Present talk about climber said to be off the record (2,7)
I believe the answer is:
in private
'off the record' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adverbs. Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'present talk about climber said' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'present' could be 'pr' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'pr' is found within the answer.
'about' could be 'a' (abbreviation in Chambers) and 'a' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'to be' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for in private that I've seen before include "Confidentially" , "behind closed doors" , "behind the scenes" , "secretly" .)