Simon Yates is one of the most famous and accomplished exploratory mountaineers of his time.  ‘Life and death’ is a common phrase used to express a difficult decision, but few people ever really have to face the reality of that choice. Simon is a man who had to take such a decision, whilst trapped on his descent from Peru’s Siula Grande with climbing partner Joe Simpson. Believing Joe to be dead on the end of the rope, and being slowly pulled off the mountain whilst losing all feeling in his hands, Simon was forced to make the stark decision to cut the rope that joined them in order to save his own life – a story retold in Joe’s best-selling book and the BAFTA award-winning film, Touching the Void, that made both men household names.

Since this fateful expedition in 1985, Simon has gone on to climb in some of the most remote and rarely explored mountain ranges of the world, making eleven visits to the Pakistani Karakoram, climbing numerous peaks including first ascents of Leyla Peak (6300m) and Nemeka (6400m) in Hushe. He succeeded with a team making the first British ascents of Khan Tengri (6995m) in Kazakhstan and for a time concentrated on big wall climbing in Patagonia and Baffin Island – his most notable achievement a new route on the Central Tower of Paine in Chile.

"A really cracking lecture in a pleasantly laconic style that gets right to the heart of what modern exploratory mountaineering is all about. Such was the demand to hear him speak that we needed to bring him back again and again. He has now spoken for us on no less than 8 occasions and his new lectures are justifiably just as popular as his original talk."
Robin Ashcroft, National Mountaineering Exhibition, Rheged

Simon has made four sailing and mountaineering trips to Chilean Tierra del Fuego resulting in the first ascents of Monte Ada (2100m) and Monte Iorana (2300m). In September 2004 Simon returned to Pakistan and made the first ascent of the South West Face of Hispar Sar (6400m), and in May 2005 climbed a new route on the West Face of Mount Alverstone (4439m) the remote Wrangell-St Elias range of mountains on the Alaskan–Yukon border.

As well as his mountaineering achievements, Simon also runs an expedition company and is a successful speaker and writer.  His first book 'Against the Wall' was runner up in The Boardman Tasker Award for mountain literature in 1997 and his second book ‘The Flame of Adventure’ was short-listed for a prize in the prestigious Banff Mountain Book Festival in 2001.

2008-2009 has been Simon touring around the UK with his lecture show Beyond the Void.  To book Simon for your event, please contact us.