Kendal Mountain Festival is back and it's bigger than ever! Building on the incredible online event from 2020, there are now more ways than ever to experience the four-day festival. Join either in-person or online and experience the film, literature, speaker events, music, and art, all curated by the top team at Kendal HQ.
Here are some of our top picks for the festival:
Base Camp has moved!
Kendal Mountain Festival's legendary Basecamp has moved to a new larger space at Abbot Hall Park. Entirely free to enter, Basecamp is alive with exciting activations, competitions and demonstrations from your favourite outdoor brands. There will be a whole host of interesting talks led by Rachael Crewesmith and George Lonsdale.
14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible European Premiere plus Q&A with Nims Purja
Kendal welcomes Nimsdai Purja to share the European premiere of his new Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible. This feature film follows 'Nims' on his seemingly impossible quest to summit all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks in seven months. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Nirmal "Nims" Purja and the film director, Torquil Jones.
James McHaffie: Extreme Rock
In May, Jamies McHaffie (aka. Caff) became the first person to complete the 180 routes featured within Ken Wilson and Bernard Newman's Extreme Rock. In this session, he joins UKClimbing's very own Rob Greenwood (another Extreme Rock fanatic) to discuss his initially accidental journey towards completing the routes featured. Starting from youthful years spent soloing routes down Borrowdale all the way through to Caff completing the book, what's craziest of all is that it's arguably his other achievements that are the most impressive.
© Nick Brown, Jul 2013
Beastmaking
Hosted by his partner, Shauna Coxsey (you might have heard of her), Ned Feehally takes to the stage to talk about his new training book: Beastmaking. They'll discuss Ned's climbing career from his early competition days and highball heart stoppers, to his dedication to training and his new book. There will be a chance to ask him a question or two as well.
© Vertebrate Publishing
Patagonia Climb Session
People often say that they want the real stories in climbing, as opposed to just the big numbers, but within this session, there's a bit of both. Within this session hosts Jessie Leong and Rob Greenwood will be interviewing Leanora Volpe and Aidan Roberts on how they both got into climbing and how competitions influenced their lives, as well as the remarkable Carlos Casas from the community group Colour Up; climbing and mountaineering instructor Kirsty Pallas; and last, but by no means least, man of the moment - Neil Gresham.
The Wall - Climb for Gold' film preview - with Shauna Coxsey
A chance to hear from top climber Shauna Coxsey and watch a preview screening of the brand new 'The Wall - Climb for Gold' feature film which follows four elite climbers, Janja Garnbret, Shauna Coxsey, Brooke Raboutou, and Miho Nonaka, over an extraordinary two years. They battle through Olympic qualifying events to earn their place at Tokyo, then face a gruelling season of competition and training that sees everything put on hold when the Covid-19 pandemic forces the Games to be postponed.
As the young women confront their own mental and physical demons en-route to Tokyo, the film reveals an astonishing and inspiring insight into what it takes to be an Olympian and ultimately what it means to be human.
All For One
Ultrarunner Sabrina Verjee sets out to complete a continuous round of the Wainwright fells, smashing the record and completing the 326 miles in five days, 23 hours and 49 minutes. Her aim was to complete the 214 summits, 525km and 36000m of ascent in under 6 days and set a new record. Sabrina Verjee and filmmaker Stephen Ashworth take the stage to reflect on her epic achievement.
The Mountain Session
Presented by Andy Perkins and featuring two recipients of the Piolet D'Or, Graham Zimmerman and Uisdean Hawthorn, the Mountain Session brings you tales of some of the greatest ascents from across the world.
The Merrell Running Session
The Merrell Running Session had us from the moment we heard Joss Naylor was on stage, but beyond that, there's a whole host of other interesting individuals involved. Martin 'MJ' Johnson, co-founder of Black Trail Runners, will be recounting his FKT of the Thames Path, Mhairi Helme will be talking about her completion of Joss Naylor's Lakes, Meres and Waters Challenge, and Mirna Valerio will be beaming in from New York City to relay her experiences running 'across the pond'.
Ordinarily, this would sound like enough for a single session, but in addition to this, there's a team of keen youngsters from Ambleside AC, presenting their short film about their incredible completion of Abraham's Tea Round in 8hrs 7mins.
Take a look at the full 2021 Festival Programme here
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