The Wilder Interview: Peter Naituli

Peter Naituli found a passion for climbing at an early age, after a school trip to Mount Kenya. He was determined to return to summit the mountain’s highest peak, Batian (5,199 m), which he did when he was just 15 years old. Over the years since, Peter has honed his climbing skills — with and without a rope — on remote and well-established walls across Kenya. In January 2020, he took on one of his most ambitious challenges: a barefoot, free solo ascent of the 4,883 metre-high Point John on Mount Kenya. The attempt was documented by filmmaker, Ash Mulama, in the film Cold Feet, which has been selected for the 2021 London Mountain Film Festival (LMFF).

You can watch a trailer of Cold Feet below, and buy tickets to watch the full film during the online LMFF here, which will run from 15-31 May. Leading up to the festival, we spoke to Peter about the film, his past expeditions, free soloing, and the climbing scene in Kenya.

Wilder: Rock climbing has grown in popularity in Kenya over the last few years, but you were drawn to it quite early on. What inspired your passion for climbing?

Peter: I’ve always liked being in the bush and in the wild. I was very outdoorsy as a younger man. I went on a school trip to Mount Kenya, and as I hiked up to Point Lenana I saw Batian and Nelion — these huge peaks that were only accessible to a class of people who had the skills to climb them. So that inspired me to go to Hell’s Gate in Naivasha to try it out, and I just kept going back. I was hooked. But it took time before I really got into the technical side of climbing. That was more of a slow progression.

Are there any climbers or free soloists in particular that have inspired you?

It’s an interesting one because there are definitely qualities of different climbers that I admire. But there are very few people who I can wholly relate to in the wider climbing community. I admired the cool-headedness and the courage of Ueli Steck, for example. He soloed dangerous peaks, where the elements were out of control. I really admired that. Then there’s the courage of Alex Honnold, doing hard technical solos. You also have the likes of Adam Ondra and Chris Sharma, who are very strong and dedicated. So I’ve pulled little pieces that I admire from different climbers, but there’s no specific individual who I can say, ‘That is my hero’. Not yet anyway …

Here in Kenya we are lucky to have Africa’s second tallest mountain to explore — Mount Kenya. The third-highest peak, Point Lenana, is very accessible to most, but the summit, Batian, is a lot more technical, and at a very high altitude. Tell me about your first experience of summiting Batian.

When I first climbed Batian I was 15. The day before, I did some ice climbing on a glacier on the northern side of the mountain, which was rarely explored. I crossed over to the south and then climbed Point John. On the same day, I had a bad fall and twisted my knee. So there were a lot of elements standing in the way of the Batian climb. But I still woke up, gritted through it and reached the top. I had to have surgery on that knee a few years down the line, and I think that fall triggered the injury. But otherwise the climb went relatively smoothly.

In 2019 you then soloed Batian, documented in the film ‘Alone on Batian’. Tell me about some of the challenges of that experience.

I soloed the north face which is tougher than taking the normal route. It was obviously more dangerous doing it alone. I rope soloed a couple of pitches, but even that was dangerous. If you fall free soloing it’s certain death, but rope soloing it’s maybe 70% death. It’s a lot of work as well. Out of 18 pitches, I rope soloed just two or three. The rope is anchored to the base of the pitch, so you have to go down and undo the knot once you’ve tied the rope up, and then you ascend the rope. So I essentially covered the hardest pitches three times — up, down, and then back up again. It’s really tough alone, when you can’t split the load with anyone. And when there’s no one to help you if things go south. It was intense, but I’d say it was probably the best experience of my life so far.

‘Cold Feet’ has been selected for the London Mountain Film Festival — congratulations! Free soloing Point John is a challenge in itself, what motivated you to do it barefoot, too?

I wanted to see what I was capable of without too much assistance from technology. It felt like there were a lot of people in the world who could free solo Point John, but without shoes, maybe that was a different story. Doing it barefoot was something primal and raw, and there were lots more factors to take into consideration. It was just something that people didn’t do, and that drew me to the idea. People don’t climb barefoot at high altitude, or free solo high-standard technical climbs at high altitude. Combining the two was such an extreme thing. I know what I’m able to handle, and from the start I was confident that I could pull it off. The skin on my feet is pretty tough, and I knew I could handle those temperatures. It went exactly how I’d foreseen it in my head.

How did you cope with the cold, and the terrain, barefoot?

Climbing barefoot is something I’d done on and off at Hell’s Gate. One challenge other than the cold was the risk of my feet being ripped to shreds on the rock. But I wasn’t too concerned about that because my feet are relatively tough; I walk around barefoot a lot. In terms of the temperature, the timing had to be right. I couldn’t free solo barefoot at night, or at sunrise when it’s the coldest. We started climbing around 8am, when it was still cold, but the sun had come up. We wanted to finish the climb quickly because the weather changes. It did actually start snowing on the way down. It was OK as long as the temperature didn’t dip below zero, and there was no risk of frostbite. I knew it would hurt around three or four degrees, but I just had to be a bit tough. I’m someone who handles discomfort relatively calmly, from spending so much time on the mountain and in the bush. When you’re familiar with these discomforts you know when a feeling is just uncomfortable, and when it actually becomes serious.

What drives you to free solo — to climb without any ropes — and how do you manage the fear?

Free soloing is about the simplicity and the flow. It’s like watching a wild animal like a lizard scamper up a wall. I do climb a lot with ropes, but usually on very difficult, technical routes. But every time you use a rope it means there’s a sliver of doubt that you won’t execute things perfectly. The removal of the rope symbolises that feeling of ‘I got this’, that you have 100% faith in your abilities. Maybe that is the appeal of free soloing. It’s very dangerous, but you almost feel as though you have a superpower — being hundreds of metres off the ground with nothing stopping you from falling except your skills, and manoeuvring freely without fear. It’s a really powerful feeling.  

I do experience fear now and again, but not usually when I’m free soloing. Without ropes, I have to choose my objectives very carefully. I select routes that I know are well within my abilities. The night before I went up Point John barefoot, that was really scary. The wind was beating down on our hut, and I was practicing the moves on the crux pitches in my head. The idea of doing them barefoot was terrifying. But when I actually got on the wall the following day, it went really well and just flowed. So often fear for me with these big projects comes when I’m safe and in bed.

Bouldering in Lukenya. Photo by Poppy Miyonga

Have you had any close calls that have made you re-evaluate what you are doing?

Very many! Free soloing has usually gone very well. But there was one day on Mount Kenya where I was doing a traverse over the mountain with my cousin, and we found ourselves in an area that was very steep and loose, so we couldn’t use a rope. I grabbed a loose piece of rock on one of those cliffs and just fell. Somehow I managed to catch myself, and I didn’t get injured. I slammed my head into the rock, but thankfully I was wearing a helmet. It has made me a better climber actually, because I now know what falling feels like — it’s no longer this horrible demon. I also wrote an article recently called 15 Hours of Hell on Mount Kenya, about a long, terrible ordeal on the north face of Batian. I was stuck in this horrible jet stream, and it was a really nasty situation. Then there have been falling rocks crashing around me, thunderstorms, lightning … so many bad situations.

What do your family and friends think about your free soloing?

My mum is at ease with it. She knows how much I enjoy going out into the mountains and doing this stuff. My sister and my dad are very similar — they’re both alarmists, but they’re not very involved in my climbing. I don’t share stories with them. My sister just lives with it. My dad knows I go climbing, but he doesn’t know the details. I think it’s better that way.

What are some of your favourite spots to climb in Kenya?

Close to Nairobi, it’s Lukenya. The quality of the rock there is really high. Mount Kenya is still my favourite place on Earth. It’s adventurous, big and beautiful. It’s a world-class mountaineering spot, and you can’t find climbing of that quality anywhere else in Africa. Big walls, high altitude, ice, alpine environments — it has it all.

I’m hoping to explore more of northern Kenya this year — places like Samburu, where there’s a lot of unclimbed rock. I don’t like really well-established crags; I prefer somewhere I can explore, bushwhack and climb new routes. There’s a lot of that in Kenya, even in established places like Lukenya.

Are you hoping to inspire more Kenyans to climb?

I want to make it more recognisable as a sport and as an activity in Kenya, simply because it would lead to more infrastructure to further develop the sport. But I also want to have an influence on the way in which people get into climbing. It has to be with respect for nature. Adventure mountaineering is very important to me, and that’s why I document my climbing on YouTube, to encourage people to do the same. Most Kenyans experience the outdoors in a commercially-guided setting, which is understandable for beginners. My hope is to inspire an appreciation for pure adventure and exploration, because the over-commercialisation of our outdoor spaces will be detrimental to both the true spirit of adventure and to the natural environments we love. And I say this as a guide. Kilimanjaro is an example of a classic mountain full of potential that has been ruined and degraded by over-commercialisation. For me, it's about influencing the relationship we have with the outdoors as Kenyans, so that it's about much more than just money.

Finally, what’s next for you personally? Are there any spots locally or around the world that you’re desperate to climb?

I want to head out to Samburu, put up some new routes and free solo some established ones. That’s the most immediate thing on the agenda. Then, once the season opens up on Mount Kenya in June, July and August, I want to go up to set some speed records. A new route on Batian is also in the pipeline.

I basically just want to find some pretty lines to free solo. That’s always the goal.

You can follow Peter’s climbing journey on Instagram here.