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Leo Houlding has been smashing world records since his teenage years. Aged 18, he became the youngest person to free climb Yosemite's El Capitan — one of the toughest walls in America. In 2005, he made the first free ascent of Cerro Fitzroy’s North Pillar in Patagonia. In 2010, it was completing The Prophet route on El Capitan in Yosemite, pegged as one of the hardest routes in the world. In 2013 he made the first ascent of a new route on what is thought to be the most technically demanding peak on the harshest continent — Ulvetanna, in Eastern Antarctica.
Now he is ascending The Spectre in Antarctica — a jagged granite spire that juts out of the world’s most remote mountain range, the Gothic Mountains — before traversing 1,200 miles across the continent by ski and kite. The area is beyond the reach of most independent expeditions, with the closest human habitation at the South Pole’s Amundsen base, 310 miles away. For 69 days he and his team — alpinist Jean Burgun and cameraman Mark Sedon — will be alone and unsupported. Our news editor, Olivia Lee, catches up with Leo prior to departure as he packs 73kgs of bespoke FIREPOT meals in his Lake District home.
It’s totally relative. Minus 30˚C wearing a down-suit on a sunny, windless day in Antarctica is toasty. Plus 5˚C wearing jeans and hoody on a wet and windy day in the Lake District is bone chilling. That said, below 40 is cold however you dress it up. Being skinny doesn’t help.
My late father-in-law, Jackson Corrie. He was a lifelong climber, an adventurous soul and a strong proponent of the micro-adventure long before that phrase was coined. Thanks to him my wife is the woman she is and my two beautiful children exist.
Everything’s always moving. Eventually it will end, but not for a very long time. Earth knows how to look after herself — it’s us humans that need to be worried.
The first big independent film I produced with Alastair Lee — The Asgard Project — features a track called Beautiful Lies by B-Complex. It’s the backing track for a couple of awesome sequences. But if budget allows (which it won’t!) I’m keen to licence an iconic track for the Spectre Expedition film — something like Live Forever by Oasis. It was the soundtrack of my teen years and really strikes a chord.
At 21, when I fell off Cerro Torre in Patagonia. I smashed the talus bone in my ankle, leading to a three-day crawl back down the mountain, major surgery, six months on crutches and a year with no climbing. It almost ended my career before it had really begun.
No, I believe we navigate our own destiny. The more passion and drive we put into life, the more likely that circumstance will be there to lend a hand.
For me right now, I’m consumed by Spectre — the precise and optimum compromise of skis, boots, bindings, how many tent pegs to bring, what socks to wear. It’s dominating my thoughts!
But in truth, my greatest concern is being away from my one-year-old son and four-year-old daughter, leaving my wife to hold the fort on her own for nearly three months. They’re the most important part of my life.
On another scale altogether, the refugee exodus in Myanmar, the wars in Syria and Yemen, the overpopulation crisis strking sub-saharan Africa — they’re very important, and put a three month, incredibly expensive expedition back into perspective.
Watching Gladiator for the thousandth time on the plane a few weeks ago. I never used to be very emotional but since becoming a Dad, I can’t help it.
But the last time I truly cried? When my great friend and climbing partner Sean ‘Stanley’ Leary died in a wingsuit flying accident, in 2014.
If we could do a 5kg air-drop of food rations once you’ve reached the summit of The Spectre, what would it include?
Flakiness. I hate it when people say they will, then they don’t. Though violence is much worse — there shouldn’t be any need for it anymore, but it’s always there.
Not really. Our actions and decisions lead us to where and who we are. We learn more by mistakes and failures than by successes.
I’ve always lived by the saying, ‘Find a job you love and you never have to work’. Combining a passion and profession does come at some cost, but it’s far better than ‘being down the pit’. That being said, some of the tasks on expeditions are pretty hard work. Carrying really heavy bags up really big hills is brutal. Even worse when you’re hauling them up giant walls.
An extremely valuable tool to highlight the severity of a situation. It tends to make things more exciting too.
The Cathedral Quarry in Little Langdale. It’s a magnificent cave where we often go for family walks. It’s also where Jessica and I were married, in a fairytale ceremony 11 years ago.
Literally? Watching the sunrise from the summit of Mount Everest — you can’t get much closer to Heaven than that. But for me, that wasn’t an especially significant climb, so I’d say reaching the top of The Prophet on El Capitan, after an all-free ascent. That’s the closest. It was the hardest climb I’ve ever tried to achieve in my life, and I only just managed it against ridiculous odds. The further out of reach the goal, the harder you push, and the more rewarding the victory.
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The first spark of inspiration for the song "O Sifuni Mungu" hit me at a 1987 Grammy show performance. First Call had received a Grammy nomination that year and we were attending the awards show in Los Angeles. When Paul Simon entered the stage to perform a song from his “Graceland” album, he was joined and backed up by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a male vocal group from South Africa. It was a musical and cultural innovation rarely seen at that time in pop music and it was thrilling! “Graceland” won Album of the Year and the performance resulted in Ladysmith’s rise to worldwide acclaim.
I've always loved exploring music from diverse cultures and this experience affected me powerfully. Ladysmith was authentically African yet still accessible to American audiences, using the same diatonic scale and chord progressions found in western music. While Paul Simon’s music is solidly American, the addition of Ladysmith's strong but sensitive vocal accompaniment, the unique style, and the traditional clothing of the group made the performance an equally African cultural statement. A powerful fusion.
It was a moment of clear inspiration for me. I saw a spiritual, musical and culturally blended vision that I wanted deeply to express, believing that within the Body of Christ, heightened awareness of our varied cultures gives us a unique pathway to celebrate and worship God together.
That summer at the Seminar in the Rockies event at Estes Park, I ran into my friend Scott Wesley Brown and asked him if he knew any African believers who could help me conceptualize a song for First Call. On the spot, Scott introduced me to The Mas Brothers, twins from Zaire, who happened to be at Estes Park that same week on an American tour and who were songwriters, singers and pastors. What a combination! What grace-filled provision! Our arranger, David Maddux, and I spent that providential afternoon with the Mas brothers translating “All Creatures Of Our God and King” (*see below) into Swahili, our language of choice among the 5 languages the brothers speak. We recorded (on a cassette player) our discussion about word inflections and indigenous melodies we might use in crafting the song.
Fully inspired, I took the experience, the memories and the tape back home to Nashville and wrote the English/Swahili song. David arranged it brilliantly to fit First Call and "O Sifuni Mungu" was born. To add to the great chain of events God orchestrated for this song, months later when we recorded “O Sifuni Mungu” for our "Something Takes Over" project, we discovered that the Mas Brothers were still in the US and available to join us on the recording! We flew them to Nashville where they recorded sound effects and mouth and finger percussion indigenous to their tribe in Zaire. It was an amazing journey from beginning to end and it all seemed perfectly orchestrated by the Lord.
"O Sifuni Mungu" has endured for our radio listeners, live audiences, choirs, dance groups and churches for 30 years! Most recently, First Call was delighted to arrange and record the latest (fourth) version for three voices for our "Second Birth" EP. May God continue to use the song to His glory!
*According to Wikipedia, the words of “All Creatures of Our God and King” were initially written in 1225 in a canticle by St Francis of Assisi, based on Psalm 148. Sometime between 1899 and 1919, William Draper, a rector in the Church of England, translated and paraphrased St Francis’ words and set them to music.