As a hill walker and conservationist I started young. Family holidays invariably involved UK hill walking, at least until I was in my teens and with great excitement, we branched out to the Massif Central and the Pyrenees. I never imagined that various parts of my life, both professional and recreational, would see me walking, running and climbing in such an incredible variety of places: from the North York Moors to the Nepal Himalaya, or from Devon sea cliffs to Yosemite, via the red dessert rock of Utah. But that's how it turned out:
7 years serving as an Officer in The Gurkhas was just the beginning of an enduring relationship with Nepal, among whose hills and mountains I have spent over 150 days trekking, climbing, mountaineering and running; sometimes working in the development and welfare sector, other times, as photographer and writer (see: www.markbrightwell.com) and at others, purely for exercise, pleasure or both.
It also gave me the opportunity to live rough in some incredible places and with some amazing people: in the bush lands of Kenya and Australia, in the jungles of Malawi and Brunei, the great Western Dessert of Iraq, in Afghanistan and of course, on plenty of windswept, clagged hilltops in the vicinity of our own dear Brecon. Some of these afforded opportunities to climb mountains and rock, others simply taught me how to live in the great outdoors with often nothing more than what can be carried.
I occasionally found my way onto expeditions: one such to the Canadian Rockies in 2003 kick-started my life as a rock climber and mountaineer. Subsequent ones have seen me planning, organising and leading.
During my early, formative years as a hill walker, climber and mountaineer I was often greatly privileged and fortunate, particularly in the opportunities that arose for training and development. I now find that whilst still on a continual learning curve myself, it is a pleasure to assume the instructional, mentoring role that others did for me. I have greatly enjoyed teaching people to climb and have also loved recent work as both a D of E Assessor and Supervisor.
My current aim is to balance my own development with the ability to develop others, earning something of a living in so doing. To that end I am looking for further work as an ML (S) and am aspiring in the near future to become an ML (W) and SPA holder.
