March 2016 was a very busy month. Early in the month, I accompanied Tim Chandler on a recce visit to the Gran Paradiso National Park in Italy to plan the summer expedition for Norton Hill School. We spent several days in Cogne and Rheims Notre Dame planning the visit and even managed some ski touring […]

Towards the end of August 2015, I accompanied Chris and Jane Horobin of Wild Country Consultants to the Pyrenees. They were running D of E Gold Assessment for Ibstock Place School in SW London. It was the first time Chris had used one of my trips for his company so I was keen for it to […]

At the end of July 2015, I once again accompanied the Norton School’s Sixth Form on their D of E Gold Assessment and adventure trip. This time we went to the Vercors for the first time. The Vercors is a limestone plateau in the Pre Alps south of Grenoble and a stunning location. The area […]

In June, I accompanied Jamie and Writhlington School for their D of E Assessment and Training to Snowdonia. The weather was dry and cold for the first half of the week and as we had a spare afternoon on arrival, went climbing and abseiling behind the campsite. We decided that as the trainees were very […]

In June, I joined James in Scotland at Lathallan School to work with him on an SPA Training Course for his school staff and also Assess a Gold D of E Expedition. We went to Cummingston on the coast near Elgin for the personal climbing day and was hit by a North Sea fret creating […]

Easter saw Nic and myself off to Kinlochleven to work again with Giggleswick School’s CCF. The week just happened to coincide with some of the best Easter weather that Scotland has to offer. Clear skies, light winds and enough snow on the hills to increase the beauty. I worked with a number of groups during […]

In February, 2015, I accompanied Philip and Helen Wilson and John Kirby to the Pyrenees. Philip was about to complete his winter IML Assessment and so we spent the week snowshoeing and discussing various issues related to the assessment. The week coincided with one of the wildest and snowiest periods the Pyrenees had seen in […]

Having agreed to run a number of courses in late November and early December, we were lucky to experience some dry and sunny weather making learning much easier. We ran a ML Training Course for the trainee instructors at Haven Banks and outdoor students at Exeter College. This was done over two, three day sessions. […]

At the end of the Summer holiday, we accompanied the Midsomer Norton Sixth Form to the Pyrenees for their D of E Gold expedition. The minibus went by ferry to Santander and the groups flew out Toulouse. They arrived late one evening at Luz St Saveur and early next morning they were off on a […]

It started with a weekend in the Peaks climbing with Cyrano and Jamie to build up their log book experience for SPA. We climbed at Bamford and Windgather, both ideal locations to get a lot of single pitch leads done in a short time. I stayed in the Peaks to work again with Alderwasley School […]