Bags were packed the night before. At 5 a.m., I loaded the car, coaxed sleepy children through a quick bowl of cereal, and we rolled towards Birkenhead for the day ferry to Belfast. Audiobooks lined up; the promise of a corner of the UK we’ve neglected for decades. Boarding was easy. Then a wander of …
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Mountain Leader for AAC on Helvellyn via Striding Edge & Swirral Edge
It was definitely a game of two halves. We met outside the Fairlight Guest House in Glenridding under a light drizzle, a great mix of Austrian Alpine Club members from different backgrounds and experience levels, meeting for the first time. Ahead lay one of my favourite outings in this corner of the Lake District: the …
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Wilderness First Aid 2025: Essential Tools for Triage and Monitoring You Should Know
I’ve been refreshing my first aid every few years for as long as I can remember, but somehow Nicola at High Peak First Aid always manages to deliver something new and practical. This weekend’s 16-hour Wilderness First Aid course was no exception. What stood out most for me this time were two key tools that …
Birdwatching at Idle Valley Nature Reserve with Chesterfield RSPB
After a long and tiring week, we skipped our usual morning Pilates (saving it for the evening) and headed out early into a damp morning. The world was still waking up. The roads were quiet, the air peaceful, and the few people already out, mostly runners, seemed absorbed in their own rhythms. I felt a …
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Beating the Storm: A Friday Night Escape to the Peaks
A spontaneous summer microadventure with my son, another weekend came around faster than expected. With weather warnings flashing up for heavy thunderstorms on Saturday and Sunday, our carefully planned camping trip suddenly needed a reshuffle. So, we pulled the trigger and shifted our adventure forward. Friday night it was. After work, bags were quickly packed. …
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A Father Son Weekend at the 2025 Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon
It’s Friday evening in early July and while most people are winding down for the weekend, Ewan and I are heading north with our bags packed and a healthy dose of optimism despite the sky growing steadily darker and the forecast for rain. Our destination? The 2025 Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon (SLMM). A two day …
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Tongue Tied and Skew Gill: A Borrowdale Scrambling Day
After a gentle, weather dampened day based out of Longthwaite Hostel in Borrowdale, wandering through the rain to the Bowder Stone (a glacial erratic from the last ice age), drying out in a café in Grange, pausing by the stream at the bottom of Gate Gill to soak up the atmosphere and heading up Castle …
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Swansea and Sea Cliffs: Learning the Ropes with WUMC
Back in the spring of 1998, university life was still new enough to feel exciting, and climbing was fast becoming more than just a hobby. That year, the Warwick University Mountaineering Club (WUMC) trip to Swansea marked a turning point for me: my first experience of sea cliff climbing, my first abseil into a route …
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Evening Scrambles with the Mountain Mentor Crew. Stickle Ghyll & Tarn Crag
I was back at the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, we were last here on the Cumbria Way and took the chance to sneak in a quick recce of Tarn Crag Ghyll. With the dry weather it was good to get a feel for the line and confirmed that I’m still not the biggest fan of wet …
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One Night, Three Bikes and a Field to Ourselves: Our Bank Holiday Adventure in the Peaks
There’s a rhythm to our lives, and for me, one of those beats is the annual cycle camping trip. Every year I dust off the bikepacking bags, wrestle with last minute logistics and wonder, again, whether I’ll actually find a campsite willing to let us stay just one night. In the past, I’ve bluffed it …