Mountain Air

“Mountaineering, climbing - whatever name you want to give it - is probably the most honest thing there is” > Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk Sometimes… there’s room for one more episode. Even though Mountain Air is currently on a summer break between the end of series 3 and the eventual arrival of series 4, a timely interview opportunity came alon...

“I can see now that I loved the training as much as the event: it was having a mission, some discipline and routine, pushing myself a little more…” > Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk Episode 3|10 is all about Damian Hall : almost certainly the most self-effacing man ever to finish fifth at the Ultra Tour de Mont Blanc. For those unfamiliar, “Wiltshi...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “I love getting out there and stripping everything away so that life becomes very simple.” In the latest episode of Mountain Air we meet Becky Coles, a Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor and expedition leader whose travels have spanned all seven continents. Through these adventures, she’s recorded numero...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “I want to help people and I want to be useful, and that’s the main reason for doing it all” Episode 3#08 meets Claire Maxted, who was forced to run at school. She hated it. Yet, just a couple of decades later the recently appointed BMC Summit editor can count Trail Running magazine, the Wild Ginger Running YouTube...

Visit : https://mountainairpodcast.uk/ Bonus episodes don’t come more exciting than this. To accompany a written interview on UKHillwalking, here’s the audio of my conversation with Shane Ohly following his stunning continuous completion of the Dragon’s Back Race route from 15-19 August 2024. Thanks to Steve Ashworth for use of the accompanying pictures. > dragonsbackrace.com > shaneohly.com...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “My strength is my curiosity, and being pretty good at suffering” Episode 3#07 sits down with mountaineer, therapist and motivational speaker Maria Granberg, whose achievements so far include: climbing Manaslu (8,163m), and becoming only the second Swedish woman to summit Everest (8,848m) via its North Face. Howeve...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “Once you slow down you see it all” Interview recorded 24/01/24 On the latest episode of Mountain Air, Dan catches up with Patrick Davies, a writer, long-distance walker and charity fundraiser whose latest book “Where Skylarks Sing” recounts a 2250km walk across the UK mainland in the summer of 2021. “Skylarks”, wh...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “It’s about being prepared for what nature throws at us” Interview recorded 27/09/23 Since 2009, Mark Diggins has been the coordinator of the Scottish Avalanche Information Service (SAIS). This valuable role means overseeing hazard forecasts for Lochaber, Glen Coe, Craigh Meagaidh, Torridon and the two halves of th...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “It sounds a strange thing to say about a 400 million year-old mountain like An Teallach… but it’s fragile” Interview recorded 06/07/23 Dougie Baird has spent his working life building and repairing mountain paths. That makes him the the perfect person to help protect one of Scotland’s greatest mountains.  Tha...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “Underpinning it all was this ridiculously amazing team behind me… two years of planning was spent gathering an army of friends and strangers.” Episode 3#03 meets Jamie Aarons , who on 26 June 2023 became the fastest person ever to have completed a self-propelled round of the Munros . In doing so, she covered more...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “There’s no greater feeling than finding people alive in the mountains.” Episode 3#02 meets a legendary figure in Search and Rescue circles. A member of RAF Mountain Rescue for 37 years, David “Heavy” Whalley has attended more than a thousand call-outs, and saved the lives of so many people in the hills that he’s r...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “I get excited about something and I say yes, and then I do it. And I enjoy doing it, so I keep doing it.” Episode 3#01 of Mountain Air stars Steph McKenna , winner of the fabulously titled 2023 Fort William Festival “Scottish Youth Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture”. Steph was caught unawares by the award (...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “ I love being able to share what I experience… taking folk to places they wouldn't feel confident to get to by themselves. ” Episode 2#10 is thrilled to meet Kirsty Pallas, of Oban in the West Highlands. Kirsty is an outdoor instructor of more than a decade’s experience who the 16,000 members of Mountaineering Sco...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk “You’ve got to acknowledge that you’re just a fragment in time.” Episode 2#9 settles down with Doug Bartholomew, a man who has the dream job of managing one of Scotland’s great landscapes. Seek him on a weekday, Saturday or Sunday and you’ll find him and his team of fellow NatureScot employees on Beinn Eighe and Lo...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk Episode 2#08 sits down with the charming and disarming J.R. Harris. Since 1966, J. Robert Harris has undertaken more than 50 multi-week trips into the world’s wild places: “all unsupported and most of them alone”. He’s driven to where the US road systems end (or did in the late 60s), 120 miles north of Fairbanks, A...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk Episode 2#07 gets to know none other than multi-talented photojournalist David Lintern. Based in Kingussie in the Cairngorms National Park, David is an outdoor writer and photographer of high reputation. You’ve likely seen his images and read his words across many different magazines and websites that focus on Brit...

> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk Episode 2#06 welcomes a man that may be the most prolific hillwalker in history. That’s because Rob Woodall has spent the past 40 years systematically completing every list of peaks, tops, prominences and trig points in existence. Putting to one side the popular lifetime achievements of the Munros , the Corbetts ,...

Episode 2#05 cosies up with the irrepressible Sarah Jane Douglas. In 2019 Sarah published her first book: Just Another Mountain , an autobiographical story of loss and grief, but ultimately joy, love and empowerment found in the wild beauty of the Scottish Highlands. It was a huge success. So much so that it saw her lauded across the national press and invited onto ITV’s flagship breakfast show fo...

Episode 2#04 is thrilled to sit down with Colorado-based Renan Ozturk to discuss his latest film “The Sanctity of Space”. A climbing film at heart, it not only celebrates the stunning landscapes of Denali National Park, the Alaska Range and the film-makers’ carving of a new skyline route across the “Moose’s Tooth” peak (3,150m)… <deep breath> but also pays heartfelt tribute to Brad Washburn,...

A very quick update about the next episode in the series… > visit thesanctityofspace.com

Episode 2#03 hears all about a big decision. Exhausted by commuting, frustrated by inflexible work and desperate to spend more time pursuing her love of the outdoors, Keri Wallace stepped away from a 10-year career in science communication and moved with her husband and two young daughters to Glen Coe. She’s never regretted it for a second. The result of this sizeable life-shift was the founding,...

Episode 2#02 is in awe of Zac Poulton. Zac is one of the Lake District’s three “Fell Top Assessors”, which means that today, yesterday, tomorrow and every day of the winter season, there’s a 33 per cent chance that he’s walking to the summit of one of England’s highest peaks. The resulting pictures and written reports provide an invaluable resource for hillwalkers, climbers and anyone else venturi...

Hello! And welcome to series two of Mountain Air! It’s an absolute pleasure for this episode to be supported by UKHillwalking.com, and an equal pleasure to be bringing you 87-minutes of conversation with Sibusiso Vilane - an inspirational man with an inspirational story to tell. In 2003, Sibusiso he became the first black African to summit Mt Everest, a phenomenal achievement given his impoverishe...

Series 2 is here! And it requires a small amount of introduction. All of which you’ll find in the audio file you're currently browsing. However, for those of us that prefer the written word, here’s a précis: - there will be another 10 fantastic interviewees to look forward to. - it’s proudly sponsored by www.ukhillwalking.com (“the fastest growing hillwalking website in the world”). - the first ep...

Episode #10 stars guidebook writer, website editor, mountaineering journalist and all round outdoor adept Dan Bailey. When not researching and writing up gleaming new guidebooks to his adopted homeland of Scotland, London-born Dan lives the life of a professional outdoor scribe, managing a popular hillwalking website, publishing intricate route descriptions of the UK’s most inspiring mountain adve...