Mountaineer Andy Kirkpatrick is currently in America attempting to climb a route on El Capitan (El Cap) in under twenty-four hours. This 3000ft vertical rock formation is set in the stunning surroundings of Yosemite Valley and is one of the world’s favourite challenges for rock climbers.

To those of us uninitiated in big wall climbing, climbing the Zodiac route on El Cap would take a group of seasoned climbers four or five days. It is a testament to his determination, talent and focus that in the past week, he has climbed up Zodiac with two others in nineteen hours, then gone on to solo it in thirty hours. With the sunshine in the nineties, exhaustion, lack of sleep and dehydration are beginning to take their toll on Andy. Not to be defeated, Andy is looking to break the twenty-four hour barrier on another route named ‘Lurking Fear’ on El Cap before coming home next week to give two motivational presentations for Speakers from the Edge.

Andy is a top british mountaineer, big-wall climber and winter expedition specialist. Prior to this ambitious attempt, he has soloed some of the most difficult routes in the world. He is also a published writer and highly sought after motivational speaker with a tremendous ability to captivate any audience with his unique brand of motivational story telling.

For Andy, climbing the big routes he does is not about competing with others but about challenging himself to reach new goals.  His struggle to overcome his self-doubt and physical exhaustion is inspirational and makes you realise that trying is half the battle and that having the tenacity to never give up which leads to success!

Andy climbing El Cap, a 3000ft verticle rock formation in Yosemite

Whilst in Amercia he has been writing a really honest, thought provoking blog on his own site which really captures the range of emotions that a mountaineer has to deal with whist in highly dangerous situations;

"Reached pitch six and decided I should try and sleep for two hours to recharge my batteries, so sat there and fell into a half sleep for 15 minutes then woke as the moon came up. Sat there in the dark on a tiny ledge I began to feel scared, like a free diver who was was unsure if they had enough oxygen to make it to the surface. My mind was full of doubts, such as if I was going too slow, if I had enough water, the fact that after this pitch I would find it almost impossible to get down with only one rope"

Read more of Andy's blogs from America here

Whilst Andy has been away, we have been putting the final touches to his third UK theatre tour.  This October, Andy will be setting out on a 30 date tour with his new show ‘Off the Wall’ which you can read about here

We wish Andy luck for the remainder of his time in America, and we know whatever happens, he will come back with some fantastic stories from his trip.