About Me

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Way back in time before the onset of adulthood I enjoyed countless days heading into the hills of Yorkshire with nothing more than a squashed sandwich & youthful sense for adventure! Despite long past youthful and work commitments keeping me in the city, the sense of adventure and love for the outdoors never left me. After digging my boots out and returning to the hills I attended a number of courses to improve my hill knowledge and skill base, during one of these courses it was suggested I join the Mountain Leader Training scheme and was delighted go on to gain the MOUNTAIN LEADER Award in April 2012. As well as spending time on the hills and mountains of the UK I have also enjoyed trips to the Nepalese Himalaya, Swiss & French Alps, Mallorca’s Tramuntana, Andorran & French Pyrenees, Morocco’s High Atlas, Tanzania’s Mt Meru & Kilimanjaro, Argentinian & Chilean Patagonia and winter expeditions to Norway’s Hardangervidda. Since gaining the ML I have also gained the SINGLE PITCH AWARD, INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAIN LEADER AWARD and the WINTER MOUNTAIN LEADER AWARD. I am now enjoying working in a freelance role whilst trying to get out climbing as much as possible.
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Monday 11 August 2014

Consecutive Days At The Wall - Ouch My Fingers!

 After yesterday's trip to City Bloc in Hunslet, Leeds yesterday, with Eszter and Loren, I made another visit today with the eager Loren and Daisy who was keen to refresh her climbing skills which she had learnt a few years ago but had not climbed for a little while.

 After a short warm up both ladies picked problems they wanted to try which got steadily harder in difficulty as their confidence grew and they started using more movements and techniques.

 Both ladies wanted to push themselves with Loren being noticeably more comfortable climbing to the full height of some of the problems whilst Daisy showed real determination when repeatedly attempting problems until she had completed them and not being afraid to take a fall onto the floor matts when pushing herself. 

 I even managed to complete a few routes which Had beaten me previously until I pushed it too far repeatedly attempting a frustrating route and managing to give myself a bit of an elbow strain, it's not easy at my age! 😢



Introduction to Indoor Bouldering.

 A mid August Sunday and obviously it was lashing down with rain as Britain caught the back end of tropical storm Bertha, so a perfect day for a bit of time indoor bouldering.

 By coincidence or possibly by the amount of things I post to social media when I have been out there have been a fair few people who have asked about getting into climbing, both indoor and out so I took the opportunity to introduce Eszta and Loren to the City Bloc bouldering wall in Hunslet, Leeds.

 We started off with a quick look and explanation of the route gradings and colouring associated with each grade before quickly getting the ladies moving on a traverse across a wall to look at the movements needed and the use of hands and feet on the different types of holds.
 We then moved on to starting a circuit of routes with them each encouraging each other and giving advice. It wasn't long before they wanted to move onto a routes a little harder and explored routes on the over hang sections too.

 
 

Friday 8 August 2014

Summer In The Lake District.

 This week I have been fortunate enough to spend a few days enjoying the fine weather in the English Lake District working for Lupine Adventure with young adults on the National Citizen Service scheme.

 Based at Langdale YHA I have been working with Ben, Siobhan and Matt (Trekking Skills) as well as instructors from Carnegie Outdoor.
 Taking groups of 12-14 plus 2 team leaders we made the best of the summer weather and headed out from the YHA onto the surrounding hills.
 Tuesday and Wednesday we made our way around Loughrigg Fell to look at the caves that had been formed when miners had dug out the clay stone, quite a sight when considering the fact the mining had mainly done by hand!


From the caves we made our way up the steep incline of Nab Scar and onto Heron Pike, standing at 612m above sea level this was the first time most of the group had stood on top of an official mountain and had views of the surrounding fells and Grasmere too!



 Thursday and with the skies bright and the temperature set to be higher we set out on a route with less up hill but with a little scrambling to spice things up and give the group a sense of achievement. Heading for Silver Howe we gave the group the lead by letting them choose the route before dropping back down into Grasmere for well earned ice cream, all very Enid Blyton!



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