Main content

Give Me Space Below My Feet

Is it possible to take 93-year-old mountaineer Gwen Moffat climbing again? Can Helen Mort recreate the sensation through an original poem and binaural sound?

Is it possible to take the legendary climber 93-year-old Gwen Moffat back up into the mountains? Gwen was Britain's first ever female mountain guide and only gave up scaling peaks in her eighties, but set us a challenge: to give her the sensation of climbing once again, from the comfort of her armchair.

In a new poetry commission, Helen Mort attempts to do so by weaving Gwen's memories with an original poem and binaural recordings she made of a climb in Langdale in the Lake District.

Binaural stereo allows you to enter a three-dimensional world. It is an immersive experience which allows you to hear, exactly as Helen did on her climb, the wind whistling past her ears as she teeters on the rock face.

So put on your earphones for the full effect and don't look down as we attempt to transport Gwen back to her heady days of adventure and freedom. Can we give her the feeling of... space below her feet?

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 19 Apr 2020 18:45

Broadcasts

  • Sat 30 Sep 2017 21:30
  • Sun 19 Apr 2020 18:45

Featured in...

Radio 3 in binaural sound

Listening in binaural sound: what it is and how it works.

Contains Strong Language

Contains Strong Language

Highlights from the four day poetry and spoken word festival in Hull and on the 成人快手.