Rebecca Stephens & Leo Houlding - Coniston Walking Festival 2009

Coniston Walking Festival 25th - 27th September 2009

Coniston Walking Festival 2009 is preparing to welcome two great personalities of British mountaineering: Rebecca Stephens and Leo Houlding.

Both Rebecca and Leo will be leading walks and giving talks ofver the festival weekend.

To view the programme of events taking place please follow this link to www.conistonwalkingfestival.org

Rebecca Stephens

Rebecca is the first British woman to have climbed Everest - an achievement recognised around the world. Rebecca then went on to become the first English-speaking woman in the world to climb the Seven Summits, the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.

It wasn't until the age of 27 that she discovered a passion that was to change her life. As a journalist, she accompanied an Anglo-American expedition on Everest's North East Ridge and got bitten by the mountaineering bug. She decided she wanted to climb. Not only that, she wanted to climb the highest mountain in the world. Four years on she fulfilled this ambition and has subsequently continued to break records and barriers.

Not surprisingly, Rebecca continues to adventure at every opportunity. She has sailed the Southern Seas to the South Magnetic Pole and Antarctica, competed in an eight-day Eco-Challenge with polar explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Mike Stroud, running, biking and canoeing across the Canadian Rockies. Most recently, she has crossed the island of South Georgia in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

She is a trustee for the Sir Edmund Hillary's Himalayan Trust, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, member of the Alpine Club, and has been closely involved with The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme and the Outward Bound Trust.

Leo Houlding

Adventure is what entices Leo Houlding the most. Leo is one of Britain’s, and the world’s, leading rock climbers. At just 28 years of age he has accomplished some extraordinary feats and has set a blazing trail through the climbing world with his adrenaline packed exploits. Leo is an adrenaline junkie athlete to look out for.

Leo can be found participating in almost any high-adrenaline, high-risk and high-adventure activity, not only climbing and mountaineering but also skiing, snowboarding, surfing, skydiving, base jumping, slack-lining and deep water soloing. Leo has a true love for life, wild places and the extreme.

From becoming British Junior Indoor in 1996 he free-climbed the mighty cliffs of El Capitan in Yosemite, bouldered at 28,000 feet on Everest, rode erupting volcanoes, BASE jumped into caves and experimented with parachute-assisted descents. In June 2007 leo joined the Altitude Everest Expedition on a quest to cover the steps of legendary British climbers George Mallory and Sandy Irvine on their fateful last ascent of the North Ridge of Mount Everest. In 2004 he became the subject of the documentary “My Right Foot” which was part of the Extreme Lives series aired on BBC and recently is own TV show for Virgin One “Take Me To The Edge”.

www.conistonwalkingfestival.org