A British couple took their children out of school for a year to climb Yosemite's El Capitan as part of an 'extreme family holiday'.
Leo Houlding, 4,6 and his wife Jess, 47, set off on the 'adventure education' trip abroad with Freya, now 13, and Jackson, now ten.
The children took a year off school for the journey which saw them climb El Capitan, a cliff face 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.
Mr Houlding, who lives in Staveley, Cumbria, said he and his wife, a GP and climber, are both 'very adventurous people'.
The adventure started in July 2024 when Freya was ten and Jackson was seven.
Mr Houlding said: 'For me it's a profession, for her it's a passion.
The Houlding family are seen on their trip to Papua New Guniea in May 2025. They homeschooled their children for a year during the holiday
The adventure started in July 2024 when the couple's daughter Freya was 10 and their son Jackson was seven
Jackson is seen carving a piece of wood during the year-long adventure. 'Since they were little, we'd always talked about taking them out of school for a year,' Mr Houlding said
'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.
'Since they were little, we'd always talked about taking them out of school for a year of travel and adventure, to learn about the world and experience different cultures.'
Mr Houlding added the 'logical time' for the trip was when his daughter had finished primary school.
'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,' he said.
In 2017 Mr Houlding led a 1,250-mile unsupported journey across Antarctica to climb the Spectre – one of the world's most remote mountains.
The Houlding family areseen here in Norway in September 2024. The couple would teach English, maths and science in the shade of coconut trees or hanging thousands of feet up in the port-a-ledge
After becoming a father, he started taking his family on adventures.
In 2020, celebrating his 40th birthday, he and his wife led their two young children up the spectacular North Ridge of the 10,853ft Piz Badile on the Swiss-Italian border.
Mr Houlding, 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.'
The family first headed 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 face made famous by Alex Honnold's rope-free ascent in Free Solo, is around 3,000ft high and poses a significant challenge even to experienced climbers.
Mr Houlding led the way with two climbing friends, 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.
Ms Houlding 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'
Freya and Jackson are pictured here. 'It's deeply bonding being a family in the wilderness,' Mr Houlding said
He said: 'It's like a camping holiday, basically. With all the food and, crucially, water you need for a week.'
It took the Houldings seven days to reach the summit, including one stormbound day in a blizzard high on the wall.
During the storm, Ms Houlding 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.'
Mr Houlding, who appeared in an iconic episode of Top Gear where he raced Jeremy Clarkson up and then off a cliff, knows Yosemite very well and was the first Briton to free a new route on El Capitan in 2010.
He said: 'Is it difficult? Yes, of course it is. And with children it's much more difficult.
'But just leaving the house is difficult with kids - you have to force them to get dressed and brush their teeth every day. Everything is challenging with children, but that shouldn't stop you from trying great challenges.
'The thing we've learned is it gets a lot easier when you get going. Just keep going - the hardest part is getting out of the house and getting away from screens.
'I think people really underestimate how strong children are. They're capable of a lot more than you think. They don't have the same limitations as adults; they don't know what they're capable of or what normal is - they don't have any sort of comparison.
'Psychologically, they can have a real low point, then five minutes later they're laughing and happy.
'I believe that everyone needs more adventure in their lives - especially children. Embracing discomfort and facing fear is good for you, it builds resilience and strength. 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.
They then flew to Papua New Guinea, which Mr Houlding describes as the 'centrepiece' of the whole trip.
He said: 'We paddled inflatable sea kayaks for 60 miles across an archipelago of tropical islands called the Calvados Group, 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.'
After the remote islands, the Houldings went to the jungle to climb giant trees before heading over to Indonesia for a more chilled month of surfing.
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.
Mr Houlding said: 'We drove for miles in these crazy old Soviet off-road vehicles, then spent three weeks in a base camp in a pristine valley surrounded by unexplored glaciers and mostly unclimbed peaks.
'We made friends with a local nomadic yak herder and his young family, who loaned us their horses and a little donkey for Jackson to move further up the valley, before we chose an attainable peak and summited on Freya's twelfth birthday.'
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.'
Mr Houlding explained the logistics 'were hugely challenging'.
Throughout their journey, the couple home-schooled their children and would teach English, maths and science in the shade of coconut trees or hanging thousands of feet up in the port-a-ledge.
Ms Houlding 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.'
'The biggest challenge was getting Jackson to do his reading and getting the kids to brush their teeth,' Mr Houlding added.
'The reality is those normal domestic parenting things were just as challenging as anything else.
'And life's fun: climbing trees to get coconuts and lighting a fire to cook fish you've just caught. It's true quality family time.'
He added: 'The nice thing is when you travel and when you go into the wilderness, they get a lot of you. They can help pitch the tents and help with cooking. There's no one else around, and there's no internet.
'It's deeply bonding being a family in the wilderness. It's brought us closer together as a family, although I must admit after a whole year together every day, we were all ready for the kids to go back to school!
'Everyone needs more adventure in their lives. It's alright to be a bit uncomfortable for a day or a night or two. People are used to heated seats in cars and sitting on a sofa with the TV remote in hand, but they're luxuries - not necessities.'
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