Early news from Kendal Mountain Festival
- Friday 18th July 2014
‘Kendal’ is the biggest event of its type in the world and it’s the main social event for outdoor enthusiasts in the UK. As ever there’ll be hundreds of film screenings including high-profile premieres plus loads of speakers and special guests making this a must-do long weekend in the Lake District.
Confirmed speakers for this year include the uber-alpinist Christophe Profit, who ripped up the mountaineering rule book in the 1980s with a string of ultra-fast ascents and ‘enchainments’; soloing the Petit Dru in 3 hours and 10 minutes, first one-day solo winter ascent of the Eiger North Face, soloing the Peuterey ‘integrale’ in one day, and linking the Grandes Jorasses, Eiger and Matterhorn north faces inside 42 hours.
Ueli Steck would likely agree that Christophe provided inspiration for the speed ascents of Alpine and Himalayan peaks that he’s now taken to a different level. The holder of the Eiger North Face record – 2hrs 47mins, solo - Ueli has had a busy couple of years to say the least, with plenty of stories to tell including Everest and his ultra-fast ascent of Annapurna’s South Face.
Partnering Ueli on Everest last year was Chamonix-based photographer Jonathan Griffith, an accomplished alpinist and self-confessed ‘hopeless mountain addict’. Jonathan’s photography is well known and respected as much for its unique style as the fact that some serious climbing is usually necessary to get the shot, as his lecture will reveal.
Recounting decades of pioneering through new books this year will be three very different climbers: Martin Boysen, Martin Moran and Steve McClure. All three legends will be lecturing and talking about their biographies, sharing their experiences.
Finally for now, Tim Cope is an Australian adventurer, author and filmmaker who has spent the best part of a decade travelling Russia, Mongolia, and Central Asia by bicycle, row boat, skis, horse, camel and many other means, turning these experiences into award-winning films and books. Plenty of adventures to recount there…
Together with the art exhibitions, literature, the RAB Party plus the Boardman Tasker literary prize, it promises to be another unmissable year. The organisers say that there are plenty of surprises they can’t tell us about yet, so watch this space!
Dates are 20-23 November with film tickets already on sale – news as it happens at mountainfest.co.uk