Tom Randall

Thomas Paul Randalll was born in South Africa, and grow in Sheffield (UK). He's climbing since he was 16, and he is a keen trad climber and has established many first ascents all over the world, mostly involving some kind of crack climbing. In 2011 he teamed up with Pete Whittaker to take on the world's hardest offwidth crack Century Crack, which is documented in the film "Wide Boyz" from Hotaches. His current project is to make the first ascent of “The Crucifix” in the USA.

A love for first ascents has also taken him around the UK and the world, with hard trad routes in Orco and Red Rocks to his name. With an appetite for suffering, a good sense of humour and endless enthusiasm, Tom has also pushed the boundaries closer to home with a string of creative challenges – some hard, some odd, but usually both.

Tom has also pushed climbing in unusual directions. After an injury forced Tom into avoiding crimps, he focused on developing crack climbing skills and eventually an offwidth obsession. After ticking everything in the UK and some of the hardest routes in Europe, there was only one place left to visit. A trip to the south-west of the US, the offwidth capital of the world, resulted in the first ascent of Century Crack (5.14b) – the hardest of its kind. From the widest of cracks, the obvious challenge was then the thinnest. After spending months in his now famous training basement, a trip to Squamish resulted in an ascent of Cobra Crack (5.14).

"I was born in South Africa an…