British climber and cyclist Anna Taylor has set her sights on an ambitious new goal for the start of 2023: linking all of Tasmania’s mountains in a continuous push.
She and her fiancé/climbing partner Mat Wright have just started the adventure, which they expect to take several months to complete.
Once finished, the pair hopes their trip will mark the first human-powered, self-supported link up of all 158 of the Tasmanian Abel mountains. That involves cycling to all the island’s mountains and traversing “rainforest, trackless bog, and a whole multitude of other obstacles,” Taylor wrote on Instagram.
Taylor and Wright have completed two days of the journey thus far, and Tasmania is already making them work for it. It’s “been brutally hard,” Taylor wrote.
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“We had to cycle from sea level up to Mount Wellington in the middle of a crazy heatwave, and on super heavy bikes, that was no easy task,” she said. “This island is absolutely stunning though, and despite the hardships, we’ll no doubt endure…for the next three months.”
On his own Instagram page, Wright wrote that the journey will likely entail at least 4,800km of cycling, as well as plenty of camping and dirt bagging.
“This unforgiving land is making damn sure that we don’t have an easy time,” Wright said. “We’re having to endure 30°C temps, huge continuous uphill cycles…and difficult rocky terrain that doesn’t lend itself to moving fast.”
Just the latest adventure for Taylor
At just 24 years old, Taylor has already made a name for herself. She is one of the UK’s best female climbers and has made big wall first ascents with Leo Houlding. No slouch either, fiancé Mat Wright has climbed 5.14 trad, 9a sport, and V15 boulder.
Recently, Taylor has turned to ambitious trips that combine cycling and climbing.
In 2021, she completed all 83 routes featured in Ken Wilson’s 1978 book Classic Rock. She “didn’t have a clue how to cycle tour” when she started, but ultimately traveled over 2,400km and sent every route, including 68 solos, either free or with rope.
The adventure only spurred Taylor to another big expedition in 2022, when she completed her Mountain Rock challenge. That involved 100 of the UK’s best multi-pitch routes from Steve Broadbent’s Mountain Rock guidebook, most rated from Moderate to Very Severe. Over 53 days, Taylor cycled, ran, and walked nearly 2,000km in Scotland, England, and Wales.
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She also scaled about 12,000m of elevation, UK Climbing reported. Her fiancé Wright provided support along the way, capturing images and film of her trip.
