Internationally acclaimed mountaineer and ex-coal miner Andy Cave is set to travel around the UK this autumn with his gripping lecture show Learning to Breathe.

Andy Cave is a figurehead for British Mountaineering, with more than 20 years of desperate routes to his name. Aged just 20, he became one of the youngest mountaineers ever to climb the North Face of the Eiger, an achievement made all the more remarkable as just 4 years earlier, Andy was working 3000 feet underground at Grimethorpe Colliery in South Yorkshire.

Andy’s story of transition from Yorkshire coal miner to one of the UK’s best climbers is a gripping and compelling tale. Traditionally a gentleman's sport, a young coal miner from Barnsley was an unlikely mountaineer. His journey from the blackened grime of the pit to the breath-taking Himalayan summits is both moving and startling. His gritty insight into the turmoil of the miner’s strike - which ravaged his local community - and his audacious decision to break with family tradition and seek out a life of adventure in the mountains is a tale of tremendous courage and ambition.

'A powerful testament to human strength, courage and the will to survive.'
GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE

Andy Learning to Breathetakes the audience on a tremendous human journey through his experiences of the miner’s strike in 1984-85 to his traumatic expedition to the perilous North Face of Changabang in the Himalayas in 1997 - an expedition in which his climbing partner paid the ultimate price. His inner-turmoil and eventual decision to return to the mountains is one of the most stirring tales of modern mountaineering. Set against a backdrop of the Himalaya, Patagonia and Alaska, Andy explores some of the severest challenges modern Alpinism can pose in his understated but humorous style.

'An extraordinarily talented climber…with a ready perceptive wit and natural flair as a storyteller'
JOE SIMPSON

Andy comments: “This passion of mine started long ago when, as an inquisitive child, I scrambled up the local pit muckstack. Later, as a teenage coal miner disillusioned with the world of dirt and darkness, I had fallen in love with real mountain climbing.”

DATES & VENUES

Please follow links below to book online.  Please note booking fees may apply at some venues.

SEPTEMBER

Fri 25          Galeri                                   CAERNARFON             01286 685222
Sat 26         Theatr Harlech                   HARLECH                     01766 780667

OCTOBER

Tues 6        Middlesbrough Theatre    MIDDLESBROUGH     01642 81 51 81
Mon 12      Town Hall                             LOUGHBOROUGH     01509 231 914
Wed 14      Borough Theatre                ABERGAVENNY          01873 850805
Tues 20     Epsom Playhouse              EPSOM                          01372 742555
Wed 21      Dearne Playhouse             BARNSLEY                  01709 894128
Thurs 22    King George's Hall             BLACKBURN               0844 847 1664
Fri 23         Theatr Mwldan                     CARDIGAN                  01239 621200 

NOVEMBER

Wed 4       Pavilion Theatre                  RHYL                             01745 330000
Fri 6           Albert Halls                          BOLTON                        01204 334400
Fri 13        Festival Theatre                   PITLOCHRY                 01796 484626

DECEMBER

Wed 2     The Lowry                              SALFORD                    0870 787 5790