Kendal Mountain Festival 2009
Ueli Steck entertains a large Kendal audience with details of his speed solo ascents of the Eiger North Face.
The Cumbrian monsoon season did little to deter the big crowds at Kendal for the annual climbers social gathering and mountain festival this weekend. Whilst the floods had subsided the rain persisted and the films, talks and local beer (Kendal MRT) all flowed freely.
British Mountain Guides played active and diverse roles in this years festival from the event organisation (Brian Hall and Andy Perkins) to giving talks (John Cousins, Alan Hinkes, Mat Helliker & Jon Bracey) to presenting and chairing some of the lectures and discussions (Andy Cave and Adrian Nelhams). Most importantly DJ Si Abrahams presented an 'Electro Clash' genre to the Saturday night party. Many more Guides were on hand to soak up the atmosphere and chew the fat.
The weekend programme is so extensive now that once the social factor is added you need to be pretty selective about what films and talks you really want to see. Here are a few personal highlights....
Ueli Steck entertained a large bleary eyed Sunday morning audience with a detailed and amusing account of the process of speed soloing the big 3 alpine North Faces. Describing his motivation for doing this he explained that since getting married he needed to spend less time away from home and soloing the Eiger, Matterhorn and Grande Jorasses North Faces in just over 7 hours was one way of achieving this! On his first speed solo of the Eiger he recounted returning a dropped crampon to a British team bivvying just 17 minutes in from the start of Ueli's ascent!
