Climbing judgment with the edges left on.
Psychovertical follows Andy Kirkpatrick through loose, restless solo reflections shaped by climbing questions, domestic interruptions, travel, and uneasy opinions. The show suits listeners who like mountain craft delivered with digressions, self-mockery, and a refusal to stay polished.
PRESS PLAY
Psychovertical is a rough-edged solo talk show orbiting climbing, domestic life, creative work, and the uneasy business of staying oneself in public. Andy Kirkpatrick is the recurring voice in the excerpts, moving quickly from apology to anecdote to practical advice and back again. The show rarely sits still. A listener may hear about Spain, ferry crossings, Johannesburg, Granada, Pedriza, Substack, old Flickr files, children in the house, and dinner needing attention before the thread returns to ropes, hoods, winter packs, or big-wall tactics. The climbing detail is not decorative. Recent episodes spend real attention on frozen ropes, dry treatment, carrying kit inside a rucksack, hood design under helmets, improvised repairs, large teams in poor mountain weather, and the planning mindset behind climbing The Nose in a day. That technical material arrives inside a rambling human frame. Interruptions stay close to the surface. So do fatigue, self-doubt, irritability, jokes about boring books, and a stubborn interest in saying the thing that feels difficult to say. Psychovertical is not a polished instruction channel. It is closer to a long thought spoken into a recorder while life keeps intruding. The result can feel funny, abrasive, useful, and uncomfortable within the same passage. Its mountain judgment is practical because it has dirt on it. Its reflections on work and writing are similarly unglamorous, especially when the talk turns to making a living, keeping up a Substack, doing talks, building websites, and wondering how much controversy is worth the bandwidth. The show also carries an intentionally blunt edge. Recent excerpts include political and racial commentary, dark jokes, references to mental health, and frustration with public niceness that becomes performance. The better way to approach it is as a candid climber’s monologue rather than a neutral advice desk. It suits listeners who want the useful part and the awkward part together. It will not suit listeners who need every sentence smoothed, hedged, or carefully separated into topics. Psychovertical’s distinction is that the craft talk and the life talk are inseparable, and both sound like they were recorded before anyone could make them respectable.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants practical climbing talk mixed with candid digression, domestic mess, creative work, and stubborn personal reflection. Best for people comfortable with blunt humor and unsmoothed opinions.
What sets it apart: Unlike cleaner outdoor advice shows, Psychovertical lets technical mountain judgment collide with family interruptions, writing worries, travel stories, and uncomfortable asides. The useful information arrives inside the whole untidy mind that produced it.
Andrew Kirkpatrick is a British mountaineer, award-winning author and film-maker, TV and movie safety advisor, and monologist. He is best known as a big wall climber, having scaled Yosemite's El Capitan 30+ times, including five solo ascents, and two one day ascents, as well as climbing in Patagonia, Alaska, Africa and Antarctica. He has also crossed Greenland by ski and sailed down Willy Wonka's chocolate river with Johnny Depp. The Psycho Vertical podcasts cover everything from climbing mountains and mental health, to making a living as a creative and overcoming the hurdles of life.
Andy Kirkpatrick's son interrupts the mountain talk; you get the household along with the gear advice.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose return from Spain becomes a darkly comic Johannesburg story about safety, memory, and trying to stay on topic.
Andy Kirkpatrick returns after a two-month gap with a loose, restless monologue that drifts from driving to Spain with Vanessa into a tense evening walk through Johannesburg.
Aniket Patrick turns old photos and contrarian impulses into a loose, funny meditation on memory and taste.
Aniket Patrick begins with a question about an old Flickr account and lets it open onto the strange afterlife of digital photos and storage. A 100-megabyte SD card once felt vast; images that seemed large then now look too small for a phone.
A loose climbing Q&A turns a Nose-in-a-day dream into a pointed look at preparation, commitment, and risk.
The episode opens on beat-up climbing gear and quickly sprawls into repairs, improvised fixes, driving advice drawn from a Substack piece connected to a book chapter, and the pull of climbing the Nose in a day.
A loose, funny meditation on paid writing, comic risk, and the odd machinery of talking for a living.
Psychomatical Podcast works best when it lets interruption set the tempo. Andy Kirkpatrick hurries home to keep recording, finds his wife hoovering spider webs from the ceiling in a head torch, and slides from that domestic oddity into the pressures of paid Substack work.
A slow, specific reflection on boring books, climbing gear, and the pleasure of technical detail.
Psychovertical finds an oddly persuasive pleasure in being boring, especially when the boredom gets precise. The host begins with his habit of telling people he writes boring books, then links that to slow television, moving from a fireplace to a camera riding a train through…
Comedy banter with the chat left open.
Motherhood, sisterhood, and life in motion.
Sisterly talk for life in transition.
Parenting chaos, said out loud.
Andy Kirkpatrick returns to the Psychovertical Podcast after traveling from Ireland to Spain, where a steep Costa Blanca climb exposes how much stamina he lost after a year and a half away from vertical climbing.
Psychovertical host Aniket Patrick answers listener questions about preserving photographs, writing about climbing, and understanding his own self-destructive patterns.
Andy Kirkpatrick answers listener questions about making outdoor gear, troubleshooting sewing machines, and adapting bivy bags for climbing.
Andy Kirkpatrick explains how climbing slideshows developed from pub talks into theater tours that could earn him two years’ living expenses in one month.
Psychovertical EP-61, "Boring," turns a reader email from Oscar into a long argument for balaclava layering in Scottish winter climbing.
Andy K.
Andy Kirkpatrick records Psychovertical from Granada, Spain, while testing a homemade tump line that shifts backpack weight toward his head and may reduce perceived load by a third.
Andy Kett-Patrick records from Spain after a planned 15-day solo attempt on Naranja de Bulnes was disrupted by route logistics and weather concerns near the Bay of Biscay.
Psychovertical's EP-57, "Why We Fail," examines how time, preparation, weather, money, and leadership shape outcomes in climbing.
Psychovertical EP-56 Salad moves from a reading of the 1960s Ladybird version of Rapunzel to the host's reflections on authenticity, class, memory, and endurance.
Psychovertical EP-55 “Night Terrors” marks Handicap Patrick’s return after Google Podcasts disappeared and listeners continued asking for new episodes.
Andy Kirkpatrick records while working on the On the Line climbing book, using missing diagrams and InDesign revisions to examine why large personal projects become difficult to finish.
Andy Kirkpatrick’s Psychovertical episode “EP-54 First Aid” begins with his return to smartphone use, including Bank of Ireland security codes and arguments he continues having in his head at 2 a.m.
Andy Ketpatrick discusses Ukraine, cultural arguments about gender and mountain-guide standards, and the way social-media labels such as “misogynist” can end conversations.
Andy K.
Andy Kirkpatrick uses stories about Ben Saunders, Johnny Dawes and LinkedIn to examine envy, class identity, practical skills and economic insecurity.
Endicott Patrick records a solo Psychovertical episode from his kitchen table, moving from a multi-month sandpit project in Galway to phone dependence and technical climbing questions.
Psychovertical's EP-49 Winter Nonsense follows Andy Keppatrick through the arrival of his fourth child, Isla, and the practical disruption of pushing a pram for three to four hours a day.
Andy Ketpatrick records Psychovertical while Vanessa is approaching the birth of their daughter Isla, using a roller-coaster metaphor for waiting through an unavoidable event.
Andy Kirkpatrick records an emergency Psychovertical episode to correct a claim about Carrauntoohil and revisit advice about petrol stoves inside tents.
Psychovertical EP-46 Tax Credits follows Andy Kirkpatrick as he repairs a Yamaha outboard motor in his shed and reflects on John Doran, a former school acquaintance from Hull who later contacted him about being described on a podcast.
Psychovertical’s “EP - 45 Just Waffle” moves from podcast fatigue and hindsight to the host’s training, family life, climbing memories, politics, tea, bread, and toast.
Andy Ketpatrick records a windy walk beside Galway Bay while discussing the Burren, the Aran Islands, wet-weather clothing, and outdoor walking.
Psychovertical EP-43, "Denali Advice," features Andy Kett-Patrick answering John’s questions before a three-person Denali expedition leaving on May 13.
Andy Kirkpatrick interviews his father Pete, born in Hull in 1947, about leaving school at 14 and three quarters and joining the RAF at 17 in 1964 to escape the city.
Psychovertical's "EP-41 Q&A, sweat, piss and glasses" features Handicap Patrick answering questions about winter climbing equipment, outdoor clothing, and personal routines.
Andy K.
Andy K.
Psychovertical’s “EP - 38 Q&A Skis and Winter Axes” features host Danica Patrick answering Jonathan’s question about pairing La Sportiva Equilibrium LT Gore-Tex boots with Hagan X Pivot bindings for ice climbing and ski mountaineering.
Andy Kirkpatrick records while driving between tour dates in Christchurch, Bath, Andover, and Exeter, comparing a venue that once drew about 400 people with a current audience below 100.
Andy Ketpatrick records Psychovertical after a Newcastle tour date and moves from school memories, touring fatigue, and car trouble to a discussion of regret.
Psychovertical's EP-35.1 Addendum revisits the host's claim that Italy revised its reported COVID death figures after a listener sent a factcheck.com link disputing it.
Andy Kirkpatrick records from Brecon during a theatre tour where Wales's social-distancing rules leave about 200 people spread across a 400-seat venue.
Psychovertical episode “EP-34 Driving Lessons” follows Andy Kirkpatrick driving from Stirling to Inverness while discussing Ella’s first long drive and his touring life.
Andy K.
Andy Kirkpatrick reads Vincent's question about the optimal cooking-pot volume for melting snow during a multi-day Alpine climb.
Psychovertical host Andy Kirkpatrick reflects on an upcoming UK theatre tour, where previous audiences of 300 to 400 people may not return and his absence from social media complicates promotion.
Andy K.
Andy K.
Psychovertical’s “EP 28 Hooks” moves from Endicott Patrick’s ideas about honour, masculinity, and raising children to a detailed explanation of skyhooks and fifi hooks in aid climbing.
Psychovertical host Andy Ketpatrick answers Johnny's question about using Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength model versus Steve House's Uphill Athlete approach for alpinism climbing.
Andy K.
Andy Kirkpatrick examines backlash to an Instagram post offering nine blunt suggestions for people describing themselves as depressed, including reducing news and television, reading, listening to music, walking a dog, and avoiding sugar.
Andy Kirkpatrick records a long walk on an Irish road while pushing his eight-week-old son Noah, after becoming a father again at 49.
Psychovertical host Andy K.
Andy Kirkpatrick uses Psychovertical Episode 21 to examine resilience through special-forces television, physical training, hardship, and social-media behavior.
Psychovertical Episode 20: Andy Kirkpatrick: Catch Up follows Andy Kett-Patrick's return to the Psycho-Vertical Podcast after months away and the completion of his book Down.
Andy Kirkpatrick and Hazel Findlay examine whether climbing becomes selfish when a climber's passion makes them rude, unavailable, or difficult to live with.
Andy Kett-Patrick discusses his nearly 400-page climbing book, including formal belay communication, abseiling procedures, crevasse rescue, and advanced rope techniques.