By the end of 2021 I was exhausted. COVID had caught me over the Christmas period as the loss of my Mum began to take its toll. I hoped 2022 would give me time to rest and reflect. I certainly reflected, but spent much of the year on the road, on the sea and on the mountain..!
Read More »2022 – On the Road Again…
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.
Read More »Random Access Memories…
2019 was a year of death, cancellations and accidents, so I hoped for a more relaxing and rewarding 2020. It certainly started with a bang as during the 2019 Kendal Mountain Festival, I was asked to don my best Edwardian Mountaineering Tweeds and marry two friends in the Lake District. Surely enough on January 18th, I stood before Tom and Emily in Sticklebarn and pronounced them Husband and Wife. I felt extremely honoured to be asked and we all enjoyed a wonderful weekend under sunny skies in Langdale. 2020 was off with a bang..!
Read More »2020 – A Good Year for the Roses…On Saturday 7th November 2020, I will be live in the Lake District with Filmmaker Terry Abraham, hosting the opening night and interviewing Terry about… Read More »Life of a Mountain – Helvellyn at the London Mountain Film Festival…
I’ll be speaking at a RGS-IBG lecture which promises to be an exciting evening of adventure and drama. I’ll be covering some of my… Read More »Over the Horizon Lecture – RGS & MHT Blencathra Field Centre
There are more quotes about time than probably any other subject. How we use it, pass it or waste it, there’s always a sentence of reflective words to describe it. People ask me how my time is used because of my travel, life and importantly, my work. ‘You’re always away’ seems a common statement, and ‘how do you get out so much when you have a job..?’ is another. During my engineering life, I’ve worked part time, normal days, 24hr stand by and more recently, shifts. They disrupt your life, both physically and socially, but it’s not all bad news. They do allow you to get into the outdoors, provided you’re effective with your time…
After a week of scorching July sunshine, I hoped for something a little cooler to wild camp the Cumbria Way. Working with facial skin grafts in the blazing sun is always a challenge…
The Kendal Mountain festival has traditionally been held in November, when nights are dark and the weather (usually) wet. Things are changing, and a new festival ‘Kendal Mountain Festival On the Edge‘ has been launched for the weekend of July 25 – 27th 2014.
The Kendal Mountain Festival is the highlight of the climbing calendar in the UK, but for me it wasn’t always that way. I had visited the festival years back and even had my Discovery Channel documentary “Nightmare at 20,000ft” premiered there, but I always felt a little lost. Was it because I was on my own? Or the fact that I didn’t know a soul? Who knows, but it all changed one day on the Hornli Ridge.