In his new book Climbing Days, Dan traces the very footholds that Dorothy Pilley – one of the 20th century’s pioneering climbers – and her husband, the writer and critic I.A.Richards, mapped across Europe’s mountains nearly a century ago. Dan follows their long-forgotten journey, learning the ropes in Scotland and Wales, progressing onward and upwards through the Lake District, Spain, Switzerland and finally to the mighty Dent Blanche.
Dan’s book is an homage to his great aunt, a beautiful portrait of a trailblazing woman, up to now lost to history. It is also a journey of its own, taking on that eternal question: why do people climb mountains?
Dan is the author and editor of the Beechwood Airship Interviews and along with Robert Macfarlane, co-authored the marvelous Holloway.