Banff Mountain Book Festival 2006

Wednesday , November 1, 7:30 p.m.

Eric Harvie Theatre

Leo Houlding

Photo courtesy of Leo Houlding

Often referred to as Britain’s climbing prodigy, Leo Houlding has scaled many of the world’s most formidable rock walls and towers. His talent and ambition, equally matched, bring new directions to the sport of climbing. He is a technician whose technique defies gravity.

Houlding has made his mark by pushing the limits of traditional rock climbing and the boundaries of both style and difficulty. His airborne antics, unprecedented and exotic displays of agility, and lighthearted attitude have not gone unnoticed in the climbing world. His philosophy for climbing and life is simple, “Don’t take it too seriously, life might be too short.”

Houlding, now 25, began climbing with his father in the English Lake District at the age of ten. As a junior competitor, he started on plastic, winning the 1994 Birmingham World Cup and the 1996 British Indoor Climbing Competition. His pursuits gradually took him away from climbing competitions, with his skills finely honed for big-wall climbing. He has claimed he wants to “spend the foreseeable future free-climbing fierce new free lines in far-out locations.”

Among a long list of feats, he has redpointed a line on El Capitan (graded V8/9 and 5.13d), made the first free ascent of the West Face of the Leaning Tower, and on-sighted the Regular Northwest Face of Yosemite’s Half Dome. In January 2002, with Andy Cave, he made the first free ascent of Ilusiones on the east face of Cerro Máscara in Patagonia. He has climbed and travelled in North and South America, India, Thailand, Madagascar, Australia, and throughout Europe. He is still headed towards the pinnacle of his career, and his insatiable desire continues for what he considers to be a spiritual activity. “When you arrive at the point where you can’t go down, can’t fall off and you can only go up — suddenly it becomes very pure.”