Speakers from the Edge works with some of the best speakers in the UK; climbers, adventurers and mountain athletes who will inspire, excite and often terrify you with their stories.
This is a select group of professional speakers who offer the highest levels of experience, both in their field, and talking to diverse groups.
Jamie Andrew is the incredible mountaineer who lost his hands and feet in a horrific accident in the French Alps. Miraculously, despite his handicap, Jamie has carried on with his mountaineering career and has made some amazing ascents all over the world, raising many thousands of pounds for charity along the way.
“ My great passion in life has always been mountaineering. At the height of my climbing career, tragedy struck unexpectedly when my climbing partner and myself where caught for five days in a terrible storm after completing the North Face of Les Droites in the French Alps. The ensuing helicopter rescue was one of the most spectacular in the history of the Alps and made news headlines around the world. Unfortunately the rescue came too late for my partner Jamie Fisher but I survived despite severe frostbite and hypothermia. Later in hospital, all of my hands and feet had to be amputated. ”
In 2006 Dave Bunting led an elite selection of climbers from the British Army on a groundbreaking expedition to become the first British team to climb the formidable West Ridge of Mount Everest. As expedition leader Dave headed up the planning, team selection and preparation as well as being a strong member of the climbing team himself. This highly publicised expedition earned Dave an MBE and was filmed for the recently televised documentary Everest: Man v. Mountain.
Dave has been climbing worldwide for over twenty years and his passion for mountaineering has led him on numerous worldwide expeditions, including 9 to other Himalayan Peaks. Dave is a leading specialist in mountain training with over 20 years experience gained in the Army's Physical Training Corps training a huge variety of people of all ages and ranks within the British Service’s, including elite units such as The Royal Marines and Special Air Service (SAS).
“ Dave Bunting is a great mountaineer, exceptional leader and truly inspirational speaker, who is equally at home talking Outdoor and Adventure or Leadership Development. ”
Professor Carlton Cooke Carnegie Professor of Sport & Exercise Science Leeds Metropolitan University
Sean Chapple is no stranger to the challenges of leadership and team working, with over two decades experience of survival and performance at the highest level and in extreme conditions.
From a career as an officer in the elite Royal Marine Commandos and a record breaking polar explorer, Sean 'The Ice Man' has been leading teams in some of the world's most hostile environments since 1989. Sean has been a pioneering figure in pushing the envelope of polar adventure, leading some of the most remarkable polar journeys of recent times. In 2007, Sean organised and led a team to success on the world's toughest overland ski - a 2,200km journey that has a 90% failure rate.
“ A truly inspirational speaker, who really brings the power of his experiences to life and makes you want to achieve just a fraction of what he's done. Sean has spoken at several of our client events and always receives excellent feedback ”
TMS International Ltd
Kenton has been climbing for 14 years and in this time has established himself as one of the UK's leading alpine climbers with an impressive list of difficult ascents to his name. After many seasons honing his skills in Scotland and the Alps, Kenton has spent the last few years extending his climbing to the greater ranges with significant first ascents in Alaska, India, Pakistan and Nepal.
In 2007, Kenton became the first Briton to summit Everest 5 times, and first European to reach the top of Everest twice in the same week! Following on from this, he successfully guided vertigo sufferer Ranulph Fiennes up the North Face of the Eiger, raising £2.5 million for Marie Curie Cancer Care, an expedition featured in an ITV documentary.
“ Kenton is one of the finest, and at times the bossiest Mountain Guides I've ever had the pleasure to sleep with on a 3 foot ledge! ”
Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Despite being paralysed from the chest down in 1993, Karen has continued to pursue her ambitious programme of challenges with remarkable determination. Karen finds much of her inspiration through outdoor adventure. A keen runner and mountaineer before becoming paralysed in a rock-climbing accident, Karen has since pursued alternative ways to access the outdoors - kayaking, sit-skiing and hand-cycling. Karen has hand-cycled in various corners of the world, including Central Asia and the Himalaya, the Pakistani Karakoram and the length of the Japanese archipelago. In 2006 she became the first paraplegic woman to ski across the Greenland Ice Cap, a journey of over 600 kilometres and in 2009, she is planning to kayak around Cape Horn.
Karen has considerable experience of motivational speaking, funding her passion for adventure through corporate speaking and management training for some of the most influential global companies, such as Microsoft, Unilever and Shell.
“ Karen Darke's story is about the indomitability of spirit. She has overcome the limitations of paralysis and discovered a life of challenge and adventure that many of us only dream about. It is all about the mind, the spirit and the desire that some of us find, but which all of us possess. ”
Joe Simpson, mountaineer and author of 'Touching the Void'
Tim Emmett is one of the UK’s top extreme sports athlete. When he’s not scaling a sheer rock face or diving head first off a cliff you’ll find Tim giving inspirational, energy-charged presentations to schools and businesses up and down the country. Ice climbing, snowboarding, surfing, scuba diving, skydiving, kickboxing and, more recently, BASE jumping are all facets of Tim’s quest to seek out extreme adventure and push the envelope of psychological and physical performance.
A well-known personality in the climbing world (he achieved a podium position three times in the Ice Climbing World Cup), Tim has appeared on many magazine covers and TV programmes, recently appearing on Top Gear where he was challenged to race Clarkson in an Audi RS4 – and won! Last summer saw Tim presenting the BBC1 series Outdoor Britain and since then he has been working on a number of other projects for TV.
Tim’s latest focus has become climbing’s newest cult – ‘Para Alpinism’, which means climbing a big wall with a BASE rig and then jumping off, into freefall, to get back down. Tim is currently undergoing a rigorous training programme for ‘wing-suit flying’, which will allow him to cover vast distances with a longer freefall.
“ charismatic, enthusiastic and energy-charged ”
Edinburgh Mountain film festival
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.
“ 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
Steve McClure is one of the best rock-climbers in the world, having climbed numerous new routes at the grade of f9a, and onsighted up to f8b+. Despite being better known for his sport climbing achievements, you might also find him wiggling in wires on a big wall in Greenland or on a local Peak district crag.
Steve is well known for his modest, approachable attitude, and has the rare talent of being able to make the experience he has obtained relevant in motivating others to improve, be they aspiring climbers or a class full of Year 11 students about to embark upon their GCSEs.
“ Over the last few years Steve has been head, shoulders and a fair amount of torso above everyone else in the UK ”
UKClimbing.com
One of Britain’s leading alpinists and twice nominated for the Piolet D’Or (mountaineering’s version of an Oscar), Ian has made significant ascents in the Himalaya, Alaska, Kyrygyzstan, Greenland and Patagonia.
In 2005 Ian climbed Everest, filming Sir Ranulph Fiennes attempt to climb the mountain, reaching the top when Ran was forced to turn around on the final day.
This winter Ian and Sir Ranulph teamed up again and made a successful ascent of the North face of the Eiger, Switzerland, raising 1.5 million for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
As one of climbing’s best mountain photographers and film makers, Ian’s insights into the world of mountaineering are accompanied by stunning images and raw footage, capturing the reality of modern mountaineering.
“ Ian gave the LTA team a great, inspirational talk at the National Tennis Centre. Ian has a very engaging style and he gave us a great insight into the skills needed and techniques we can all use to achieve our goals. We would highly recommend Ian for an inspiring and motivational session for any team. ”
Lawn Tennis Association
Simon is one of the most famous and accomplished exploratory mountaineers of his time. After the harrowing events of his and Joe Simpson’s first ascent of the West Face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985, during which Simon was forced to take the decision to cut Joe’s rope (recounted in the bestselling book and BAFTA award-winning film ‘Touching the Void’), Simon carried on to climb in some of the most remote and rarely explored mountain ranges of the world.
Simon brings a refreshing modesty and dry humor to mountain speaking, underplaying his remarkable achievements, yet at the same time giving a gripping account of the life of an exploratory mountaineer.
“ It put me back there myself, strung out and going for it. ”
Doug Scott - Mountaineering legend and first Englishman to climb Everest
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