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Week 2: Lowland routes in focus – how do you best plan a walk for varied abilities?
Pushed for time? Check out my video at the bottom! Reading time: 15 mins. As I make progress through the Lowland Leader scheme, it strikes me that it makes a really good qualification to help you as a leader think carefully about the abilities of your group. Why is that? At first, I nearly dismissed…
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Week 1: Navigation Training, Sunrise Hikes and how NOT to photograph the Northern Lights…
See that above? Not bad for a hand-held effort. Just ignore all the blurred streetlights in the bottom right corner. Basically I was just really lazy and couldn’t be bothered to get my tripod. No other excuse. It’s been an adventurous first week into my challenge, so here’s a brief run through of what I’ve…
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A Year in the Life of a Mountain Training Candidate
So here’s a new challenge, one that I have thought about doing for a long time but always hesitated to start. Until now. What would happen if I took some of the general careers advice I usually give to students and applied it to my development as a Mountain Training candidate? What sort of things…
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Scramble to the Summit: Striding Edge (Grade 1)
Striding Edge is arguably one of the most coveted routes for the adventurous Lakeland walker. It has every ingredient needed for a memorable day out in the English mountains – heart-in-your-mouth rocky terrain, mega exposure and in a setting which is postcard perfect. As if that wasn’t good enough, the summit happens to be one…
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How to hike Helvellyn for Sunrise and Sunset shots
There’s noting that beats getting some great photos from your mountain adventures. But how do you give yourself the best chance of getting some great shots? Here are my top tips, using Helvellyn in the Lake District as an example. Scroll down for a YouTube video too! I can’t emphasise this enough. Plan a route…
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Madman or Poet? A Night on Cadair Idris
There’s a saying in Welsh mythology that if you spend a night on top of Cadair Idris, South Snowdonia, you wake up as either a madman or a poet. I lived in Wales for the best part of four years, and for whatever reason never got round to it. Always had an excuse of some…
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So how easy is it to bivvy overnight in the mountains? And what kit do you need? Part 1.
Bivvying, short for ‘bivouacking’, is a bit of an art form. It’s a bit ‘niche’, one notch up from wild camping, and often seen as the emergency option if you’re caught out in a storm for the night. But is it really all that bad? Is it something to be endured, or can it also…
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Start to the Summit in 90 Minutes: Helvellyn Direttissima.
If you squint hard enough (not when walking!) you could almost be in the Italian Alps… Except this is the Lake District – for those who like it direct, dead easy and done in less than a day. The only major challenge with this route is its test of stamina. Ready for an intensive workout?…
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