Hitting The Wall

Climbing perilous heights at speed takes nerves of steel, unfaltering grip and months, if not years, of practice. Naturally, we gave our man just three days to get the hang of it. This is how his gym-honed fitness stacked up.

- Michael Jennings

I’m pretty fit. At least, I think I am. I tick off five Cross Fit classes a week, I can perform 20 unbroken pull-ups and I dead lift more than double my body weight for reps. Earlier this year, I ran the Great North Run half-marathon in an hour and 43 minutes, so my cardiovascular fitness isn’t terrible, either. However, standing at the bottom of a speed-climbing wall in the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena (EICA), Europe’s largest indoor climbing space, built into an old quarry in the Scottish capital’s countryside, my bravado is waning. This is a far cry from the workouts I’m used to. The arena has played host to British Championships, World Cups… and now a Men’s Health junior fitness editor way out of his depth.

My challenge is to scale the 50ft speed climb as fast as I can. By pressing a big, red button at the bottom of the wall and then again at the top, my score can be recorded by a digital timer. To help me hold my own on the wall, the EICA has put me in the capable and well chalked hands of Robbie Phillips, one of Scotland’s top climbers. On his Instagram (@robbiephillips_), Phillips describes his climbing style as “pure, unadulterated… no bullshit”. He’s just returned from spending a week suspended off an 800m rock face in Madagascar, where a friend fell from a 100m height and broke his leg (which doesn’t help to settle my nerves). Clearly, Phillips is the type of man who is drawn to danger. I avoid it at all costs, so the next few days should be interesting.

The earliest and only experience I have of climbing is watching the likes of Hunter and Wolf chase after challengers on