating with you from all different backgrounds and experiences and that really feeds into this idea that we are all a climbing community and you don't only have to connect with people that guess climb the same grade as you or are at a similar place in their climbing journey. You know, there's a commonality that everyone can share. And I was just thinking as you were talking there that there's a couple of people I sometimes see at my climbing gym who wear your t -shirts with your like lovely design on. And I always immediately think when I see them, they must be like a very welcoming and inclusive person because that's the message that

from your content and I was just reflecting there on how great it is that you've created that sense of virtual community to kind of reflect the in -person community that you hopefully get from a climbing gym or a climbing space as well. That's really nice to hear. I'm really glad that I have that positive association and that is definitely something that I feel very connected to and proud of. Anybody can see themselves reflected in the channel hopefully and it feels like a welcoming non -judgmental space to learn, I guess with the context.

Being that a lot of my content is centred on learning, I think that it's really important to me. know in an educational setting that I feel free from judgment or that the kind of like shoulds in climbing. I try to dismantle a little bit so that people feel like they can learn in a kind of safe place.

As a beginner climber, think your videos were some of the first videos that I looked to to learn techniques from and people who I climbed with would suggest, well, if you don't know or you don't feel confident doing this specific thing, then there's a video exploring that to have inclusivity. People need to be able to access this information that shows them how to engage with the sport in a way that's accessible. Just thinking about that, you obviously, as I mentioned, have a really interesting range of people that collaborate with you in your videos. And I guess I'm just curious, like a little bit of a behind the scenes, I guess, about how do you come

with the ideas for your videos and the ideas of people that you might want to engage with. Yeah, it comes across in the channel that one of the things that makes it so special is there's a lot of different perspectives and voices and yeah, collaboration is a huge part of the work that we do. I guess like first and foremost, thinking about the climbers that I want to work with or the coaches I want to work with or the voices in the space that I want to get involved in the channel. I guess this is quite broad and abstract, but I always want to work with people who I feel

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pushing the sport in a positive direction. I suppose that can mean any number of things. They might be doing work that I find kind of like personally inspiring in the space. They might be championing representation and diversity in the space. They might be incredible athletes and coaches. But I think it's important to me, everybody that I do work with is, yeah, like kind of like working towards the betterment of the sport. I'm very lucky in the sense that most people working in climbing

so passionate about the sport, everybody is in their own way pushing the sport in a positive direction. I think also that kind of approachability for someone who's anxious a lot of the time and struggles with some of the kind of the production side of things, they're kind of being in a setting where I'm like hosting a video in front of somebody, it's really important to me

they seem like nice people and I think that I can imagine myself feeling comfortable around them and again I've been kind of like shown time and time again that climbers generally speaking are a great bunch. I've never had a bad experience with a guest which I feel quite lucky to say.

There can be a perception, and I think I maybe sometimes I do this myself as well, where we think about some of the more negative aspects of climbing, like it can be quite a male -dominated space, it can be quite intimidating, you know, if you aren't climbing really hard, there can be times where maybe I know anyway I do that I feel like a bit insecure, but what you're saying there actually is so true, like climbers are, as you say, great people. Thinking about your content, your video where you did the dam for the Red Bull Duel Ascent, which is a 700

plus foot multi -pitch climb, and it was set like an indoor lead route for anyone listening who hasn't seen that video. And I just really want to know what that experience was like, because I'm originally a boulderer and have got into like sport climbing, but that was your first multi -pitch, right? It was, yes. Yeah. I mean, it's one of those experiences where now having done it, I can look back and be like, it was amazing. It was one of the best things I've ever done at the time.

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It was terrifying and I don't think I really appreciated all of the kind of like putting myself in an uncomfortable position. I was just really, really scared. And so I'm a boulder. I have dabbled a little in sport climbing, but it's definitely not where I feel most comfortable. I'm not very confident with things like rope work. I still

even just like going down to the indoor gym and like top rope belaying stressful. So with the Red Bull Dual Ascent it's a multi -pitch. So there's a lot of kind of like safety rope work things to think about, which I do my level best to keep away from most of the time. With the Red Bull Dual Ascent we were invited, I think two weeks before the event was due to take place, we found out that we were going to do it. So there wasn't really like a long lead up time

prepare, so it really felt like being thrown in at the deep end with very little time to feel comfortable and I'm the kind of person that likes to agonize for a long time over something before it happens. Whereas with this I didn't have the opportunity to do that, which on reflection I think is actually a really good thing and taught me quite a lot about how when I'm scared about things I give myself this almost false sense of control by worrying endlessly. And it was actually really quite nice to just be like, okay, this is happening in two weeks and...

I mean, don't get me wrong, I could cram a lot of worrying into two weeks, but I didn't have that time to like catastrophize about all of the things that could go wrong or talk myself out of it. So it was a really cool experience. It was something that me and my partner Nathan got to do together, which was really nice because a lot of times on the channel, he's behind the camera and I'm the one that gets to have the cool climbing experiences. So being able to do that together and capture that experience as something that we did together was...

really cool. After having climbed it, I was like, I've learned all of these skills, kind of throw myself in the deep end and gotten not comfortable, but more comfortable with rope work and being at height and exposure. Cool, now I'm gonna like really run with that and I might get into sport climbing and I might get into trad climbing and I might like explore climbing in different disciplines. I have not done that since. However, I do feel like it was a really cool catalyst for me being

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to almost realising that there's quite a lot more out of climbing that I can be getting. Like I said, I'm primarily a boulderer and I feel like sometimes the adventure of going on a full day out climbing somewhere and experiencing, yeah, climbing in different ways is something that I feel like maybe I could do a little bit more of.

That sense of fear was in a good way quite present in your video. As a viewer, I was like, my hands are sweaty and I feel stressed. And I could see that you were experiencing nervousness and being quite vulnerable with that in a way that felt quite refreshing because I think a lot of the time when you see people do like big challenges like that, I guess maybe they do just feel confident or how they like.

portray it is like, I'm going to smash this and I'm not worried at all. And getting to see that vulnerability as someone who is frightened a lot when I climb in all forms of climbing was really positive. Yeah, just really interesting to see as well. feel like it's not something that we get to see that much of actually. Yeah, I'm glad to hear it. In retrospect, I think because so our climbing experience on the Red Bull Dam was part of a much bigger, like multi -day event and competition where

professional athletes were racing side by side of this incredible 800, 700 foot dam. And something that I feel was not as present as I would have liked, I guess because Nathan and I were both just so focused on doing the dam and

having something go horribly wrong. The athletes that were gathered to do it, like some of the most incredible athletes in the world, people who are very, very experienced in situations that I would think are similarly terrifying to the Red Bull Dam. It was so interesting in the athlete area to see firsthand, I guess, the level of fear that

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they were feeling and also to hear from some of the athletes that were climbing who were reporting that even though they've been to like multiple World Cups or are like well known for pushing the limits of the sport, it was their first multi -pitch or they were terrified, like they were having to really get into a headspace that enabled them to do it and perform. And that was really interesting because I think it is, I went into the experience thinking

the professional athletes that were there to compete on the wall would be like super chill, super comfortable. It's their bread and butter. It's what they do. But I think it was kind of, it felt like that peek behind the curtain that actually they're humans as well. Just like I am. And they're also terrified of going over the edge of that dam, but they're very skilled at finding that kind of like reserve of like bravery. And that was really interesting for me. Cause I also went in with that same feeling of like, that it's not going to phase them. It definitely.

they were definitely scared as well.

Yeah, that is really interesting and actually that really changes my mindset because I remember I don't know what it was I was watching I was watching a YouTube video something and there was a professional climber I think it was possibly Tom from the wide boys and he was saying that he started climbing because he had a fear of heights and I was like well, that's why I started climbing and obviously I don't climb anywhere near as hard or in a similar way to what he does But that made me think actually perhaps when I look at other climbers instead of telling myself they're not scared I can just see that they have a way to deal with that fear and have more experience with that fear or

whatever it might be, but that the fear doesn't go away. You're just dealing with it in a different way. So that was my personal highlight from your videos, but do you have any memories that stick out from the things you've done, the places you've been, the people you've worked with that, yeah, just really stand out to you? I've been so extremely fortunate to have some really incredible experiences in my time doing YouTube. And I've met some climbers that I never thought that I would get to share a session with. yeah, I feel so lucky to have

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those experiences so it's really difficult to pick a favourite. It feels like picking a favourite child. But I think something that stands out to me are a video that we filmed coming up on a year ago now. Yeah, this is an experience that stands out to me not because it was kind of like the most adrenaline -fuelled or the most adventure -packed, but it was definitely one of the more unique experiences that I've had was a video that we filmed last summer when

We, my partner and I were in America. We spent a month in America. And as part of that, we spent a couple of weeks in Boulder, Colorado. And whilst we were there, we got the opportunity to film with Lynn Hill, who is a climber that I have looked up to for as long as I've been climbing. She's probably one of the first professional climbers that I became aware of. If you're not familiar with Lynn Hill, she is an incredible

woman and a real icon of climbing. And she's perhaps most famous for having freed the nose, which is a climb on El Capitan in Yosemite. And yeah, she's just been like an inspiration of mine for such a long time. And when we were out in Boulder, we were climbing with some friends of ours and they asked me who would be like my dream collaboration, who would I most like to work with if I could on the channel and my answer.

was Lynn. We were driving along in the car and they were like through Boulder, Colorado and they were like, that's so funny that you had mentioned Lynn because she lives just down there. And then the next day when we met back up with our friends, they had gotten in touch with Lynn and asked if she would be interested in filming a video with us at her home in Boulder. And she'd said that she would be happy to and that we could go around that day and film, I guess, like an informal chat with her in her back garden in Boulder.

Colorado and it was just like the most surreal experience to go and meet her and in her back garden she has a replica of one of the crooks pitches on the nose which is called changing corners. She has a replica on her home wall so for a couple of hours we played around on that. I fell off it many many many many times and she talked to me about her experiences of climbing in Yosemite and it was just an incredible experience

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When I first started the channel, never dreamed I would get to meet her, let alone climb a replica with her in the back garden of her house. yeah, that stands out to me as one of the pinch me moments from the channel. Yeah, that must have been so amazing. And do you have, I don't know, a mental list of other people that you're thinking that you aim to work with one day or maybe have planned in the future to work with?

Yes, definitely. I mean, it kind of goes without saying that it would be incredible to one day hopefully film with Janja Garnbret. Now that I've spoken that into being, she is a phenomenal athlete, but I also really respect how vocal she is on some issues that are important to me. I think she's a wonderful role model, not necessarily

because of her climbing achievements, although her climbing achievements are just something else, but more so because she has that kind of like approachability that we talked about earlier and she is very human and humble in the stuff that she puts out on social media. just think she's, yeah, a role model way, way beyond just her climbing ability. So yeah, I would have to say Janja. There are other people, I

People may be that I, when I first started climbing, I kind of like looked at those or kind of like part of my earlier climbing like inspiration. I have a couple of projects like up my sleeve, which I'm hoping may or may not involve some deep water solo climbing with some athletes that are perhaps better known for deep water soloing. But yeah, I mean, there's so many people that I want to work with and hopefully I can make it all happen and film those videos. I feel like we're all waiting for the Janja Collab one day. That has to happen, definitely.

And you've picked up there obviously on the work that she does in kind of advocacy and speaking out about issues that are important to her. And one of those is talking about body image and disordered eating. And you've written about that and talked about it quite openly as well in terms of your own struggles. So could you maybe talk about why it was important for you to share those experiences? I think that talking about body image and disordered eating in climbing is important because disordered eating and body image issues are endemic in our sport.

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in our society and I think that as experiences, at least in my experience, they're incredibly isolating experiences that convince us that we're the only people in the world that feel that way or think those things. And I think if I can share my experiences in a way that helps other people to feel like they're heard or not on their own, that feels good to me.

Having a presence on social media, especially I think we receive so much information on social media or even down at the climbing wall that enables comparison in a way that I think really feeds this belief that we're somehow different or we're lacking. On social media, I think it's really easy to fill in the gaps between what we see on social media and what's kind of real. And that's why it's important for me to share some of the struggles that I have.

had in the past and still. Again, when I talk about my struggles with mental health, I think it's just important to, somebody that people might kind of like look up to or see as this person with a successful YouTube channel who's experiencing all these really cool things in climbing that actually I'm a human being just like everybody else and that everybody has their own insecurities and their own things that they struggle

I mentioned that obviously I'm quite new to climbing and something that I noticed in your content and also quite generally in speaking to people in my climbing community who've climbed longer is that kind of hand in hand with maybe some of the comments that people might make that indicate maybe they've personally got issues with their own body image or disorder eating or kind of attitudes that might encourage that. There's also a real pushback against that and I know for myself I've kind of never been in a space where at the same time as someone saying something that is a bit concerning there hasn't also been someone saying this isn't what we do, we don't need to be worrying.

about being lighter, we need to be worrying about being stronger and having that kind of more positive approach. And obviously the work that you're doing, the work that Yanna does and lots of other people as well shows that things are moving in a more positive direction and care is being taken to make that better, which I think is really good. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think with anything like this, the more people feel able to talk about it, or the more people that do talk about it, the less taboo it becomes. And then the more people think that they feel comfortable to talk about it too. And I think that through those kind

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uncomfortable conversations, people can start to tackle how we kind of like collectively respond to those kinds of issues rather than it just being this kind of like no go area that we can't talk about because it's uncomfortable and it's personal and hiding it away. So yeah, I think the more you look out and you see other people saying there's no reason why we can't talk about these or question how things have been done or yes, subvert the the kind of like current narratives around weight and climbing, the better.

Definitely. On a similar vein, guess I'm curious to know if you've ever received any pushback or resistance as a woman with such a prominent climbing platform. Yes. And this is fairly anecdotal, but I think that there's almost kind of like this double whammy in that not only am I like a woman operating,

a business and having a voice in a historically male dominated industry, but I'm also an amateur. And so as an amateur woman in a space that's for a long time valued elite male performance, I feel like some of the criticisms that I get, there's a tone to them. And I guess like a common criticism that's leveled at me often is like my climbing ability or whether or not my climbing ability should afford the profile that I.

have. And I don't necessarily think that's a gender thing, but I do think that there's an undercurrent of scrutiny that I see played out in, let's say, the comment sections of climbing channels run by women that are symptomatic of being a woman. Like in some of the collaborations I've done with prominent women, elite climbers or coaches that are women, I do find, again, anecdotally, that the sentiment and the comments or the, yeah, the sentiment of the criticism takes on a slightly different tone and it will

far more often be judgment level that like appearance or slightly more undermining of ability because, well, she is smaller, has smaller fingers or is more flexible or to kind of put a positive spin on it, I do feel like attitudes are changing for the better as more and more women find climbing and it's not just, it's not as male dominated as it once was, but yeah, I do feel like it informed some of the pushback.

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that I've experienced on my platforms, which is unfortunate. And do you have any kind of, guess, mental strategies or ways that you deal with those comments? Because I can imagine that the experiences you're having are kind of like an amplification because you have the platform that you have. As you say, it's kind of representative of an attitude that can exist also in other spaces too. There might be people listening who will experience that kind of comment.

to their face in a climbing gym or that attitude to them on the wall as well. So yeah, I'm just curious, how do you deal with that stuff when it does happen? Yeah, I think oftentimes my first strategy is just to overlook and I will a lot of times consider criticism and be like, is there something that I can take that's kind of like useful from this? Is this constructive? And if it's very clearly not, then I think I have kind of developed.

a pretty good sorting strategy for like, that's not worth my time. And feel like that's kind of taken a little bit of time. And I guess as the volume of more negative comments goes up, the more it's just not practical to give time to all of them. But I think something that I try to do really intentionally is to like, get perspective and zoom out and try to really focus on the kind of overwhelming majority of positive.

comments and all of the ways that I see people being lifted up in the space and like really lovely comments under videos. So I guess I should try and like distract myself with the positive or just look the other way I guess. I guess there have also been times where I've kind of taken comments that I've received as opportunities to engage in a conversation about what I feel is at the root of that particular comment and

That's not necessarily for the benefit of the person that's commented. And quite often I know that engaging in an online argument with someone is not gonna have a useful outcome or a productive outcome. But I think sometimes I've kind of shared, without giving too much kind of airtime, I guess, to negative comments, I've shared my thoughts around what they're targeting in a way that I hope has kind of like provided food for thought for the people. But I'd say mostly I just try and ignore.

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Or not so much ignore, but like, realise that it makes me feel a certain way, try and figure out whether or not it's something that I even have the capacity to take on. And if not, then I try and forget about it. We've talked a lot about climbing. What else do you get up to? Do you have other hobbies or things that you like doing? For a really long time, I might have struggled to come up with anything else that I do besides this kind of all -encompassing experience

If I'm not climbing, then I'm editing a video about climbing, or I'm doing outreach to climbers to try and see if they would like to climb with me. this all -encompassing climbing is everything. But I think as the channel's grown, it's become more important to me to have things outside of climbing and an identity that's not rooted in either climbing or the channel. Because I think it's really easy to, even for people that don't have YouTube channels or don't take climbing,

really, really seriously, it's, I think, very easy to attach kind of an amount of self -worth to climbing performance or how well your climbing's going. And so, yeah, I try to kind of like separate out like me as a climber and then there is another me that enjoys other things that aren't climbing. And for ages I'd be like, well, what do I enjoy, like, other than climbing? I really enjoy, I'm

quite a creative person. I quite enjoy finding modes of creative expression. And since video editing, I guess, became a big part of my job, I've tried to find other ways of creating that don't feel connected to video production. So I do a lot of writing, kind of just for myself. If we're going on a trip somewhere, I guess it's kind of a diary. But I just write about my experiences. And a lot of my experiences are climbing -related, and so I end up writing about climbing a lot.

I enjoy writing and I also really love reading and reading I think was one of the first things that kind of slipped off when I started to get busier with the channel and work. I never understood when people used to be like, I don't have the time to read. I'd be like, how could you not like make the time to read? And then, yeah, as things got a busier with the channel, I was like, okay, I get it. Like, I really, I don't have the time to read. But recently I've been like rediscovering my love for just like sitting with a good book. I think maybe there's still work to be done.

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in separating out a me that is not attached to my climbing. I would say maybe like photography. I spend so much time kind of like around cameras, in front of the camera, thinking about video making. What I really enjoy is being able to kind of like be in a process of creating with a camera that doesn't feel like work. And what have you got coming up that you can share with us? You got any exciting? Well, I know you will have, but can you tell us about any exciting projects or videos that are coming

So in the next couple of days I will be going to an event in London which is being run by the North Face which is a deep water solo competition which I'm not competing in thankfully but I will get the opportunity to try the wall, the deep water solo wall which is a 16 meter free -standing wall that's then erecting on Canary Wharf so the fall

is Into the Thames, which I have so many questions about from a safety perspective. Like I fully expect to leave the weekend with some kind of illness, but that aside, I think it should be a really cool experience. Deepwater Solo is not something I've ever done before. I'm excited to try that. We have a project, a couple of projects in Europe this summer, one that I'm quite excited about. Actually, the theme of my summer is turning into Deepwater Solo. We're headed

to the Psico Block series with a couple of Mamut athletes who are on the Italian Paraclimbing team and the Swiss Paraclimbing team, Lucia and Amruta. And we're gonna be working on a project documenting their experience climbing on the Sika Block, so under the deep water solo competition out in Croatia, which should be a lot of fun. We are still working on the video that I talked a little bit about filming with Lynn Hill.

in her back garden. That's a video that's not been released. So we're working on a kind of longer form piece about, I guess, like the development of climbing with the Olympics coming up. It's pertinent. Obviously climbing has changed a lot since Lynn first started climbing. So we're working in the interviews we did with her and her garden into a kind of longer form piece about the development of the sport and how it's changing. And I imagine so many different things that

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haven't landed on my desk just yet. feel like so much of what we do happens very spontaneously. Like with the Red Bull Dam, it's like, right, cool, in two weeks time we'll be out in Switzerland climbing a dam. It's always quite fun to think, I wonder what's in the pipeline, I just don't know it yet. That's exciting. And where can people find you if they've listened to this and maybe haven't searched out your YouTube and Instagram and things like that before? Yes, so you can find me on YouTube. The channel name is Hannah Morris Boldring. If not super inventive, then I'm also

quite active on Instagram. It's just underscore Hannah Morris underscore. That's it. If you're based in the UK, then this year Nathan and I are hoping to put on a few more community events in person. Please come along to one of those if you fancy. TikTok, I make very bad TikTok videos on TikTok. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat to me today. It's been really great to hear more about your climbing and your climbing journey. Yeah, thank you for having me.

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You've been listening to the Not Your Typical Climber podcast. I'm your host, . If you've enjoyed the show, please take the time to leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps us out. You can also follow us on Instagram at Not Your Typical Climber and our website is notyourtypicalclimberpodcast .uk. This is an independently recorded and produced podcast.