This morning I had the pleasure of spending some time with the staff from the Birmingham branch of the Pegasus Planning Group, based in Sutton Coldfield. Today was their chance to get out of the office and let their hair down with an ‘jolly’. When they originally contacted me, the plan was to spend the [...]

For the last few years I have helped out with the provision of Bronze DofE expedition training and assessments. Due to the numbers of participants involved, a number of instructors are needed to supervise and assess the various groups over the course of 6 days. Over recent years, a core team has developed, making it [...]

A fortnight ago, I was working with pupils from Oswestry School on their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition training. This weekend it was their opportunity to put everything into practice by completing a 2 day expedition with significantly less input from the instructors. It was also their first time carrying expedition rucksacks on their [...]

One of my sons has started to express an interest in hill waking. I suspect that it has more to do with a fascination with winter mountaineering and the thought of spending a night in a snow hole but, when I offered to take him out into Snowdonia, he jumped at the chance. So, relieved [...]

At the end of March, I spent a weekend working with some 6th Form pupils from Oswestry School who were starting their training towards their Gold DofE expedition. On that occasion, there were some preparing to do their expedition by canoe, others by sea kayak and others on foot and the training covered was generic [...]

The last 5 days have been spent on my Winter Mountain Leader assessment. These five days have been to focus of all the hill walking I have done over the last few months. Looking back, I see that I started my build up back in October with Summer mountain days before the snow arrived. Since [...]

With a sled dog race meeting taking place in Aviemore this weekend, all accommodation was booked, so it seemed appropriate to take the opportunity to go on an expedition. This gave the chance to practice some snow hole skills and allow me to get deeper into the Cairngorms than is realistic on a day trip. [...]

Ten days into the big freeze, today was my first opportunity to get into the mountains for a personal day in the snow. Not living right next to the North Wales mountains can make it awkward in predicting exactly what the conditions are going to be like. The weather forecast is certainly a help, in [...]

I’ve spent the last two days with Vince doing a hill walking course, although this was far from normal. Vince originally contacted me back in September asking about potential dates for a 2 day hill walking course and we agreed on a mutually convenient time. Although I then advertised these dates, no one else expressed [...]

Why does it seem that whenever I run a multi day rock climbing course, the weather plays havoc with the week’s program?! However, at the end of the day there aren’t many people that get to enjoy working outdoors in such stunning places. I’ve spent this week working for CCAT (Cadet Centre for Adventurous Training) [...]