The route that started it all! Nick Bullock making the first ascent of the terrifying and virtually unprotected corner of Homeward Bound (Scottish VIII,8). After abseiling in to the wrong part of the cliff whilst searching for a much easier established climb, Bullock and partner Kenton Cool inadvertently discovered the potential of the Rive Gauche, a long 150m high rock band sat above the mouth of the Argentiere Glacier.

Photo © Jon Griffith / Alpine Exposures

Nick Bullock is undeniably one of the UK's leading Alpinists. His CV of expeditions spans both continents and decades and his bold first ascents across the globe reek of commitment and drive. Bullock is not a young man, and at the tender age of 49 he still lives the dirtbag lifestyle, travelling, climbing, living out of a van and burning through climbing partners as his appetite for adventure, be that on ice or rock, is never satisfied.Not one for the modern upside-down world of 'sport dry tooling', Bullock keeps fit on the hill, swinging his axes in to steep traditional terrain in the Alps or Scotland, interspersed with summers of climbing unprotected rubble on the sea cliffs of North Wales. He's a traditionalist. He's opinionated. He lives on a shoe string, and he climbs mountains that would make most of us quake with fear.