Background
Kirkpatrick was born in Stafford, England, in 1971, where his father Pete Kirkpatrick was based with the Royal Air Force and received the British Empire Medal for his service to Mountain Safety in 1993.
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Andrew Kirkpatrick
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He is best known as a big wall climber, having scaled Yosemite"s El Capitan 29 times, including three solo ascents, and two one day ascents, as well as climbing in Patagonia, Alaska, Antarctica and the Alps. He has also crossed Greenland by ski. In 2014 he guided Alex Jones up Moonlight Buttress, Zion, raising £1.9 million for Sport Relief.
In the years that followed he moved to Sardinia, Windsor, Tywyn and Llanrwst (North Wales).
Kirkpatrick has worked in film and television as a safety advisor and stunt rigger, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as in programs for CBBC, ITN, British Broadcasting Corporation and British Broadcasting Corporation Scotland. In 2014, he guided the television presenter Alex Jones up the Moonlight Buttress in Zion National Park in order to raise money for Sports Relief, raising £1.9 million.
In 2014, Kirkpatrick gave a fifteen-minute talk on British Broadcasting Corporation radio 4 in its Four Thought slot on the subject of the importance of risky play for children.
Achievements
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The British Broadcasting Corporation program "The Big Climb" about his ascent of El Capitan with his 13-year-old daughter Ella won multiple awards. Kirkpatrick is only the third person to win the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature twice (Paul Pritchard and Jim Perrin being the other authors to win twice). His first win was with his first book, Psychovertical in 2008 and his second with his book, Cold Wars: Climbing the fine line between risk and reality. The Italian version was published in 2011 as Psychovertical by Edizioni Versante Sud and in 2012 won the literary prize Gambrinus "Giuseppe Mazzotti".
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Born
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Nationality
British