DISCOVER OUR 2023 TOUR SPEAKERS

Athletes, explorers, adventurers, filmmakers and more - these are some of the exciting speakers you'll get to hear from on our tour. More names coming soon...

RENEE MCGREGOR

Kendal - 16th FebruaryPenrith - 17th February

Leading sports dietitian Renee McGregor joins us on the tour to share her fascinating insights into the human body and nutrition. What we eat has a huge impact on our physical and mental health, and our performance in our chosen sport, whether we’re elite-level athletes or enthusiastic amateurs. Renee’s work touches on areas of sports nutrition in populations that are often overlooked, including women’s health and the menopause, healthy ageing, and the inclusion of individuals who don’t necessarily conform to the stereotype of an athlete, such as people living with chronic health conditions.

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Monisha Rajesh

Oxford - 25th February

Monisha Rajesh, British journalist and travel writer, joins us on stage to share fascinating insights from her 45,000 mile adventure across the globe by train. We're delighted to welcome Monisha to the Tour to share tales from the cloud-skimming heights of Tibet's Qinghai railway to silk-sheeted splendour on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, and to celebrate the glory of train travel and a witty look at the world.

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Sabrina Pace-Humphreys

Bristol - 26th February

Co-founder and trustee of community, campaigning group and charity, Black Trail Runners, Sabrina is a 42 year old mother of four and grandmother of two, a trail and mountain ultra running athlete, personal trainer and podcast host with a vision for a truly inclusive outdoors. Sabrina aims to break down the barriers to access the outdoors for people of colour.

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Martin Johnson

London - 1st March

Martin Johnson - an original community member of Black Trail Runners (BTR) - joins us on stage to share his story of running the 184-mile Thames Path. What started as a gruelling and ambitious record-breaking attempt turned into a journey of discovery as he learnt both about himself and the entangled history between Black people and the river. The accompanying film, Run to the Source, is being shown as part of the Film Collection.

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Ed Jackson

London - 2nd March

Former rugby star turned adaptive mountaineer. In 2017 Ed's life was turned upside down after a serious spinal cord injury put an end to his professional rugby career and left him completely paralysed. Against all odds Ed managed to battle his way back not only to his feet but now finds himself taking on challenges and climbing mountains all over the world. Through his charity Millimetres 2 Mountains and work with Berghaus designing and adapting kit for people with physical limitations, Ed’s aim is to inspire and enable others to take on their own adventures.

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Darren Edwards

Brighton - 3rd MarchBirmingham - 18th MayCanterbury - 16th June

Since sustaining a life-changing injury, Darren has completed some epic challenges - whether that be freediving to depths of over 30ft on one breath, or becoming the first disabled person to kayak from Land’s End to John O’ Groats – a distance of over 1,400-kilometres across some of Europe’s most challenging coastal waters. In February Darren embarked on his biggest challenge to date and, in doing so, became the first disabled person to complete the iconic World Marathon Challenge. That’s seven marathons across seven continents in just seven days.

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Jamie Ramsay

Caernarfon - 9th MarchAberystwyth - 10th MarchChester - 18th March

Award-winning endurance adventure athlete and Cotswold Outdoor Ambassador Jamie Ramsay has completed over 43,000km of human-powered adventuring in 31 countries and 25 different adventures. He will be sharing tales from his Atlantic to Andes cycle touring adventure. The journey started in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and passed through Paraguay before entering Bolivia and cycling over the Andes to the Salar de Uyuni and on to La Paz, covering 3700km in 28 days.

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Will Renwick

LLanelli - 11th March - THIS EVENT HAS ENDEDManchester - 23rd JuneKendal - 29th June

Alongside a screening of his film, Haglofs Ambassador Will Renwick will be sharing his incredible personal story on stage - his challenge to be the first person to run all 189 of Wales’ mountains in one trip. Will achieved this incredible feat of endurance in a record-breaking time of just 23 days and raised an incredible £12,500 for Mind Over Mountains, a charity which works to restore mental health through nature.

Tim Howell

Banchory - 23rd MarchGlasgow - 24th March

Incredible alpinist and wingsuit BASE jumper Tim Howell joins us to talk about what it takes to be the first person to fly from Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America, and what it takes to mitigate the risks of high altitude flights. Tim was a Royal Marine commando and a member of the elite Mountain Leader Cadre. Leaving the military to pursue a full-time career in the mountains and pursue ambitions for adventurous big wall climbs and alpine ascents in remote parts of the world.

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Jordan Wylie

Southampton - 17th May

Former soldier, Jordan Wylie MBE is an award winning adventurer, Sunday Times bestselling author and the UK national ambassador for the Army Cadets Force. Jordan is perhaps best known though for being one of the stars of Channel 4’s BAFTA nominated TV shows Hunted and Celebrity Hunted. Jordan is a passionate outdoorsman and mental health champion who lives by his own mantra of "Be The Difference That Makes A Difference".

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Jasmine Harrison

Penrith - 19th May - THIS EVENT HAS ENDEDWhitley Bay - 2nd June - THIS EVENT HAS ENDEDCrewe - 22nd June

Record breaking LEJOG swimmer and youngest solo female to row the Atlantic Jasmine Harrison joins us on tour. She’ll be sharing the story of becoming the first female to swim the full length of the UK on her 900-mile, 110-day Land's End to John O'Groats swim. Alongside this incredible tale, also hear how Jasmine became the youngest solo female to row the Atlantic in 2021.

Louis Hall

Alnwick - 3rd JuneNorwich - 17th June

Blundstone Ambassador Louis Hall is a writer, rider and explorer from Scotland. Aged eighteen, he first discovered the power of the horse while in search of a tribe in northern Mongolia. Since then he has gone on to ride down the length of the UK and across Europe in aid of charitable causes. In 2020 he founded The Big Hoof, a charity that promotes adventure and wellbeing through long distance rides. So far, his charity has travelled over 4000km in 5 different countries, raising over £70,000 for causes centred on mental health, wellbeing and child welfare. In 2022 Louis created the first conclusive horse trail across the Ligurian Alps, on his way from Siena, Italy to Cape Finisterre, Spain. He now has his eyes set on America and the Silk Road.

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Lindsey Cole

Bristol - 7th June

Lindsey Cole is a writer, environmentalist and adventure mermaid! In 2018 Lindsey swam the River Thames as a mermaid to raise awareness about plastic pollution. Along the way, she rescued a cow and has now written a children’s book about it. In her latest campaign, 'The Mermaid, The Otter and the Poo', Lindsey investigates the issue of pollution in her local river. As well as mermaiding and investigating issues of pollution, Lindsey has embarked on a number of incredible adventures on land; she circumnavigated Australia with truck drivers; cycled the length of Africa to watch the World Cup; roller-skated to Bude in the nude (because it rhymed); ran 250 miles to Manchester playing the ukulele live on the radio; ran to Wales for a cup of tea; and completed three Ironman races.

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Rebecca Lowe

Winchester - 8th June

One woman, one bike and one richly entertaining, perception-altering journey of discovery! We're delighted to welcome Rebecca Lowe to the Tour to share her solo cycle adventure across the Middle East. In 2015, as the Syrian War raged and the refugee crisis reached its peak, she set off on her bicycle taking on an 11,000-kilometre route through Europe to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, the Gulf and finally to Iran. Driven by a desire to learn more about this troubled region and its relationship with the West. It was an odyssey through landscapes and history that captured her heart, but also a deeply challenging cycle across mountains, deserts and repressive police states that nearly defeated her.

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Sophie Pavelle

Exeter - 9th June

Sophie Pavelle is an adventurous writer and science communicator from Exeter. Her 2022 debut book 'Forget Me Not: finding the forgotten species of climate-change Britain' is nominated for The People’s Book Prize. It tells the story of how Sophie set off on a low-carbon journey around Britain in search of ten animals and habitats threatened by climate change in the 21st century. Sophie wants us to better understand these species, from the harbour porpoise and grey long-eared bat, to the Atlantic salmon and the mountain hare. Travelling on foot, by bicycle, by kayak, and in lots of trains, her message is a clarion call but also a hopeful one.

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Matt Pycroft

Lincoln - 24th JuneNottingham - 25th June

Adventure cameraman Matt Pycroft joins us on tour to share never-heard-before insights from his expedition to the depths of the Amazon jungle with climber Leo Houlding, his recent National Geographic series documenting an expedition led by Alex Honnold in Greenland, abandoned Soviet nuclear missile silos and what happened when he was arrested by the Russian military. As Matt says wryly, "things don't always go according to plan."

Presenting Team

Steve Scott

As a director of the Festival, Steve looks after UK and International business partnerships and is one of the main presenters on-stage for key events and interviews. He is often consulted in the media as an outdoor industry expert. Growing up in the Lake District, Steve has always pursued a career in adventure sports. He is a former professional national team skier, ski coach and an accomplished professional paraglider pilot, and has been lucky enough to live and work in the French Alps and Norway. 

Anna Bailey

Anna looks after marketing at Kendal Mountain, advising, planning and keeping an eye on marketing across all of our projects and events. She is also a presenter for events and loves seeing the audience inspired to enjoy the outdoors.Here in the Lake District she loves running on local trails and fells and dipping in the local lakes.

Emily Davis

Emily is the Production Co-ordinator at Kendal Mountain Festival. This includes programming content across the Festival, presenting sessions, interviewing speakers and supporting the inclusion of a more diverse lineup - and learning how to improve on this each year.She can often be found dreaming about the Scottish Highlands, whilst in the hills of the Lake District either on her trusty gravel bike or enjoying multi-pitch routes in the mountains.

© Kendal Mountain Tour 2022
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