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Nigel Vardy

Greenland 2022 – The Big Sky…

It didn’t seem five minutes since I had returned from Sea Kayaking in Greenland, before I was heading north again.  This time it was to mountaineer, but the sea would play it’s part also.  I joined Simon Yates to head towards Mikis Fjord and tackle a myriad of unclimbed peaks.

I’ve never been good on boats, in fact I can get sea sick just looking at one, so the idea of sailing from Iceland the the Greenlandic coast filled me with fear.  I loaded up my kit bag with coats, crampons and kwells in the hope of keeping myself something like sane.  It promised to be kill or cure.

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Greenland 2022 – Second Home by the Sea…

I’ve visited Greenland a number of times, but always to ski and climb.  The sea terrified me, but I was about to spend my next trip sat on my backside in a kayak.  What had changed..?

The reason I ended up on my arse is pure chance.  I was working on a P&O cruise ship touring the Norwegian Fjords and we docked at Bergen.  I joined a day trip kayaking on an inlet close by and there met Laila Reigstad.  We got on like a house on fire and stayed in touch, exchanging all kinds of thoughts and ideas about kayaking, but I was a complete novice and needed guidance.  Laila filled me with confidence and offered to train me and so eventually I ended up to my backside in the sea.  Sadly Covid came and put all our ideas on ice, but now we can travel again, Ice is where we’ve been.

Whilst the UK was baking, I headed north to the land of the Nanook to cool down. I met fellow paddlers Christian and Ketil in Copenhagen, before we crossed the seas to Greenland.

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Home by the Sea…

Training is vital to successful expedition work.  I’ve always believed in ‘Serving Your Apprenticeship’ and have recently returned from a week Sea Kayaking in the Norwegian Fjords.

A chance meeting when working on a P&O cruise ship has taken me down a whole new avenue of traveling and expeditions.  I’ve paddled canoes and kayaks on and off for years, but never thought I’d be preparing for a trip to the fjords of Greenland this year.

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Random Access Memories…

If COVID has taught us anything, it is the desire to get outside and enjoy the outdoors. Though this is a wonderful privilege, it comes at a cost and an onus, and its repercussions will be felt for generations. It is easy to use occurrences such as the Kinder Trespass of 1932 as a justification for greater land access, yet over the past 18 months I have been able to witness another mass trespass across these beautiful isles.

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Raising the Bar…

Since the dawn of time, the older generations have guided and inspired the younger.  Children have always looked up to their parents, guardians, teachers and role models and lived by the examples they set.  Whether these exemplars are in the family, in education, sport, exploration, business or politics, we have never failed to follow them.  This is why we, as elders, need to set the example and our generation holds a huge responsibility for future children.  What we do or say can have far reaching effects.  Let me explain…

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Play Your Cards Right…

I’m frequently told that I need to ‘Play the Disabled Card’ (apparently because everyone else does), but do we really need to go endlessly on about how hard life can be, or just get on with it..? How do we even define Disability..?

There are many ways to define a Disability in law, but this one makes sense to me – ‘A physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities’. What I would allow as a caveat is choice. The choice to be disabled or enabled. Let me explain…

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Mountain Walking Newbies Podcast…


I entered the outdoors as a young lad, with family days in  the Peak District, Tazzing about the fields and hills in the early 1970’s.  Since then my career has taken me Mountaineering across the world.
If you’re a hill-walker who dreams of going higher, further, longer, but don’t know where to start, Mike Potts hopes to provide advice, information and inspiration.

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Roots Of Reality Podcast…

I was recently contacted by Ben Baumann of the Roots of Reality Podcast.  Ben is an historian from the United States of America and has always been fascinated by life’s greatest questions: Who are we?  Where do we come from?  Why are we here?  And where are we going?  As a result, he decided to become a historian with a focus on the history of existence in the big picture and how it connects to our modern world, with the goal of taking our complex history and making it easy to understand.

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Word Up..!

Something, somewhere has happened.  Over the last few weeks my YouTube Page has been alive with comments about my accident on Mt. McKinley.

This is not new news – This was over 20 years ago.

One of the programs we recorded all those years back has been aired on TV again (in the USA I think) and people have been commenting non stop.  It’s now received over 400,000 views..! This is not all down to TV however, its down to Algorithms…

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