Inspiring Adventure by Vertebrate Publishing – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome back to the Inspiring Adventure podcast by Vertebrate Publishing! We kick off our 6-part Mountain Walks series with Girls on Hills Co-Founder Keri Wallace.

Keri discusses her personal journey from encountering a medical emergency on Ben Nevis to becoming a mountain guide and co-founding 'Girls on Hills' in 2018. She shares stories from her mountain experiences, the motivations behind her Running Challenges and Mountain Walks book, and the importance of encouraging more women to participate in trail and mountain running. 

Listeners will find inspiration in Keri's candid recounting of overcoming challenges, her passion for climbing and running, and valuable tips for exploring Ben Nevis. This episode offers insightful content for outdoor enthusiasts, aspiring authors, and anyone interested in personal growth and adventure.

00:00 Introduction to the Inspiring Adventure Podcast

00:40 Warmup Questions: Getting to Know Our Guest

06:28 The Journey of Girls on Hills

08:39 A Harrowing Experience on Ben Nevis

16:28 From Climbing Novice to working in the mountains

22:23 Navigating the Mountains Safely

24:14 Navigating Ben Nevis: Tips and Insights

26:03 Writing the Mountain Walks Book

28:10 Running Challenges: From Concept to Reality

43:14 Girls on Hills: Empowering Women in Trail Running

49:00 Reflections and Future Adventures

Links

Mountain Walks Ben Nevis book by Keri Wallace

Running Challenges book by Keri Wallace

Vertebate Publishing website 

Girls on Hills website

UK Hillwalking article - My First Mountain

Host & Recording

This episode was hosted by Sarah Lister, author of Mountain Walks Kinder Scout. It was recorded online 19th June 2025.

Social media

Follow Vertebrate Publishing on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky. 

Music

Music by DmitryTaras via Pixabay
Licensor's Username:
https://pixabay.com/users/soundgallerybydmitrytaras-11640913/

In the summer of 2012, a team of six climbers set out to attempt the first ascent of one of the great unclimbed lines of the Himalaya – the giant Mazeno Ridge on Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth highest mountain. At ten kilometres in length, the Mazeno is the longest route to the summit of an 8,000-metre peak. Ten expeditions had tried and failed to climb this enormous ridge. Eleven days later two of the team, Sandy Allan and Rick Allen, both in their late fifties, reached the summit. They had run out of food and water and began hallucinating wildly from the effects of altitude and exhaustion. Heavy snow conditions meant they would need another three days to descend the far side of the ‘killer mountain’.

‘I began to wonder whether what we were doing was humanly possible. We had climbed the Mazeno and reached the summit, but we both knew we had wasted too much energy. In among the conflicting emotions, the exhaustion and the elation, we knew our bodies could not sustain this amount of time at altitude indefinitely, especially now we had no water. The slow trickle of attrition had turned into a flood; it was simply a matter of time before our bodies stopped functioning. Which one of us would succumb first?’

In Some Lost Place is Sandy Allan’s epic account of an incredible feat of endurance and commitment at the very limits of survival – and the first ascent of one of the last challenges in the Himalaya.

AUDIOBOOK AVAILABLE HERE and also available as an ebook: 

• Kindle UK 
• Kindle US
• Kobo 
• iTunes 
• Google Play

Martin Boysen reads a short extract from one of his contributions to climbing classic, Hard Rock, followed by compiler of the new edition, Ian Parnell, reading his favourite essay from the book, Great Wall by Ed Drummond.

We're still shipping books out directly from our office in Sheffield so head over to our website and enjoy the 30% site-wide discount: www.v-publishing.co.uk

This week we're breaking from the normal structure in light of the changed working environment we're faced with due to the current global Coronavirus pandemic. So instead of an interview based episode here we have John D. Burns reading an extract from his book Bothy Tales.

Bothy Talesis John's follow-up to The Last Hillwalker and contains tales from remote glens deep in the Scottish Highlands – some dramatic, some moving, some hilarious – from the isolated mountain shelters called bothies.

We're still shipping books from our office in Sheffield so nip onto our website and take advantage of the site wide spring sale giving you 30% off!

For the coming period we will be reducing our YouTube content but increasing the frequency of our Podcasts, so instead of waiting a fortnight, our next podcast episode is released next week!

If you’ve got any feedback on the podcast, or suggestions for topics to cover or people you’d like to hear from, please drop me an email at rae@v-publishing.co.uk

This week Rae is again joined by open-water and wild swimmer Suzanna Cruickshank.

Suzanna’s book Swimming Wild in the Lake District is published on Thursday 2 April and provides a definitive guide to open-water swimming in the Lakes. Suzanna is a qualified guide and has her own business leading swimming sessions in her beloved Lake District and beyond! If you have a wild swimming story you’d like to share drop me an email at rae@v-publishing.co.uk and I might just feature you on a future episode or blog. All featured submissions will get a voucher code for the VP website.

Swimming Wild in the Lake District will be the second title in our range of slow tourism guides, following the hugely successful Scottish Island Bagging, and in the summer we’ll be adding The Beaches of Wales. These guides invite you to experience these places in an in-depth, immersive manner. If we’ve tempted you to try a bit of open-water swimming yourself, get on to the website to pre-order with a 20% discount; and don’t forget that Suzanna has group-swim events up on her website, so head over to suzannaswims.co.uk to book your place!

If you’ve got any feedback on the podcast, or suggestions for topics to cover or people you’d like to hear from, please drop me an email at rae@v-publishing.co.uk

Our next episode is due on Thursday 26 March, and will feature conversations with the team involved in publishing the new edition of iconic climbing book; Hard Rock. 

This week Rae interviewed Nick Cotton, Mountain Biking guide author.

Vertebrate’s Mountain Biking Guides are one of our most popular series, with over a dozen titles and more on the horizon. Nick Cotton has contributed four titles to the series, with a further title in our collection of Cycling books, Traffic-Free Cycle Trails. Nick is a seasoned guidebook author, and the five titles he’s produced with Vertebrate only represent a small portion of his forty-plus guides from the last twenty years. He has ridden over 30,000 miles in research, trekked extensively, climbed over 5,000 metres on three continents, and cycled all over the world. If this is your thing too why not send me a quick email about your latest or favourite adventure on two wheels and I’ll give you a shout-out on an upcoming episode or feature you on our blog.

Nick’s passion for the outdoors and exploring on two wheels is quite infectious. So do share your bike adventures with us by using the hashtag #inspiringadventure on Instagram and Twitter. I’ll share our favourites on our blog or upcoming show notes. Meanwhile, if you need more bikes on your podcast have a listen to Episode 8, which features endurance cyclist Emily Chappell with some advice about getting into cycling.

All of Nick’s titles with Vertebrate are available on our website, including the pre-order of Traffic-Free Cycle Trails which will be publishing in April, and the newly released Yorkshire Dales Mountain Biking.

We always love to hear from you, so if you drop me an email at rae@v-publishing.co.uk you’ll get a special discount code for the website as a thank you.

In the next episode I’ll be chatting again with Suzanna Cruickshank about her epiphany in Crummack Water that led to her writing Swimming Wild in the Lake District, and life with her gorgeous but antisocial Jack Russell, Rosie.

Book recommendations:
The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Travels in Alaska by John Muir
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
Wilding by Isabella Tree

Inspirational people:
Fridtjof Nansen
Mike Stroud
Ranulph Fiennes
Jesse Owens
Joss Naylor (features in There Is No Map In Hell)
Ernest Shackleton

This week Rae has been speaking with two authors; Paul Webster and Deirdre Huston, who've both written for the highly regarded Day Walks series.

Paul Webster co-founded the UK’s busiest walking website; Walkhighlands, with his wife Helen in 2006. This year they will publish Day Walks in the Cairngorms and Day Walks in Fort William & Glen Coe. Paul is an award winning photographer and responsible for most of the stunning photographs found in these books.

Deirdre Huston is an award winning writer, film maker and photographer. She’s authored five titles with Vertebrate Publishing. The second edition of Day Walks on the South Downs is published in March and, as with all Day Walks books, has been updated and revised to keep it as current and accurate as possible.

Pre-order Day Walks on the South Downs and Day Walks in the Cairngorms get 20% discount up until their publication on 5 March.

Tell me all about your Day Walks adventures by dropping me an email at rae@v-publishing.co.uk and I’ll respond with a discount code and you might even get a shout out in a future episode! And sign up to our newsletter at v-publishing.co.uk

Our next episode will feature Mountain Bike guide writer, Nick Cotton.

LINKS

• Day Walks in the Cairngorms by Helen and Paul Webster
• Day Walks on the South Downs by Deirdre Huston
• Scottish Island Bagging by Helen and Paul Webster
• Day Walks on the High Weald by Deirdre Huston
• Sussex Walks by Deidre Huston
• Cycling Days Out - South East England by Deirdre Huston
• Cycling in Sussex by Deirdre Huston and Marina Bullivant
• Walkhighlands Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
• Deirdre Huston’s website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram 
• Podcast Ep 1 - Scottish Island Bagging - Buzzsprout and YouTube
• Ramblers Association
• Mountaineering Scotland
• The Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature
• Waterstones Events
• Saddlescombe Farm

Paul’s book recommendations:

• Clear Waters Rising: A Mountain Walk Across Europe by Nicholas Crane
• Sacred Summits by Peter Boardman
• Sky Dance by John D. Burns

Deirdre’s book recommendations:

• In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall
• Waymaking
• Wild About Cornwall by David Chapman
• The Island Child by Molly Aitken
• My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay

Episode 10 of the Inspiring Adventure podcast, this week Rae is joined by the award winning YA author Sarah Mussi.

Sarah grew up in the Cotswolds and spent fifteen years in West Africa, so she’s no stranger to adventure and exploration. She writes thrillers and fantasy for both children and young adults, and she and her books have received much acclaim: second place in the BBC Worldwide Children’s Talent Fiction Award, the Glen Dimplex Children’s Book of the Year, and shortlisted for both the Branford Boase Award and the Lewisham Book Award. We’re eagerly awaiting the publication of Sarah’s next book, Here Be Wizards, which will complete the Snowdonia Chronicles. This trilogy follows Ellie Morgan’s adventures in the remote and mythical Snowdonian landscape; the search for true love, battles of good and evil, spells and potions, dragons, legends and the Fae lands.

Here be Wizards is due out on 6 February, so do grab the chance to pre-order for a 20% discount by heading to shrinebell.com or v-publishing.co.uk before next week! If you haven’t already got the first two books in the Snowdonia Chronicles trilogy, Here be Dragons and Here be Witches, I’d recommend you get them while they’re on 2 for 1 on the Vertebrate Publishing website. 

Sarah gave us some amazing reading recommendations and if you fancy checking any of them out browse the links below.

• Out of Africa by Karen Blixen
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
• Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
• The Messenger Bird by Ruth Eastham
• The Everest Files by Matt Dickinson (first of trilogy, succeeded by North Face and Killer Storm)
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
• The Bond by Simon McCartney
• One Day As A Tiger by John Porter

If you’ve got any feedback on the podcast, or suggestions for topics to cover or people you’d like to hear from please drop me an email at rae@v-publishing.co.uk and I’ll respond with a discount code to say thanks!

Our next episode will delve into the highly popular Day Walks series and I’ll be joined by Paul Webster, co-author of Day Walks in the Cairngorms, and Deirdre Huston, author of Day Walks on the South Downs, both due out in March. So tune in to find out what goes into producing a Day Walks guide and what makes a guide author tick.
 
Sarah’s website, facebook and twitter 

Inspiring Adventure from Vertebrate Publishing - the podcast that connects you to the great outdoors through literature.

Episode 9
Rae is joined by Tough Girl Challenges founder and podcast host Sarah Williams, who fast packed the Appalachian Trial in 100 days.

Sarah set up Tough Girl Challenges as a way of inspiring and motivating women and girls. She hosts the award-winning Tough Girl Podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of inspirational female explorers, adventurers and athletes.

Sarah is no stranger to challenges of her own. In 2016 she took on the Marathon des Sables, which comprises six marathons across the Sahara desert. The following year she tackled the incredible Appalachian Trial. In 2018 she cycled from Vancouver in Canada down the Pacific Coast Highway to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. Last year she walked the Camino Portugues and the Lycian Way. So just ready yourself for a major serving of inspiration!

To read more about Sarah’s other challenges and watch her videos you can delve into her adventures over on her website, toughgirlchallenges.com, or tune into her podcast to hear about other incredible women doing incredible things, The Tough Girl Podcast. Sarah is a firm believer is sharing the word when it comes to the achievements of women who are taking on incredible challenges, and has featured a number of the Fantastic Female Adventurers from Lily Dyu’s children’s book on her podcast.

In terms of my 100 day challenge, keep tuning in to find out more. Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing my plans as they form, and ultimately I will be sharing the progress of the challenge via instagram!

If you’ve got any feedback on the podcast, or suggestions for topics to cover or people you’d like to hear from please drop Rae an email at rae@v-publishing.co.uk and she'll send you a 20% discount code for the Vertebrate Publishing website

Our next episode is due on Thursday 30 January and I’ll be welcoming back Helen and Paul Webster, who featured in our very first episode. This time they’ll be telling us more about walking in Scotland, especially the Cairngorms which feature in their next title, Day Walks in the Cairngorms. Before then you can always nip over to our YouTube channel to see our latest video with Pete Whittaker.

Join the conversation by searching for Vertebrate Publishing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube or sign up for our newsletter at v-publishing.co.uk 

This is a compilation of four interviews with pros from the worlds of walking, running, cycling and climbing to help fuel your inspiration for some potential New Year's resolutions.

Sim Benson - Walking
Sim Benson and his wife Jen are passionate about exploring wild places, whether they're running through the mountains, walking the National Trails or climbing on their local Dartmoor granite. In 2015 they spent a year living under canvas in Britain with their two young children. 

• Adventure Places
• Day Walks Guidebooks
• The Ramblers Association
• The Long Distance Walkers Association
• The Ordinance Survey Locate App
• Scottish Island Bagging

Emily Chappell - Cycling
We met Emily through the Buxton Adventure Festival. She's a London cycle courier turned endurance and adventure cyclist and has written books about her cycling experiences.

• That Emily Chappell
• Highway Code
• Bikeability
• Cycling Guidebooks

Charles Sherwood - Climbing
Charles has a combined thirty-year career in the risk capital industry with a love of adventure sports. He has climbed all over the world and is writing Seven Climbs (due for release in May 2020) about his best climbs on each continent.

• Inspiring Adventure YouTube Playlist
• Climbing Guidebooks
• The Alpine Club
• The British Mountaineering Council

Steve Franklin - Running
A relative latecomer to the sport, Steve started running after a rock climbing injury left him unable to climb. Steve lives in Sheffield and regularly heads back to North Wales for extended trips to run and climb. In 2014 he completed the Paddy Buckley Round (104 kilometres and 8,500 metres of ascent and descent in under twenty-four hours). 

• Running Guidebooks
• Couch to 5k App
• Park Run
• Fell Runner
• runABC

If you have any feedback or suggestions, please drop me an email at rae@v-publishing.co.uk and I'll thank you with a 20% off voucher for the Vertebrate Publishing website. 

Next Episode: Rae chats with Sarah Williams (founder of Tough Girl Challenges and host of the Tough Girl Podcast) about Sarah's 100 day Appalachian Trial challenge. Due 16 January.

In the meantime, join the conversation by searching for Vertebrate Publishing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube or sign up for our newsletter.