Closer to the Edge: Climbing to the Ends of the Earth

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Excuse me, sir, I believe that was you up there and I am arresting you for a breach of the peace,' he said in his Mackem – not to be confused with Geordie – accent in the politest fashion the predicament could allow.

During such explorations he has had to deal with tragedy when close friends and colleagues have been killed or badly injured, and he will discuss how you deal with such loss and carry on. I jumped in a taxi and arrived just in time for the reception party, full of old friends from the climbing world who were highly entertained by my brief incarceration. In September 1998, shortly after my eighteenth birthday, I made my first trip to the Yosemite Valley in California and nothing would ever look quite the same again. A condensed and engaging biography of Leo Houlding mixed with breathtaking adventures, a delicate balancing act of danger and pushing the limits. But without knowledge of the pioneers, how can women achieve the same sense of belonging in the mountains as.In a page-turning narrative, Leo describes his childhood inspirations to climb, his mentors who guided him, and the exhilaration of those teenage years when he broke into the public consciousness - such as his infamous race against Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear. We were heartily welcomed into the close-knit Stavanger climbing community and I was introduced to characters who proved influential in later years, including Sindre Bo, Rolf Bae and Robert Caspersen. He has since gone on to not only summit the world's toughest peaks, but to cross continents to explore the most extreme places our planet has to offer - from the frozen mountains of Antarctica to the jungles of South America. Honing his skills as he grew, Leo would travel abroad becoming the first Brit to free climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park at 18 years of age, which cemented his reputation as a world class climber.

Closer to the Edge' is Leo's 'warts-and-all' insight into the extreme life of one of Britain's best climbers who is active today and still planning epic adventures. My catchphrase for that Norway trip was 'I'll climb anything you can in my trainers' and I did a good job of supporting my claim, favouring those specialist approach shoes that are good for climbing but disguised as regular trainers. p>The data controller is Headline Publishing Group Limited. We had a farewell party in the Stavanger climbers' pub Cementen on the picturesque docks of their oil-rich city, where I made a complete fool of myself due to my acute alcohol intolerance, blowing my shot of a dream end to the trip by going home with a blonde beauty and instead falling, or being thrown (I'm not sure which), into the harbour. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

Thankfully a couple of the crags in the region were so overhanging they stayed reasonably dry and we were able to do some climbing. Honest, raw and exhilarating, Closer to the Edge will be a ‘warts-and-all’ insight into the extreme life of one of Britain’s best mountaineer adventurers.

Amazing story of adventure, but which also inspires to find one's own adventure, whatever that may be (climbing or otherwise). Leo Houlding is one of the world’s best climbers; big walls, Everest, triple peaks in as many days, you name it, Leo’s probably climbed it!

The books featured on this site are aimed primarily at readers aged 13 or above and therefore you must be 13 years or over to sign up to our newsletter. He has since gone on to not only summit the world's toughest peaks, but to cross continents to explore the most extreme places our planet has to offer.

When I started climbing, One Man's Mountains was a must-read book in the canon of mountain literature" says Rob Greenwood.

Like a lot of people, all I knew about Leo before this was the Top Gear climb but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.