I started out on the hills at an early age, being taken to the Peak District, the Lake District of England and to Wales by my parents, graduating to holidays in Scotland. It wasn't until I first visited the Alps with my wife Tracey on our motorbike that I realised how deep my passion was for all things mountainous. We bought a pair of boots each in Chamonix, and have never looked back!
Since then I have become a fully qualified Summer and Winter Mountain Leader, and have been leading groups and individuals in the Scottish mountains as well as further afield for over 20 years, both voluntarily and professionally. I realised after many solo days in the mountains that friends were looking to me to lead them, and I thought it best to improve my skills and knowledge, so enrolled myself on the Mountain Training scheme
I 'compleated'* my first round of the Munros in 2009, (Scottish mountains over 3000ft), the 4429th person to do so, my second round in October 2020, and am 167 through my third, (but who's counting?!'). I have walked, scrambled and climbed both privately and leading elsewhere in the UK, the Alps, Dolomites, Himalaya, Russian Caucasus, Kamchatka, Carpathians, Sierra Nevada, Ecuadorian and Argentinian Andes, and Kilimanjaro in Africa..
I am particularly fond of the mountains in winter, and a keen winter climber and Alpinist. I am based in Stirling, Scotland, ideally placed to go either East or West, wherever the weather is best, and also to allow easy access to either Edinburgh or Glasgow airports if a lift is required.
* The arcane spelling favoured by the Scottish Mountaineering Club to denote a Munroist, which you become once you have ticked them all