One Evening – Three Speakers – Sarah Barnes, Patrick Hill & Neil Bentley

Speaker – Sara Barnes – More Than A Cold Water Addict

From cycling 100s of miles through the Lake District to not being able to walk across Sainsbury’s carpark without pain, I began my midlife journey at a low point. 

However, I wanted more: I desired love, movement, nature and adventure. Beginning in April 2017, aged 54 and after months of recuperating from major surgery on both legs to ease my osteo-arthritis, I found a way back to the active and outdoor life I needed. By bodily immersing in the lakes, tarns and mountain becks of home, the rugged and wild landscape of the Lake District slowly healed my emotional and physical pain. 

Along the way it unlocked my creative and romantic spirit: I wrote and had published two books: The Cold Fix (Vertebrate Adventure Books 2022) and my debut novel, The Winter of Our Lives (HarperCollins 2023); I bought a campervan and explored Scotland as a solo older woman; I fell back in love with myself and reignited my desire for intimacy and to be desired. 

On my 60th birthday I declared war on ageing. 

I committed to swimming with 60 different people in 60 different locations in my 60th year. My goals were to reactivate my life, reignite my body and redefine my landscape: geographical and emotional. During that year, I achieved my goals (and was interviewed on BBC Woman’s Hour about it) and celebrated growing older instead of cowering behind it. 

Now, age 62, I have survived and find myself on the other side of the menopausal years. In spite of having dodgy knees and a recently repaired heart valve, I feel incredible. Being in my early sixties is a state of nurturing contentment and wisdom, seared through with fierce desire for life itself. No need to accept second best, tolerate unkind people, or hide my scarred and less than perfect body away in the shadows. This is me. I am. And I have many more adventures to come, waterfalls to skinny dip in, inspirational talks to give, books to write and people to meet. 

Instagram – www.sarabarnesauthor.co.uk – Facebook

Speaker – Pat Hill

Join Patrick Hill as he talks about a daft idea that became reality. Accompanied by his brother Oliver, the duo thought it be a good laugh to haul, heave and hoist their non-climbing father up his first climb: the Old Man of Hoy. What followed was a brilliant series of Spring trips as they drove north to tick of the remaining classic sea stacks: the Old Man of Stoerr and Am Buachille using every trick in the book.

Declaimer Warning! This is not how you should introduce a novice, overweight relative to climbing.

Speaker -Neil Bentley

A presentation about some of my climbing expoits in  the UK, Europe, US and Australia. Including hard grit, climbing the UK’s first grit E10, attempting to free climb El Capitan in Yosemite, a spot of Hollywood stunt doubling and a couple more stories thrown in!