Daredevil couple take their young kids on 'adventure education' holiday — and camp on cliff face

Daredevil couple take their young kids on 'adventure education' holiday — and camp on cliff face Leo Houlding, 46 and his wife Jess, 47, who live in Staveley, Cumbria, set off on a year of "adventure education" with their youngsters Freya and Jackson An adventurous couple took their young kids on the world's most extreme family holiday — including camping on a mountain face. Leo Houlding, 46 and his wife Jess, 47, set off on a year of 'adventure education' with youngsters Freya and Jackson. The children took a year off school for the epic journey which saw them climb El Capitan, a mountain in Yosemite National Park in California. They also scaled an unclimbed mountain in Kyrgyzstan and sea-kayaked between remote islands in Papua New Guinea. Their year-long journey spanned Norway, America, Japan, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. In 2018, the Mirror told how Leo narrowly escaped death in one of the remotest and most beautiful places on earth. He was kite-skiing across the Antartic wilderness in temperatures as low as -37C when a snow bridge collapsed and his 26 stone sledge fell down a crevasse, pulling him behind it. He was rescued by expedition team mates Jean Burgun and Mark Sedon. Jackson was four when he became the youngest person ever to climb a 11,000-ft mountain in Wyoming six years ago. Freya managed the same feat in Spain when she was seven. Leo, who lives in Staveley, Cumbria, said he and wife Jessica, a GP and climber, are both "very adventurous people". They had their epic year long adventure with Freya, now 13, and Jackson, now 10, starting in July 2024 when she was 10 and he was seven. Leo said: "For me it's a profession, for her it's a passion. When we became parents, we continued to do a lot of adventures with the kids, but when they start school you have so little time for it. Between full-time education, after-school activities, sleeping and eating, you barely see your kids. "We keep the weekends and school holidays as family adventure time, and we've done some amazing stuff. We'd always talked about taking them out of school for a year of travel and adventure. "Jess quit her job as a salaried GP, and I managed to wangle my somewhat flexible working life to build in this year of adventure. Then we set about deciding where to go and what to do." In 2017, Leo led the 1,250-mile unsupported journey across Antarctica to climb the Spectre - one of the world's most remote mountains. After becoming a father, Leo started taking his family on adventures. In 2020, celebrating his 40th birthday, he and Jess led their two young children up the spectacular North Ridge of the 10,853ft Piz Badile on the Swiss-Italian border. Leo, who has climbed Everest, leaned into his experience to plan an unforgettable journey. He said: "I've been a professional climber, traveller, explorer and adventurer since I was 16, so I've been privileged to see some amazing places in the world - but those trips have all been focused on climbing. "We wanted it not to be totally through that prism, so we took the opportunity to do some things we'd never done, like skiing in Japan and sea kayaking in Papua New Guinea." First they would head to northern Norway to live in a van, before returning to the UK and heading to the airport to embark on the first of 17 flights on a round-the-world air ticket El Capitan, the Yosemite cliff featured in Alex Honnold's rope-free ascent 'Free Solo', is around 3,000ft high and poses a significant challenge even to experienced climbers. Leo led the way with two climbing pals, laying ropes for the family to ascend and hauling 250kg of equipment, food and water - around the same weight as a piano - up the face. It took the Houldings seven days to reach the summit, including one stormbound day in a blizzard high on the wall. During the storm, Jess said: "There are times when I look up at that big scary wall and think maybe we should have just gone to Disneyland." Throughout the climb, the family lived in a free-hanging camp, perched with thousands of feet of air below them. They all slept in one cramped tent on a hanging platform known as a port-a-ledge — with a pack of wet wipes for a shower and a bag for a toilet. Nearing the end of their climb, Jackson said: "I won't miss it too much, I will miss it a bit. But I tell you what I won't miss: pooing in that bag." Leo, who appeared in an iconic 'Top Gear' show where he raced Jeremy Clarkson, knows Yosemite and was the first Brit to free a new route on El Capitan in 2010. He continued: "I think people really underestimate how strong children are. They're capable of a lot more than you think. I've spent seasons and seasons in Yosemite. It's a place I know and love. I've always wanted to climb El Cap with the kids." The Houlding family continued their journey and headed to Hawaii. They arrived just in time for the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational - a famous big-wave surfing competition - then went to Japan to spend three months in central Hokkaido. Then they flew to Papua New Guinea, which Leo describes as the "centrepiece" of the whole trip. He added: "We were way out in the South Pacific, in the furthest reaches of Papua New Guinea. "We traded reading glasses and snorkelling gear for lobster and coconuts, cooked on fires and slept on the white sand of uninhabited islands for two weeks." They finished the year on a high with an ascent of an unclimbed, unnamed 4,231m peak in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia. Freya said: "I loved riding horses to high camp in Kyrgyzstan. The altitude made the last bit of the mountain really hard, but an unclimbed summit is a pretty cool birthday present." Leo and Jess home-schooled their kids and would teach English, Maths and Science in the shade of coconut trees or hanging thousands of feet up in the port-a-ledge. Jess said: "I'll always treasure that year together with the kids. Not every day was easy, but we made so many memories that we'll be talking about for the rest of our lives." Leo added: "It's deeply bonding being a family in the wilderness. It's brought us closer together as a family. I must admit we were ready for the kids to go back to school! "Everyone needs more adventure in their lives." They documented their year away in Small People, Big Adventures, a series of films available to watch on Leo's YouTube channel and his Instagram page.