Top adventurers to speak in Wales and Scotland

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Every Spring, Kendal Mountain Festival hits the road with its UK Tour.

The concept is simple. Take the spirit and essence of Kendal, compress it, and put it on tour. That means fun, great speakers, carefully curated films and bags of inspiration.

Expect much more than the same old film-tour format. Each event centres around an amazing adventurer, primed to blow your socks off with lively tales of endurance and grit. Mix in a curated collection of films that you’re unlikely to see anywhere else, and then everything is woven together by a knowledgeable compère.

Currently the Tour is in mid-flow, so here’s some news of the upcoming Scottish and Welsh dates:

During May there are two events in Wales, Caernarfon (4 May) and Aberystwyth (5 May). Main speaker in Caernarfon will be Matt Pycroft, the Sheffield-based filmmaker who has travelled to some of the world’s most remote and inhospitable locations to cover expeditions, often accompanying well-known climber Leo Houlding. From Mount Asgard on Baffin Island in the Arctic, to Mount Roraima in the depths of the Amazon jungle, each expedition has thrown up its own challenges not only to capture top-quality film footage, but also to stay safe and survive. “Things don’t always go according to plan”, as Pycroft wryly notes.

Also joining Matt in Caernarfon will be filmmaker Menna Pritchard, introducing a special screening of her award-winning film ‘A Woman’s Place’, celebrating 100 years of the Pinnacle Club.

Aberystwyth features Elise Downing, a writer, runner, and general outdoors lover best known for being the first woman to run self-supported around the coast of the UK, a journey of 5,000 miles. She is the best-selling author of travel book Coasting, an account of her adventure that aims to show that if Elise could run around a country, then anybody can. It's impossible to overstate quite how unprepared she was!

Heading north into Scotland there are three dates - Glasgow (12 May), Inverness (13 May) and Banchory (14 May) - all featuring the inspirational Anna Taylor. The 24-year-old Lake District-based climber was part of the 2019 expedition led by Leo Houlding to make the first free ascent of the 600m prow of Mount Roraima, and subject of the film ‘House Of The Gods’. Closer to home, last year Anna became the first person to complete a self-powered round of every route that features in Ken Wilson’s iconic book Classic Rock. Carrying all her kit, Taylor cycled 2,400km and climbed over 10,000m during a journey that lasted 62 days and saw her climb most of the 83 routes solo, without ropes.

Once again, those dates are:

Caernarfon: Weds 4 May: Matt Pycroft and Menna Pritchard

Aberystwyth: Thurs 5 May: Elise Downing

Glasgow: Thurs 12 May: Anna Taylor

Inverness: Friday 13 May: Anna Taylor

Banchory: Saturday 14 May: Anna Taylor

Tickets are available via the Tour website kendalmountaintour.com/tickets

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