I was a caver at university. Have I mentioned that? Well, in these isolated days of little new material for travel and adventure blogs, I thought I’d show you my SRT kit. Sometimes you need to climb up or down a rope. Big caves in mountain ranges across Europe make this, plus several miles of… More Stay At Home Storytelling: meet my SRT kit
I don’t talk enough about my outdoors adventures here – actually, the truth is I don’t have enough outdoors adventures. In 2019 I’m going to have more of them, I promise. You may or may not know that I have an archery qualification and more recently, a fencing qualification and recently the opportunity came up… More “It’s an emergency. We need some salads carrying”
Back in the summer of 2014, I rented a car and based myself in and around Borgarnes, on Iceland’s west coast and spent one of the days driving around Snæfellsnes. You can do it in a day but I find it’s such a long way and there are so many things to stop for that by… More The Volcano Adventures: Climbing Saxhóll
I’ve climbed a few mountains in my time. Small ones, easy ones, sometimes only halfway up and always slowly. Sir Edmund Hillary I am not. Climbing Laki was entirely unlike any mountain I’ve ever climbed before. Laki is a volcano. That’s not what makes it unusual. Actually, it’s not “a volcano” in the traditional sense.… More The day I climbed Iceland’s deadliest volcano
In a week’s time I’ll be halfway through my 2017 trip to Edinburgh and Tom wants to go up Arthur’s Seat so let’s go back to my 2015 climb. Right in the heart of Edinburgh is a volcano. It’s an extinct volcano and it manifests itself in two places – Castle Rock and Arthur’s Seat. Castle Rock… More The Volcano Adventures: Arthur’s Seat
Back in the good old days, you could hand your torn caving suit over to Dragon and they’d fix it for you. But that’s not an option in these post-Dragon days. So when I realised quite how extensive the tear in my suit was, I turned to the internet. “How to repair a caving suit”… More How to repair a caving suit
The first mountain I ever climbed was the Talkaser. It’s not huge and I still only got halfway up but here’s the story of my first mountain. My parents – no, let’s be frank – my mum likes to go to Austria for her summer holiday every year. Once upon a time, we could vary it… More My First Mountain: The Talkaser
Recently I did an Adult Beginners Climbing course. I’m not technically a climbing beginner. I was taught to belay twelve years ago – caving-style, using an Italian hitch rather than climbing-style, using a belay plate, but even that came only a year or two later. I was taught all the essential knots – that is,… More ABC: Adult Beginners Climbing