Vertebrate Authors and Adventurers at London Mountain Film Festival

• 2nd—3rd May 2020

We'll be holding a stall at the London Mountain Film Festival supporting our authors and adventurers, meeting the public and – of course – selling books! 

The London Mountian Film Festival is THE mountain festival of the South. The absence of mountains in the city has only fuelled London's rich adventurous and explorative history – it has been a centre of adventure for centuries. 

Click HERE to get your tickets and find out more about the event! Set to be a date to keep free in your calendars...

AUTHORS

Pete Whittaker 

Photo - Mike Hutton

Pete has been climbing since he was six. In 2014 he flashed the classic freerider (5.12d) on El Capitan and in 2016 he became the first person to make a solo-free ascent of El Capitan in under 24 hours. On top of these impressive achievements Pete is also regarded as one of the best crack climbers in the world, having made dozens of cutting-edge first ascents and hard repeats, including the first ascent of Century Crack (5.14b) in Canyonlands, Utah. In 2019, Pete has drawn on years of this experience to publish with Vertebrate, Crack Climbing: Mastering the Skills and Techniques. 

Speaking: Session 7           Interviewed: Session 8 

Steve Birkinshaw

Steve is a legend within the fell running and ultra running communities. He has over 20 wins in the elite class at mountian marathons including Lakeland 100 and Dragon's Back Race. In 2014 he famously crashed through all 214 Wainwrights in under seven days. In 2017 Steve published There Is No Map In Hell, which recounts his preparation, training and mile-by-mile experience of the extraordinary and sometimes hellish demands he made of his body, and the psychological aftermath of such a feat. 

Speaking: Session 3           Interviewed: Session 1

Doug Scott

In 1975 Doug was the first Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest, via the formidable south-west face. In the first volume of his autobiography, Up and About, Doug tells the story of his borth all the way to the unplanned bivouac without oxygen newar the summit of everest. In total he has summitted forty peaks in the high mountains of Asia over 42 expeditions. In 1977 he climbed the Ogre with Chris Bonington and endured a survival story that is the stuff of folklore. The Ogre is undoubtedly one of the best adventure stories of all time, a biography of a mountain and a dramatic story of the first ascent.

Speaking: Session 5           Interviewed: Session 6

Mick Fowler

Mick is one of the UK's foremost mountaineers, putting up new routes in most fields of climbing, with first ascents of gritstone E5s, remote sea stacks and the frozen drainpipes of London St Pancras to his name. Along the way, he helped to develop a whole new style of climbing on the chalk cliffs of Dover. Juggling duties as Alpine Club president and a full-time job in the tax office with his passion for exploratory mountaineering, he has been at the forefront of a pioneering approach to alpinismfor over thirty years, collecting Piolets d'Or awards along the way. No Easy Way is Mick's third volume of climbing memoirs following Vertical Pleasures and On Thin Ice.

Speaking: Session 6           Interviewed: Session 7

John Porter 

Born in the States, John Porter served his climbing apprenticeship in New England, the Rockies and Yosemite. Arriving in the UK at 20, he became part of 'the generation that nearly climbed itself into extinction'. His talk will be about alpine style first ascents in the Himalayas and the Andes with partners including Brian Hall, Al Rouse, Peter Boardman, Joe Tasker, the Burgess Twins, Paul Nunn and Voytek Kurtyka. His award winning biography of Alex ManIntyre, One Day As A Tiger, is a worldwide bestseller and won at the Banff Mountain Book Festival. John is also co-founder of the Kendal Mountain Festival (1980) and is current President of the Alpine Club. 

Speaking: Session 8

Jon Barton

Jon is the founder and publisher of Vertebrate, Britain's number one publisher of outdoor activity and adventure books. He’s the author of Vertebrate’s best-selling Peak District Mountain Biking and White Peak Mountain Biking guides. as well as walking, climbing and trail running guidebooks to the Peak District. A keen runner, climber, mountain biker and fell walker Jon has a huge amount of experience travelling the world in search of adventures, but always coming home to the Peak District where his favourite adventures always start. 

Hosting: Session 5 & 6

VERTEBRATE ADVENTURERS 

Anna McNuff 

Anna is an adventurer, speaker, author and mischief maker. Named by the Guardian as one of the top female adventurers of our time, Condé Nast Traveller included her in a list of the 50 most influential travellers in the world. She is the UK ambassador for Girl Guiding, and has cycled over 20,000 miles in Europe and the Americas, including through all 50 states of the USA. She has also run the length of New Zealand, which is featured in our brilliant title Fantastic Female Adventurers by Lily Dyu.

In the summer of 2019 she set off on her most ambitious adventure yet – an attempt to run 2,620 miles (100 marathons) through Britain… in her bare feet.