How does he assess risk and judge what level he'll take himself to be successful, and how does he balance this with teaching his own children the lessons he has learnt in some of the world's most dangerous and extreme places. One of Great Britain's finest climbers and adventurers, Leo Houlding started out climbing at ten years of age in the Lake District literally learning the ropes tackling the many historic peaks and crags in the area. In a page-turning narrative, Leo describes his childhood inspirations to climb, his mentors who guided him, and the exhilaration of those teenage years when he broke into the public consciousness - such as his infamous race against Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear.

I jumped in a taxi and arrived just in time for the reception party, full of old friends from the climbing world who were highly entertained by my brief incarceration. I was handcuffed, piled into the back of his car, driven to Washington Police Station, literally a mile from Berghaus's head office, and locked up in a cell. I bolted back along the wing and slid down the fins like a fireman's pole in seconds, reaching the ground before the cops had made it to the base. He was also a sales rep for DMM and as Tim Emmett had been demoted to a slower car following his collection of speeding tickets, we travelled in the beloved Alfa.We all stayed with Trym in his tiny studio apartment, where we completely filled the entire floor space, bedded down in our sleeping bags. The social event of the year for outdoor people takes place across the town from 17th-20th November. he said, attempting to make an ink impression from my granite-ravaged fingertips that left nothing more than a featureless smudge on the page.

Leo Houlding started climbing at ten years of age in the Lake District and was the youngest person (and first Briton) to free climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in the United States at eighteen years, which cemented his reputation. We had a farewell party in the Stavanger climbers' pub Cementen on the picturesque docks of their oil-rich city, where I made a complete fool of myself due to my acute alcohol intolerance, blowing my shot of a dream end to the trip by going home with a blonde beauty and instead falling, or being thrown (I'm not sure which), into the harbour.

It was the most astonishing mountain I had ever seen and inspired a life dream that I would dare in a later chapter of life. One of Great Britain's finest climbers and adventurers, Leo Houlding started out climbing at ten years of age in the Lake District literally learning the ropes tackling the many peaks and crags the area was famous for.