Adventure Bulletin 19th August
New for this year, the BMC are running an Inspiring Adventure Award - and you can vote on who gets it. They’re released the shortlist of six people and I was pleasantly surprised to see four women on it.
Emma Twyford made British climbing history in 2025 as the first woman to climb a UK E10 (Yma O Hyd, E10 7a), a landmark trad-climbing grade.
Lorraine McCall became the first woman to complete a continuous round of all 231 Grahams (this Munros but smaller). This June she became the first known woman to complete a continuous round of the Donalds and Donald Tops (141 summits in 28 days). Many of her hikes were completed while undergoing cancer treatment.
Helen Rennard completed all 282 Munros in winter in a record 80 days 9.5 hours, becoming only the second woman ever to finish a continuous winter Munro round. She did the second half of the round with an unhealed leg wound from falling on a rock spike.
Molly Dufton and Jesse Dufton have a joint nomination. Her husband is blind and they rock climb as a pair, completing routes up to E5.
The public vote closes at midnight on 23th August 2026, so if you’d like to vote make sure to do it soon here: thebmc.co.uk/en/bmc-inspiring-adventures-award-voting Or click the link to fall down a rabbit hole of their cool adventures.
Was hoping to find a decent free-to-view film of at least one of them (or a trailer!) but here’s Helen Rennard being interviewed on Mark Beaumont’s podcast.
-ˋˏ ༻⛰︎༺ ˎˊ-
At least 3 bullets of achievements / ongoing adventures
Kirsty Earle is currently bikepacking across Tajikistan. I’ve been following her updates from the road on instagram @keearlyadventures
Kelsey Pfendler completed a solo row across the Pacific from Monterey, California to Hawaii in 43 days, 18 hours, 12 minutes. She beat the overall speed record for the route by more than 8 days and beat Lia Ditton’s women’s record by over 6 weeks. yourowkelsey.com
I don’t know how I missed this at the time but Jessica “Stitches” Guo hiked the CDT and GDT long distance trails in the USA back to back last year, becoming the first woman to do so. Interview in the Guardian here, but also she blogged a lot of it on her Substack (although may be behind a paywall).
(incidentally, I’d love to know who you pitch to feature in the ‘walking’ section of the Guardian - does anyone know who the commissioning editor is?)
-ˋˏ ༻꩜༺ ˎˊ-
In books and words… I haven’t had a lot of time for reading this week, but I did find this very helpful blog post by Just Kidding Jess about how to become an expedition guide. (Also I would love to be in a situation where my Linkedin was full of people asking about adventure like her’s is!)
Read it here: justkiddingitsjess.wordpress.com/2026/08/11/so-you-want-to-be-an-expedition-guide-heres-how
Lots of opportunities showing up on my desk this though:
Em Karembo Cornthwaite is looking for someone to cycle her trike back from the South of France to the UK. She’s cycling it 1120 miles from Lincolnshire to Revel, starting in October, to raise money for Parkinsons UK as she was diagnosed 2 years ago. In her words: “I struggle to walk but I can be free on the trike”. Maybe you could cycle it back again? Details on her instagram.
Mountain Training are recruiting 2 new trustees to the board. Do you want to have a say and lend your expertise to the organisation that governs the training of hiking and climbing leaders in the UK and Ireland. Get your skates on because deadline to apply is 21st August! Details here.
Matt Phillips is looking for multiple experienced Stand Up Paddleboarders to join him on an Antarctic expedition. Sound cool - pun absolutely intended! All the details here on Explorers Connect.
-ˋˏ ༻⛰︎༺ ˎˊ-
Are you a scuba diver? The British Sub-Aqua Jubilee Trust offers grants to “raise the standard of projects undertaken by diving clubs, individuals or expeditions by providing financial assistance”. You have to say how much you want and justify it in the form but definitely worth considering if you are planning a diving project.
Deadline is end of August for selection in October, but they have multiple rounds a year. Just make sure your trip isn’t happening within that 2 month wait period.
For more info and apply here: bsac.com/this-is-bsac/what-we-do/british-sub-aqua-jubilee-trust/how-to-apply-for-a-jubilee-trust-grant/
Thanks for sharing your links!
Thanks very much for the small number of people who shamelessly self-promoted in the comments on last week’s newsletter. That is exactly what we want.
I may get my act together enough to share them in the main newsletter, but for now, let’s consider it the appendix to the newsletter. What are you following, reading or sharing this week that you think adventurous women should hear about? Even (especially) if you did that thing yourself.
At some point I’m going to try to put together a list of podcasts, youtube channels and blogs who regularly post about adventure and are run by or often feature women. If you can help me add to that list in the comments it would be very helpful!
Also thank you to the people who emailed me direct last week - I haven’t had a chance to reply yet but I will asap :) And huge shout out to Nicky who became a paid subscriber, that notification made my day.
Have a lovely week and stay intrepid,
Emily