Dan Turner

Name: Dan Turner

D.O.B: 09/06/1989

Hometown: Lake District

Sport: Bouldering

I have been climbing for around 15 years, starting out at the local climbing wall, before enjoying trad climbing and bouldering in the Lake District. I spent 10 years in Yorkshire, enjoying the gritstone delights of the dales, but have recently moved back to the homeland.

I am pretty enthusiastic about everything I do.

Get to know Dan

Tell us about your successes so far?

I guess the achievement I am most proud of is probably the volume of hard UK bouldering I have done. I love British bouldering. There is such a variety of different climbing styles and rock types which keeps it pretty interesting.

Lanny Bassham 8B
Voyager Sit 8B+
Monk Life 8B+
High fidelity 8B
Little Women 8B+

What are you working on? What are your goals for the future?

I always have something on the go. I would love to put some more time into some of Aidan Roberts’ hard things in the Lakes and Dan Varian’s cool looking lines in the County.

I’d also love to go back to Rocklands at some point and settle a score with some unfinished business.

Why do you climb? What do you love about climbing?

I think this has changed quite a bit over the years. When I was younger I was quite goal driven, but these days it’s more about getting out, climbing on cool lines that motivate and challenge me.

What I love about climbing is; even if you had a bad day climbing, you are often somewhere nice or spent some time with good people.

Which Scarpa shoe is your favourite?

The Instinct series for sure, good edges and a solid heel, perfect. For me, I prefer stiffer boots, but having said that I have been loving the Drago especially when it’s a bit colder and stiff rubber can feel a bit ‘skatey’

Tell us about your best day climbing?

Hard to choose one. So many. I guess during the last year, I had a good day out with my friend Cal. Multi activity day in the lakes, got up super early, took some photos of Cal BASE jumping, then did a cool highball boulder called Secret Garden. Then we walked over to Black Crag and soloed Troutdale pinnacle and finished up doing an E7 at Shephards Crag.

The other stand out moment was watching my friend Mark Katz do Rhythm at Flasby Fell in Yorkshire. We had been trying it over the winter, it was pretty hard to get good conditions that season. Mark sent it one day after work in the spring. That was the final boulder in a video I made called ‘This is Yorkshire’.

What do you do away from your sport?

I recently became a Dad, so family time is a big priority for me. I also work full time for The Rivers Trust, which is a fantastic ENGO working to protect catchments, rivers and environments we all love to enjoy. It’s a pretty satisfying and inspiring place to work.

Other than that, I am really into running, especially in the hills. But I also enjoy lots of other sports like cricket, tennis and mountain biking, I just need to find some more time in the day!