I'm Speaking at Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival

Alan Hinkes on Kanchenjunga
I'm delighted I accepted an invitation to speak at the EMFF this year because hopefully I'll get to see this bloke again.

Alan Hinkes is the only British mountaineer to have climbed all 14 of the world's 8000m peaks. We worked together quite a lot when I was in NE England but, I haven't seen him for ages.

He's speaking at 7pm on Sunday 28th October and 'early bird' tickets are now available at reduced prices, but only for a few more days.

I'm speaking at 2pm on the same day.  I wonder if I'll be able to hang around at the back?  Will anyone notice if I don't leave the room?

The festival runs from Friday night to Sunday night, and there are some great speakers - Leo Houlding, Borge Ousland and Zoe Hart are among those listed, but I think there will be a few more as well.  All have embarrassingly more successful pedigrees than me!

As befitting a Film Festival, there are also some interesting films too.  


I had intended to stop public speaking because I prefer making films.  Hamish's Kayaking Films was shown at Edinburgh last year.

I was persuaded to attend this festival precisely because it wasn't just a kayaking audience.  In fact, I suspect most of the audience will be sea paddlers and I've been told to pitch my talk at an "adventure" orientated crowd.  

I'm thinking of it as missionary work.

Hang on... "Crowd"? That's hopeful!