Leo Houlding, Rock Climber

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2017

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Leo Houlding is one of the most famous rock-climbers in the world. He tells adventurer Steve Backshall about the most bizarre and unforgettable experience of his life. In 2012, Leo travelled to a remote corner of Venezuela to make an attempt on the unforgiving table-top mountain Cerro Autana. It’s considered sacred by the local Pieroa people on whose land it stands. They were suspicious of Leo’s motives; they couldn’t understand why he would travel so far simply to climb. Leo says they suspected him of prospecting for diamonds. So, it was important for him to gain their trust - partly because he needed their help to carry equipment and break through the impenetrable rainforest that stood between his team and the mountain.

Trust was gained by undertaking a frightening and dangerous ‘yopo’ ceremony. Yopo is a powerful hallucinogenic drug, used in shamanic ritual; it sent Leo on what he describes as a terrifying exorcism.

Following the ceremony, Leo – in a fragile state – continued into the jungle on his expedition. The local people, who had been doubtful of him and his motives, were suddenly warm, friendly and helpful. Having battled plague proportions of insects, and hacked their way through almost impenetrable undergrowth, Leo and his team were finally able to attempt to scale this 1220 metre mountain.

Image: Leo Houlding, Credit: Alastair Lee

Transcript

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0:00.0	Coming soon, the assassination, an investigation into a true story that shook the world. A new
0:07.8	podcast from the BBC World Service. Subscribe to the assassination now and you'll get every episode automatically.
0:15.0	From the BBC World Service, welcome to the latest edition of the Documentary
0:20.5	Podcast. Every week we bring you a range of stories from our presenters and reporters across the world.
0:27.0	Please do rate the documentary on your podcast app and leave a comment.
0:31.0	Let us know what you think. That's the terrifying sound of my guest on today's program as he underwent the most bizarre and frightening
0:44.6	shamanic ritual before attempting to climb a remote Venezuelan mountain.
0:48.8	You're listening to the BBC World Service.
0:57.0	Welcome to Worldwide Adventures with me Steve Baxchel.
1:00.0	I've been working in the field of adventure for over 20 years, climbing, caving and exploring
1:05.4	up, down and through some of the world's most extreme environments.
1:09.1	For this series I'm delighted to be able to talk to three fellow adventurers about the most extraordinary
1:14.2	experience of their life.
1:18.6	In a lifetime of adventure of climbing mountains, the Yopo ceremony was a thousand times more terrifying
1:28.1	than almost anything.
1:30.1	Today I'm with one of the most successful rock climbers in the world, Leo Holding.
1:35.0	Among his long list of achievements was becoming at 18 the first Britain to free climb the monumental El Capitan in California.
1:43.0	But today we're talking about his expedition to Venezuela in 2012,
1:47.0	where Leo and a small group of climbers scaled Sero Altana,
1:51.0	a tabletop mountain deep in the Venezuelan jungle.
1:55.0	Leo, at this place in Venezuela, it's often referred to as the Lost World.
2:00.0	It's a really, really special place.
	...

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