Mirror Wall is the latest film featuring Berghaus climber Leo Houlding and it’s set to premiere at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival this week and will also be available to view free online on 18 November.
Houlding’s no stranger to mountain film stardom, but this time he’s left behind his enduring partnership with film-maker Alastair Lee and his usual climbing buddies. Instead there’s a new team and Sheffield-based Coldhouse Collective is behind the cameras.
‘This is the first time I’ve ever done this sort of thing as a dad. I’m just being super safe. I don’t feel like we’re taking any unnecessary risks.’ – Leo Houlding
The mission was to tackle Greenland’s Mirror Wall, a striking 1200m face deep in the Arctic. That’s nothing new for Houlding, who specialises in remote, hard and inhospitable climbs, but some things had changed.
The tragic death of Houlding’s long-time climbing companion Sean ‘Stanley’ Leary together with the birth of his own daughter, Freya have inevitably heightened Leo’s awareness of the risks of his life as a professional climber and adventurer.
‘This is the first time I’ve ever done this sort of thing as a dad. I’m just being super safe. I don’t feel like we’re taking any unnecessary risks,’ says Houlding reflectively.
Of course’s Houlding’s finely tuned risk perception is somewhat different from most people’s. Check out the trailer to see what we mean…