It's probably fair to say that your approach to training had a huge impact on the generation of climbers who followed you. How much of that approach was influenced by the likes of those around you such as Ben and Jerry, compared to it coming from the relative isolation you had in Scotland from the hub of British climbing - Sheffield?

The Sheffield scene and the likes of Ben and Jerry had a big influence on me from '92 onwards, when I first lived there. My most formative training happened from '88 to '92 though, before I experienced Sheffield and I worked most of it out for myself. As a teenager I read a lot about training and bought body building books and magazines. I'd also seen an article called 'Cellar Dwellers' in a climbing magazine about the underground Sheffield training scene. One of my early influences was Rick Campbell, an Edinburgh climber who built a board in his flat and glued on bits of Rock for holds. I wanted one too but ended up making wooden holds instead. I built my first board in 1990, before that it was fingerboards, weights and traversing along Dunbar's sea walls. In a way I think the isolation helped, as my best work seems to get done when I'm on my own with no distractions. I actually found Sheffield a bit overwhelming. I lived there in stints from '92 until 2002 often running back to Scotland to recoup and focus more clearly on my own training before returning for another intense bout.

You left a legacy of not just hard training mentality, but also some incredible problems for the next generation. Monk Life has become a classic testpiece for those who have taken those methods and new techniques to the next level in the UK, a pilgrimage as it were. Did that feel like a career defining problem for you at the time? The name, the location, the basic rawness of the it seems to speak volumes about your climbing. What went in to getting that done?

It was good to get Monk Life done but also a bit of a relief. I'd tried it on and off for 10 years using the same duff sequence then Andy Earl found a better way. Within a couple of days of using the improved sequence I'd done it. I don't think it's as hard as some of my other stuff and in fact a local hotshot Mickey Page did it multiple times in a day for photos. It's such a classic problem visually though, and as is often the case with sandstone it looks impressively hard. At the time I didn't have to do any special training for it, it was well within my level.

With that level in mind, was there anything you ever wished you'd done when you were at your peak - unfinished business?

I'd love to have done some more long hard routes. I think I was capable of doing more 5.14d's but it didn't work out. I tried 'Northern Lights' at Kilnsey when it was a project and latterly 'Rainshadow' at Malham, but did neither. 20 years ago at my lightest I think I had the fitness needed. My build has changed now so as I said earlier I can't go back. In general though I feel I got a lot out of myself and applied my obsessive streak to productive use.

You spent a couple of decades at the top of the sport, looking back on what you learned from that experience both training and on projects what advice would you give to the next generation?

I don't feel qualified to give advice to the next generation because they're much better. I'd like to take their lead and suggest to myself 20 years ago that I do more circuits in training. Of course the facilities now are so much better, long steep climbing walls etc. All I had in my teens was a few sheets of plywood with wooden holds, which by the way only trains one type of strength and does little for technique. I suppose the monastic dedication goes a long way but in my day that level of training was considered unusual, in climbing now it's the norm.

Those boards you trained on were perfectly captured by Ben Pritchard and Rich Heap in the movie Splinter, where you climbed your problem mimicking Hubble. Training is one thing, but executing on problems and routes is an entirely different skill which separates the best climbers from the rest. How did you put yourself in the right mindset to complete your projects?

I had the mindset that I was stronger than the route. What worked for me was hold specific training to reduce any crux moves down to a manageable level. Once the moves felt easy compared to what I was doing in training then that gave me a big psychological boost. I also wrote everything down and tried to get an improvement each session on the climb, whether a bigger link or achieving the same link more times in a session. Climbing is great in that the technical improvement aspect on new moves allows for a perceived strength gain for weeks. With weights I've discovered that genuine strength gains take a long time once you master the movement. Another thing that works psychologically is losing weight for a project, if you pull on 2 pounds lighter then you immediately feel great. That's maybe not a long term solution but it works in the short term.

Many climbers of all levels suffer from frustration and doubt on projects, which deeply effects their performance - what advice would you give to anyone going through it?

I think most climbers do, I did myself often. It's important to keep chipping away no matter how stressful it is at times. I had long term boulder projects but luckily most of my routes went down without too long of a siege. Routes are more stressful and long term projecting a route is hard, I experienced a bit of that on those routes in Yorkshire but I gave up on them. I don't suppose it makes sense to get very stressed and focused until you're close to doing the climb,until then there's a lot of fun and relaxation to be had by making small improvements. Also at times you need to feel the stress and do it anyway, I did that all the time on hard red points, it's worth it in the end.