British mountaineer Andy Kirkpatrick comes to Edinburgh

October 19, 2011 3:34 pm

Straight from his latest epic on Norway’s Troll Wall, Andy sets out on fourth speaking tour which will include a date in Edinburgh.

British mountaineer Andy Kirkpatrick has a reputation for being extreme. He has a compulsive obsession with climbing the most difficult winter routes he can find, often completely alone. Described by Climbing magazine as having “a strange penchant for the long, the cold and the difficult”, he is one of the world’s most driven and accomplished mountaineers.

In the last 5 years Andy has also carved himself a niche as the UK’s only “stand-up” mountaineer, funding his dangerous trips through his outrageously funny theatre shows (Psychovertical, When Hell Freezes Over, Off the Wall) recounting his extreme adventures with a heady mix of observational comedy and self-deprecating tales of survival.

Fresh from climbing the tallest vertical rock-face in Europe, The Troll Wall in Norway, Andy will be touring the UK this autumn talking about his new book, Cold Wars. A follow up to his award-winning Psychovertical, the book charts a period of his career marked by his increasingly high-risk climbs. As his brother is drawn into the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, Andy juggles family life with his climbing obsession, completing two of the most dangerous climbs on the planet – a 15-day winter ascent of the Dru in the Alps and the first winter ascent of the East face of Mermoz in Patagonia.

A gripping account of modern adventure from the UK’s most extreme mountaineer.