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Inspiring Adventure by Vertebrate Publishing
Ep2 - Pete Whittaker talks about Crack Climbing
Pete Whittaker is widely regarded as one of the best crack climbers in the world. He seeks out pioneering first ascents and revels in pushing his personal limits. Having grown up in the Peak District surrounded by the area’s world-famous gritstone crags, he has been climbing since the age of six and has gone on to rack up an impressive mix of climbing achievements on a variety of rock types and styles across the globe. As one half of the Wide Boyz duo with Tom Randall, Pete has become synonymous with hard crack climbing. He has taken techniques learnt on his local crags and has applied them to with great effect all over the world, most notably on the huge roof cracks in the desert areas of Utah, and on the big walls of Yosemite.
Pete popped into the Inspiring Adventure podcast studio to talk to us about his climbing experience and give us a sneaky insight to what we can expect from his new book, Crack Climbing, which he’s written to provide a single point of reference for all crack climbing techniques, regardless of the grade you climb.
Whilst Pete believes he has only scratched the surface of what is possible with hard crack climbing, we can all agree that his experience places him as a top authority in this field. His ability and willingness to share his learning has led to the production of ‘Crack Climbing’ and it stands to be the one-stop-shop for learning and applying crack climbing techniques. These techniques should be at the core of any climber’s craft; and the book will help you develop skills with confidence and improve your climbing standard.
We’ll be back again in a fortnight, with an interview between adventurer Leon McCarron and author of ‘Quest into the Unknown’ Tony Howard, so do join us for that!
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And keep an eye on our YouTube channel for some special videos from Pete!
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4. Ep 4 - John D. Burns talks bothies in a bookshop
26:26John D. Burns is a mountaineer, storyteller and author. His first two books, The Last Hillwalker and Bothy Tales, were self-published bestsellers and were both shortlisted for TGO Magazine’s Outdoor Book of the Year. Earlier this year John joined Vertebrate Publishing with a three book deal to produce new paperback editions of The Last Hillwalker and Bothy Tales alongside his latest title, the novel Sky Dance, all published in September. John is currently working on his next title, Wild Winter, that is due to be published in Autumn 2020. John is a gifted storyteller and his performance poetry and one-man plays have taken him across the country from the Edinburgh Fringe to mountain festivals, bookshops to theatres and back again. His passion for the hills, mountaineering, bothies and keeping ’The Great Outdoors’ great and accessible to all is clear and infectious.I met John at the incredible independent Nottingham bookshop, Five Leaves, just before one of his events to chat about his life in wild and wonderful places, the lure of snow and how both of these influence his writing.Sky Dance is John’s first novel. It’s is a gripping read and view into the beauty of rural and wild Scotland, but also delves into the politics of land ownership, raptor persecution and conservation, challenging readers to face issues that surround the protection and access to some of the UK’s last wild places. To read it for yourself you can order signed copies from v-publishing.co.uk where we’re running a 30% off sitewide deal until Sunday 17th November, or keep an eye out for other offers in the run up to Christmas, including a 3 for 2 on all John’s titles. We’ll be back again in a fortnight, with an interview between two climbing legends; Jerry Moffatt and Pete Whittaker - be sure to join us for that. Buy Sky DanceVisit John's websiteFind Five Leaves BookshopRead the Walkhighlands interview with John D. BurnsRead or listen to Sky Dance by getting the ebook or audiobook3. Ep 3 - Leon McCarron interviews Tony Howard
32:07Tony Howard rose to fame in 1965 as one of a group of young climbers who made the first British ascent of Norway’s Troll Wall; a climb described by Joe Brown as, ‘One of the greatest ever achievements by British rock climbers’. Tony, and his wife, Di Taylor, have explored all over North Africa and the Middle East, surviving in many of these countries by living with the enigmatic Bedouin tribes.In this interview Tony talks about developing climbing and adventure tourism in Jordan and climbing and exploring in Iran, Sudan, Artic Canada, Morocco and Algeria. He also discusses the development of modern climbing equipment with which he was greatly involved a well as exploring the Sinai Trail and the relationship between climbing and travel.Quest into the Unknown is the jaw-dropping account of Tony Howard’s life of adventure, that is the very definition of true exploration. His life has been dedicated to travelling the world in search of unclimbed rock faces and remote trekking adventure; the scale of this being truly vast. It’s easy to place Quest into the Unknown as ‘the last word in adventure travel’ which will take you from Tony’s youth in the Peak District to Troll Wall, the Canadian Arctic, Jordan and Thailand, and this year the book was awarded Highly Commended in the Outdoor Book category at the Outdoor Writers and Photographer Guild Awards for Excellence.Buy Quest into the Unknown or Troll WallJoin in the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd visit our YouTube channel to watch this interview.1. Ep1 - Scottish Island Bagging
09:39In this episode Rae interviews Helen and Paul Webster, co-authors of Scottish Island Bagging. Find out all about there incredible experiences travelling from island to island, their favourite moments and why this is the ultimate eco travel trend for immersive get aways. Links from the episode:Buy Scottish Island BaggingWalkhighlandsIsland Baggers: the people competing to visit all 706 isles around Britain - The GuardianOne down, 705 to go: adventurers race to visit every single British island - The TimesThe rise of 'island bagging' - a race to visit every one of Britain's 706 isles - The TelegraphJoin in the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
