High Risk: Climbing to Extinction

Join us at Arrowtown Library for an evening with Brian Hall, acclaimed mountaineer, author, and filmmaker.

From pioneering expeditions in the Himalayas and Alps to co-founding the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, Brian has spent a lifetime at the highest levels of adventure and storytelling. He has worked on award-winning films including Touching the Void and The Beckoning Silence, and his memoir High Risk: Climbing to Extinction has received international literary acclaim.

About Brian Hall:

Raised in Kendal, UK, Brian started climbing at sixteen in the English Lake District. Gaining a Geography degree at Leeds University and a Masters in Ecology at UCNW Bangor.

Mountaineering soon consumed his life, with expeditions at the highest level in the Himalayas, Karakorum, and the Andes, including Everest (in winter), K2, Jannu, and Nuptse. After gaining IFMGA Mountain Guide qualifications, he moved to Chamonix in the French Alps.  

In 1980, he co-founded and directed (with John Porter) the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, and when they passed it on to a new team in 2008, it had become one of the major mountain festivals in the world. Brian has acted as film judge at many festivals, including Kendal, Banff and Gratz.

For the last thirty years, Brian’s focus has been advising on safety, rigging, and locations in the film industry (www.filmandmountain.com). Including the BAFTA-winning film Touching the Void and its sequel, the Emmy-winning Beckoning Silence. Also, Bridget Jones, the Bond Die another Day, Alien vs Predator, Descent, Shackleton and the Everest feature film.  

He co-produced or directed films, including The Bat, Balance of Risk, the 2017 award-winning feature documentary Bonington Mountaineer and in 2025 Retro – An Undiscovered World.

His photographs have been published in High, Climber, On the Edge, Climbing, National Geographic, Outside, Observer and Vertical. Writing numerous articles and the BBC book The Face - Six Great Climbing Adventures. In 2019 he began writing, High Risk – Climbing to Extinction. Published in 2022, his memoir won the prestigious Boardman Tasker Mountain Literature Award, The Himalayan Club Kekoo Naoroji Book Award, NZMFF Best Mountain & Adventure Narrative and Prix du Pays du Mont Blanc (Passy, France). Currently he sits as a judge on the Boardman Tasker Awards.

Brian recently retired but is still a keen climber. Married to Louise., they became New Zealand residents, dividing their lives between the Southern Alps and the English Peak District.