Julia Bradbury
A television star will join record-breaking mountaineers and a double Olympic champion at a mountain festival this year.
Julia Bradbury, whose ITV series Best Walks with a View starts today, is among Keswick Mountain Festival speakers announced by organisers for the 10th annual event.
The May event will also host talks by Yorkshire climber Alan Hinkes, the only Briton to have summited all 14 of the world’s 8,000m mountains, double Piolet d’Or award winner Mick Fowler, who has posted first climbs in remote Himalayan peaks, and Olympic rower turned adventurer James Cracknell.
The festival will open with a presentation by Monty Halls. For the past three years, Halls has been travelling the world, seeking out the mysteries and the hidden gems of the planet. He has led expeditions and explored oceans, caves and jungles, and maintained a high profile on TV with series such as Dive Mysteries and Lost Worlds. During his talk, Halls will explore whether exploration and true adventure still exist.
He will be followed by Julia Bradbury, best known for her Wainwright’s Walks televised series, and whose new offering, beginning Friday evening, runs for eight weeks and will include a route in and around Keswick.
Both will speak on the opening day of the festival, Thursday 19 May.
Friday at Keswick Mountain Festival will see a special evening with double Olympic champion James Cracknell. After reaching the pinnacle of achievement in rowing, Cracknell has carved a name for himself as an adventurer who is prepared to subject himself to huge physical and mental challenges.
He will give the festival audience an insight into how he has overcome the obstacles that he has faced and dealt with the life changing consequences of his accident in Arizona in 2010.
Mountain adventures will be the theme on the Saturday, as two of the UK’s most accomplished climbers entertain audiences in the Theatre by the Lake. The evening will begin with Alan Hinkes’s talk about his 8,000m peaks quest and some of his more recent adventures, in Scotland, Norway and the Arctic.
The speaker programme will conclude with Mick Fowler, a man who epitomises adventure mountaineering and specialises in finding new routes on remote Himalayan peaks. Fowler is one of the most highly regarded mountaineers on the planet. He will share details from his latest successful expedition, the first ascent of 6,571m (21,558ft) Gave Ding with Paul Ramsden, via the spectacular north face – completed using his holiday allocation from his full-time job in the tax office.
Festival director Nicola Meadley said: “This is a fantastic line up to mark our 10th anniversary.
“We have secured some of the best known and most respected names in their fields and we’ll have a distinct theme each night. I think that this year’s combination of speakers epitomises the amazing breadth and depth of our programme, which is what makes Keswick Mountain Festival such an essential event for so many visitors.”
More details are on the Keswick Mountain Festival website.
