Leo Houlding (born 28 July 1980) is a British

rock climber Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...

and

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

Early life

Houlding began rock climbing at the age of 10. In 1996, he became the British Junior Indoor Climbing Champion. He spent the summer of 1997, aged 17, living in and around

Llanberis (; ) is a village, community and electoral ward in Gwynedd, northwest Wales, on the southern bank of the lake and at the foot of Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. It is a centre for outdoor activities in Snowdonia, including walking, mo ...

in North Wales.

Climbing career

In 2002, Houlding appeared in the BBC television program ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

'' in which he raced presenter

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' an ...

up a cliff face in

Verdon Gorge The Verdon Gorge ( French: ''Gorges du Verdon'') is a river canyon located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. It is about 25 km (15.5 mi) long and up to 700 metres (0.4 mi) deep. It was formed by the ...

, winning the challenge. Houlding, joined by Tim Emmett, climbed the canyon whilst Clarkson drove an

Audi RS4 The Audi RS 4 is the high-performance variant of the Audi A4 range produced by Audi Sport GmbH for AUDI AG, a division of the Volkswagen Group. It sits above the Audi S4 as the fastest, most sports-focused car based on the A4's "B" automobile pl ...

to the top using the surrounding roads. He has also appeared several times on the

Audi Channel The Audi Channel was a Digital data, digital satellite television Television channel, channel, launched in the United Kingdom, UK in 2005 by the Germany, German car company Audi. It was broadcast free-to-air via Sky Digital (UK & Ireland), Sky D ...

. He was the subject of the 2003 TV documentary "My Right Foot" which was part of the ''Extreme Lives'' series aired on

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

. In 2007, he joined the 2007 Altitude Everest Expedition, led by American climber and mountaineer,

Conrad Anker Conrad Anker (born November 27, 1962) is an American rock climber, mountaineer, and author. He was the team leader of The North Face climbing team for 26 years until 2018. In 1999, he located George Mallory's body on Everest as a member of a sear ...

, retracing the last steps of legendary British climber,

George Mallory George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8 or 9 June 1924) was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s. Born in Cheshire, Mallory became a student at Winchester ...

, on

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

. In 2008, Houlding presented '' Take Me to the Edge'', a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

series on

Virgin1 Channel One was a British short-lived television channel owned and operated by Virgin Media Television and then Sky plc. The channel was launched on 1 October 2007 at 21:00 on Freeview, Virgin Media and Sky as Virgin1, replacing Ftn. The cha ...

(later repeated on STV); and signed a deal with Ford Motor Company to become a brand ambassador for their pick up truck, the

Ford Ranger Ford Ranger is a nameplate that has been used on multiple model lines of pickup trucks sold by Ford worldwide. The nameplate has been used for distinct model lines of vehicles worldwide since 1982 from the compact and mid-size pickup category. ...

. In August 2009, he led a team of climbers and filmmakers to

Mount Asgard Mount Asgard ( iu, ᓯᕙᓂᑎᕈᑎᖑᐊᒃ, ''Sivanitirutinguak'') is a twin peaked mountain with two flat-topped, cylindrical, rock towers, separated by a saddle. It is located in Auyuittuq National Park, on the Cumberland Peninsula of Baff ...

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...

, Canada. They attempted to

free climb Free climbing is a form of rock climbing in which the climber may use climbing equipment such as ropes and other means of climbing protection, but only to protect against injury during falls and not to assist vertical or horizontal progress. Th ...

a 15-pitch route up the north face of the mountain to create the first free route. Although over half of the ascent was eventually freed, the team was unable to complete the full free ascent within the available time. Houlding and American team member Sean 'Stanley' Leary BASE jumped from the summit. The ascent took 12 days and is featured in the 2010 film ''The Asgard Project''. He appeared in the 2010 film, ''

The Wildest Dream ''The Wildest Dream'' is a 2010 theatrical-release feature documentary film about the British climber George Mallory who disappeared on Mount Everest in 1924 with his climbing partner Andrew Irvine. The film interweaves two stories, one about clim ...

'', along with

retracing the steps of

and Andrew Irvine in order to recreate their journey up

. In 2010, he completed his 10-year project ''The Prophet'', becoming the first Briton to free a new route on

El Capitan El Capitan ( es, El Capitán; "the Captain" or "the Chief") is a vertical Rock formations in the United States, rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The El Capitan Granite, granit ...

in Yosemite. From December 2012 to January 2013, a team led by Houlding and including Alastair Lee, Chris Rabone, Sean Leary, Jason Pickles, and David Reeves made the first ascent of a new route up the north-east ridge of Ulvetanna Peak in Antarctica. The peak was described as 'the most demanding peak on the world's toughest continent' via its fearsome north-east ridge. The film that was produced, ''The Last Great Climb'' premiered in London on 5 November 2013.

Personal life

In 2020, Houlding's entire family reached the summit of the

Piz Badile Piz Badile (3,308 m) is a mountain of the Bregaglia range in the Swiss canton of Graubünden and the Italian region of Lombardy. The border between the two countries runs along the summit ridge. Its north-east face, overlooking the Swiss Val Bre ...

, including his seven-year-old daughter who climbed it unaided (the youngest ever to reach the summit), and his 3-year-old son (carried on his mother's back).

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Houlding, Lee 1980 births British rock climbers Living people Free soloists