A Mountaineering C.V.
Background
I have recently been looking at joining another mountaineering / climbing club so I can get out more and have more fun in the hills or climbing. The club is one of the older clubs and has traditions for membership that require some hoops to be jumped through (I see it as going both ways: needing people to vouch for me means I need to like enough people in the club to ask).
One such hoop to jump is to write a piece about your walking and climbing experience. I didn't want mine to be a logbook of "I've done this awesome route and that awesome route." That seemed to much like egotism so I decided on writing it more like a biography / story.
I've been pleasantly surprised by the results: I just didn't realise how much I've done until it was on paper (well my Mac)! I figured it may make interesting reading for my Mum and if not a useful tool for others to see how much they've really done. Here it is...
A Mountaineering C.V.
I grew up near Shap, Cumbria and spent much of my childhood on the fells walking and scrambling with my family. From around the age of 7 my parents started taking me into The Munros and getting me out in the winter (in fact my first crampons needed ordering from Switzerland, because in those days they didn’t stock them for kids - even in The Lakes). Sadly my winter activities were limited when my brother had an accident descending Swirral Edge: from that point until I was at university my winter mountaineering was relatively tame. In 2005 I moved to university and started walking on my own more. Nowadays I am happy walking and mountaineering across The Lakes, Scotland and Wales in pretty much any conditions and leading small groups of friends. I actively enjoy winter and summer walking. I especially like getting out in Scotland, where I have racked up somewhere in the order of 115-120 Munros (although I don’t really count: I more use them as a way to find new places to go). I have extended my walking to include over night stays and through walks in to more remote areas and on the tops.
From around eleven years old my parents got me into rock climbing. In Cumbria I got plenty of experience near home on Gowther Crag or out in Borrowdale / Langdale / Castle Rock. I also spent a decent part of my childhood in Kent climbing on Southern Sandstone (mostly Harrison’s Rocks and Bowle’s). Mostly we climbed indoors though at Kendal and Penrith (also in Kent). Since moving to the North East I have mostly climbed throughout Northumberland (eg. Bowden & Kyloe) and down in the North York Moors (eg. Wainstones & Scugdale). At my peak while at university I could bumble my way up an 8a indoors and 6c on bolts outside. I have never enjoyed leading above an HVS on trad really. Sadly that is a long way off now that I have a busy, committing job and can’t get to the wall three time a week. Add to that that I’m currently going though a rather rubbish six month rota and my climbing has taken a substantial hit. I can pretty much bank on getting up a VS in the Lakes or Northumberland though. 6b would appear to have been as hard as I could crimp this summer outside. I can generally rely on a 6c / 7a lead being a do-able challenge when I infrequently get to a wall. I own a bouldering mat but it’s usually used as a back-up for the iffy gear in Northumberland.
I have been lucky enough to travel and mountaineer outside the UK a fair bit. With my parents I have been on walking holidays to Ireland and Norway. Living partly in Kent when I was younger meant that we were able to have family holidays to the Alps (eg. Chamonix, Austrian Tyrol & The Dolomites). These were a mix of crag climbing, walking and via ferrata (my family’s not keen on technical alpine routes). My parents have also taken me climbing in the South of Spain at El Chorro. As a student I took advantage of Ryanair’s low fares and climbed in Sardinia and Provence. I’ve also been walking in Alaska with my parents for two holidays (and loved it) as well as climbing in Southern California when I lived there for a summer.
The last five years has been slower than the preceding decade. Having left university my pool of climbing buddies has reduced and work has increasingly got in the way. As a result I have been doing a greater proportion of walking and mountaineering than climbing. Having said that I have been able to get out thanks, in part, to joining the Northumbrian Mountaineering Club. I generally go on the Lakes, winter and evening indoor meets when I can. The biggest change is that I’m doing a lot more technical mountaineering and an increasing amount of winter climbing. I will happily lead winter grade III (eg. Tower Scoop) and harder with a trusted friend. I have taken an interest in leading less experienced friends on routes like Pinnacle Ridge on Skye or The CMD in full winter conditions. I have had nine trips to the Alps in the last five years with friends (2 skiing and 7 mountaineering). These trips were a mix of sport climbing (eg. Cinque Torri, Dolomites / Albert-Heim crag, Furka Pass / Sponda Occidentale, Lake Como), long trad routes (eg. Sasso di Stria, Dolomites), ‘sport’ via ferrata (eg. Sci Club 18, Cortina) and long ‘mountaineering’ ferrata (eg. Marmolada’s West ridge). I have become more comfortable moving on crevassed terrain (eg. across the Vallee Blanche) and moving more ‘fast and light.’ We have also started to do more technical alpine routes, like the Cosmique’s Arete (had been an aim before turning 30), mostly around Chamonix.
I have had limited experience at contributing to guidebooks and the climbing / mountaineering press. I have discussed thoughts by email with at least one guidebook company, but this was more as an offer to help with photography. My main contributions are through the internet: I update UKC pages as I when I can with info about the less popular crags that I go to (e.g. I heavily edited this page: http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=10853#overview). I also keep a blog (little read outside my family and friends) and actively engage with social media (especially Twitter) to keep touch with the climbing community. As a keen (if average) photographer I am always happy to offer my cameras to my friends for photos and videos.