For someone whose training and competing schedule was interrupted in the most dramatic of ways, Hamish McArthur has made it all work out for him and, what’s more, he’s done so his way. The 20-year-old Team GB climber has two Youth World Championship titles to his name, as well as a bronze World Championships medal thanks to a blazing performance in Moscow last September.
“As someone who loves nothing more than to be out in the middle of nowhere, it definitely weighs on me that almost all of the climbing that I do is under a roof”
It’s not surprising that the climber has bigger things on his mind already, looking as far ahead as 2028 for a certain world sporting event (not just 2024). And who can blame him? He joined the GB senior climbing team at 16, placed third on the world stage at 19, and this February caught the attention of Arc’teryx, who welcomed him to their athlete team. It’s all looking up for McArthur, and he’s probably already figured out the fastest route.
Hamish talks about climbing with the same certainty he approaches the wall. For an athlete still so early in his career, it’s clear he already knows what a big part mindset has to play. There’s also a fluidity to his game, perhaps best demonstrated by his seamless response to certain global situations back in 2020; a time when he took the opportunity of a changing environment to focus on his strength and conditioning. Embracing unexpected developments in life, just like in climbing, is all part of the process it would seem. Ahead of the upcoming Arc’teryx Alpine Academy in Chamonix this month, we got a bunch of Hamish’s thoughts on the Olympics, the outdoors, and, well, his thoughts.
