Author archives: Richard Cole

I had recently completed my Single Pitch Award training course through the Mountain Leader Training Board. The first formal stage towards qualifying to lead and supervise groups at outdoor climbing venues. The course had given me a much more systematic understanding of ropes, belaying, anchors and the responsibility involved in looking after other climbers. What …

Continue reading “My First Sport Climbing Weekend at Portland, 1998”

While going through an old folder of mountaineering qualifications and course paperwork, I found a pile of weather charts pushed into the back. They dated from around August 1996, when I was seventeen. At first glance, they look like old maritime charts showing the sea areas around Britain and the North Atlantic. Scattered across them …

Continue reading “Drawing Weather Charts from the Shipping Forecast in 1996”

On Friday 15 May 1998, I began my Single Pitch Award training. But that three day course didn’t happen in isolation. A few weeks earlier, I’d helped lead a school expedition to Knoydart. The weekend before the course, I’d travelled to Derbyshire to lead climbs at Harborough Rocks. The weekend after, I was attempting the …

Continue reading “Single Pitch Award Training in 1998: Becoming a Climbing Instructor”

So much for my training and preparation. On the Friday night before attempting the Welsh 3000s, I had gone out drinking again. When Tim arrived a couple of hours earlier than I expected, I was still packing. I threw the rest of the kit I needed into my rucksack, loaded it into his Toyota van …

Continue reading “Welsh 3000s Challenge: My First Attempt in May 1998”

It was mid-May 1998. I was nineteen and still getting used to the idea that, having left school, I could travel independently. There was still a lingering feeling that I ought to ask permission before heading to the railway station with a bag and disappearing for the weekend. A few weeks earlier, I had returned …

Continue reading “Learning to Lead at Harborough Rocks, Derbyshire, in 1998”

In 1998, I travelled to Tremadog for the Warwick University Mountaineering Club dinner meet. It became a weekend of first lead climbs, club elections and a performance of Wonderwall that I was very pleased to finish. More importantly, it marked the moment when I moved from being a relatively new member of the club to …

Continue reading “Warwick University Mountaineering Club Dinner Meet 1998”

Knoydart 1998: Between Pupil and Staff on a Stancliffe Hall Easter Expedition There are moments when you find yourself standing between two versions of your life. At Easter 1998, I was nineteen and in my first year at university. School was behind me, at least officially, but I had not quite left that world. I …

Continue reading “Knoydart 1998: A Stancliffe Hall Easter Expedition in the Scottish Highlands”

This months RSPB Field Trip was through one of England’s surviving lowland raised peat landscapes did not result in the longest list of bird sightings although there was so much more to see: carnivorous plants, prehistoric archaeology, aerial hunters and one particularly memorable encounter on the path. A grey heron was already waiting for us …

Continue reading “Birds, Carnivorous plant and an Unexpected Adder at Hatfield Moors”

Returning to Brownsea after more than a decade since my first visit with my preschool son; this time with more time to explore I found an island shaped by industry, war, wealth, wildlife and one experiment that helped create a worldwide movement. The timing could hardly have worked out better. After arriving at the Quay …

Continue reading “Brownsea Island Day Trip: History, Wildlife and Red Squirrels”

There is always a temptation with a nature challenge to think that every day needs to produce something extraordinary. A rare bird. A dramatic landscape. A long walk across the hills. Perhaps an encounter worthy of a wildlife documentary. But that was not really why I decided to take part in 30 Days Wild. For …

Continue reading “Everyday Nature Wildlife Trust 30 Days Wild”