Pete Whittaker

Pete Whittaker is a British climber recognized for his crack climbing and for partnership work with Tom Randall. He’s regarded among the world’s leading crack specialists, with notable first free ascents credited to him and his partner—achievements that place him at the technical frontier of hard trad and offwidth climbing. His approach mixes methodical training with a deep interest in the awkward, physical techniques specific to crack lines.

The feature Wide Boyz documents Whittaker and Randall’s preparation and trip to the American desert to tackle Century Crack on Utah’s White Rim—a roof offwidth that was widely seen as one of the hardest of its kind. The film opens in a Sheffield cellar where they replicated a horizontal offwidth to train, then follows their transatlantic campaign, blending training montage, dry humor and the physical reality of hard crack climbing. Viewers watch how uncomfortable, specific techniques—stacking, chicken-winging, arm-bar locks and inverted positions—are repeatedly practiced until they can be applied at height.

Beyond the ascent itself, the film shows the duo’s broader enterprise: under the name Wide Boyz they produce instructional media and equipment to support crack climbers, and the film explains why offwidth requires a distinct training approach from typical face climbing. For anyone curious about the mechanics and preparation behind hard trad and offwidth climbing, this film is a focused study in technique, conditioning and the partnership needed to make these difficult routes happen.