Andy is one of the funniest of Britain’s top climbers and represents what is best in modern British climbing: boldness, innovation, sense of humour, irreverence, commitment, and an appetite for risk.
- Sir Chris Bonington
The US magazine Climbing once described Andy as a climber with a “strange penchant for the long, the cold and the difficult”, with a reputation “for seeking out routes where the danger is real, and the return is questionable, pushing himself on some of the hardest walls and faces in the Alps and beyond, sometimes with partners and sometimes alone.”
More succinctly, Metro magazine claims that he “makes Ray Mears look like Paris Hilton”.
Andy's speciality is big wall climbing and winter expeditions, which involves pitting himself against a vertical climbs of over 1000 metres (that’s two and a half world trade centres), often in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees. Andy has scaled Yosemite's El Capitan - one of the hardest walls in America - over ten times, including two solo ascents. One of these ascents was a 12 day solo of the Reticent Wall, viewed at the time as perhaps the hardest climb of its type in the world.
In 2002 he undertook one of the hardest climbs in Europe: a 15 day winter ascent of the West face of the Dru. This 1000 metre pillar pushed him and his partner to their limits and was featured in the award winning film 'Cold Haul'.
Andy has also taken part in three winter expeditions to Patagonia. The stories that Andy has brought back from these expeditions have become modern classics in the climbing world and have brought new meaning to the words 'epic' and 'cold'...
“I haven’t climbed Everest, skied to the poles, nor sailed single handed around the world. The goals I set out to accomplish aren’t easily measured or quantified by world records or ‘firsts’. The reasons I climb, and the climbs I do, are about more than distance or altitude, they are about breaking barriers within myself”.
It is perhaps Andy's journey from remedial student to successful climber, writer and speaker that interests his audience most. Brought up on a council estate in one of Britain's flattest cities, Hull-born Andy suffered from severe dyslexia which went undiagnosed until he was 19. One of his greatest strengths is his ability to talk about his life and his climbs in a way that is totally accessible to the non-climber and allows the audience to experience the risk and tension of big wall climbing.
Andy also works in film and TV, as a stunt safety advisor and this plays a part in many of his talks, which take you from the heights of Patagonia to the chocolaty depths of Charlie and the Chocolate factory!
You can find out more about Andy at his website Andy-Kirkpatrick.com.
This autumn, internationally acclaimed mountaineer Andy Kirkpatrick will be returning to UK theatres with a new show ‘When Hell Freezes Over’.
Following his successful tour in 2007 with his show ‘Psychovertical’, Andy will be taking to the road again this autumn. One of the UK’s most accomplished mountaineers and big-wall climbers Andy is a hugely popular speaker on and off the climbing circuit. With his first book due to be published by Random House this Autumn, Andy is definitely a rising star, and has developed his own niche as the only mountaineer with stand-up talents to rival the top comedy acts in the UK.
Andy is well known amongst mountaineers for his strange penchant for climbing in extreme conditions in some of the harshest places on the planet. His new show will focus on his winter expeditions to Patagonia, a treacherous mountain range at the southern most portion of South America, including his recent attempt to climb Torre Egger in 2007. Andy’s show gives a real taste of what it’s like to go on a major expedition, with tales of being trapped on mile high summits in hurricane winds, buried by avalanches, and pushed close to hypothermia whilst lashed to the side of a mountain. A 100 mile-an-hour ride through Andy’s white-knuckle experiences of the last 15 years.
Please note the show contains strong language.
“My son and I came to see your talk in High Wycombe last night. I can honestly say it was the best evening's entertainment I've had in years - thanks very much! Inspiring and incredibly funny - I can't remember when I last laughed so much. And my teenage son, who generally finds everything incredibly tedious these days, was also in fits of laughter for the whole evening!”
“You have a natural self effacing style which gives you an immediate rapport with your audience.”
“You're clearly insane but in the best possible way (which is that - you're most definitely not). I was also blown away by your photography. They were incredible shots and really provided a sense of scale and underlined the bonkers things you've done, no matter how much you tried to underplay them!”
“Fantastic, didn't stop laughing. My non-climbing girlfriend thought it was excellent too. If you get the chance – go!”
When Hell Freezes over is roughly 2 hours in length, including a 20 minute interval.
Click on venue to be taken to thier site
* This date will be billed as 'An Evening with Andy Kirkpatrick and Andy Cave' - Andy will be performing a shorter version of his full length show during his half.
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