Interviews on wonder, curiosity and creativity
Caroline has spent over 10 years working in ski patrol rescue and most recently as a SAR (Search and Rescue) dog handler. She is passionate about ski touring and generally being outside in nature. She enjoys sharing her professional experience with others, helping to train adults and youngsters in snow awareness so they can go out and enjoy the mountains to the full. Her illustrated mountain safety book for children book is soon to be published.
Kalyani is a science television researcher and a travel and wildlife photographer. Her adventures have taken her to the peaks of the Himalayas to the depths of the South African oceans. As a biologist and science communicator, wildlife photography and filmmaking is her main passion and she has been fortunate to have slept in bear hides in Finland, diving with sharks and she even slept through a leopard attack in India.
Alex Staniforth is a record-breaking adventurer, endurance athlete, inspirational speaker, author and mental health activist, aged 24 from Chester – now based near the Lake District. Alex knows a thing or two about overcoming adversity, having experienced the two biggest consecutive disasters in Mount Everest history, including the 2015 Nepal earthquake which trapped him on the mountain for two days. In July 2017 he became the fastest person ever to climb all 100 UK county tops to raise awareness of depression and eating disorders, and winning the Pride of Britain Granada Reports Fundraiser of the Year 2017. In 2019 he founded ‘Mind Over Mountains’ to help others restore mental well-being through outdoor experiences.
Russ Costa is an Associate Professor of Honors & Neuroscience at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he teaches interdisciplinary courses about minds, brains, behavior, data, and science. He studies attention and perception in the cognitive neuroscience laboratory using electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques, and decision-making and risk-taking outside of it using a set of mixed and ever-evolving approaches. He regularly presents to professional and public audiences in the mountain communities of western North America about decision-making in high-risk environments, including in snow and avalanche terrain.
Sibusiso Vilane was the first black person to complete the Explorers Grand Slam by climbing the 7 summits and reaching both the North and South Pole. He is an inspirational speaker, expedition leader, and marathon runner. Previously he served as Chief Scout of Scouts South Africa. He is married and has 4 children.
Bex Band is an adventurer, blogger and conservationist. Her adventures include hiking 1000km the length of Israel, kayaking the width of the UK against plastic pollution and kick-scooting the length of the USA. Noticing a real lack of women in the outdoors, she founded Love Her Wild (www.loveherwild.com), a women’s adventure community now with over 10,000 members. She's been named one of the ‘UK’s 30 most inspirational entrepreneurs‘ by Business Leader, has been awarded Legacy Maker on the San Miguel alternative rich list, won the Next Generation Award and was shortlisted for a National Diversity Award.
Frostbite in Alaska, Appendicitis in Greenland ,Near Drowning in Borneo, Rope Failure in the Kumbu, Reported missing in Annapurna. Would you go climbing with this man..???
Some people call him brave, some call him mad. To face the thin air at high altitude takes a bit of both, but to Nigel Vardy, there is nothing like being on a high mountain. Losing limbs to severe frostbite would put off all but the few, but to Nigel it was the springboard to climb, achieve and conquer.
Over the past 30 years he has climbed across the world, set mountaineering records and spoken to schools and businesses across Europe. He continues on life's adventure, forcing new boundaries and new experiences every day of his life...
As Nigel says - "I don't want to die in an unused body..."
Saray Khumalo is an award-winning mountaineer, a Mandela Libraries ambassador and the first black African woman to Summit Everest and ski to the South Pole. She is a motivational speaker and transformational coach who uses her journey as a mountaineer and executive to nudge coachable individuals and teams into peak performance. She believes that the sky is not the limit and we should therefore all aim higher than the sky in everything as we change the narrative for the next generation. She is on a quest to complete the Explorers Grand Slam, a challenge that has only been completed by 67 people around the world.
South African mountaineer Cathy O’Dowd is the first woman in the world to climb Mount Everest from both sides. She works as a motivational speaker, using story-driven expedition case-studies to share ideas about mitigating risk, team leadership and project management with her corporate clients. Cathy live in the Pyrenees mountains, in Andorra, where she does rock-climbing, ski-mountaineering and canyoning. In summer of 2020 (Covid-19 allowing) she will be doing an exploratory sea kayak expedition along the coast of Greenland.
Huw James is a Welsh Science Presenter. He’s presented live science to over 750,00 people on 6 continents and had over 2 million views online. His background is in Astronomy and Space Science and Geology. He now makes educational material including films, photography and live classroom talks in geographically interesting locations worldwide.
Words on Wonder 