Progress

Throughout the many mundane tasks that make up our lives there are relatively few number of experiences that define us and make us. Yesterday, Celestial Journey was that event. I got a job at the old Mountain Mail Order when I was 14. I was just getting into the hiking/climbing scene and I looked up […]

We’re Really that SICK?!

It’s funny how much of an echo-chamber my news feeds have become. Most of my life I’ve made the conscious decision to integrate myself into one of the smaller sporting communities as climbing and mountaineering are, inadvertently I’ve surrounded myself with some incredibly driven and talented athletes. In this obscure niche community of mountain jockeys, […]

Taking on uncertainty

Travelling solo is just amazing in so many ways. Being on the road where you get to decide what you’re doing, where you’ll be going and what you want to get done is incredibly freeing. Just living out your backpack, spending little and embracing the simplicity of it all. There are no discussions, arguments or […]

Why you should travel and not just go on a holiday

You may hear this every so often, but life is short. It may feel like an inexhaustible resource to most of us, but, on average, we will each get around 30,000 days over the course of our lives to do so what we please. It’s not that much time at all when you think about […]

How to coming back stronger and SMARTER

I’ve been hounded by injuries ever since I could remember. The whole analogy that when you’re a kid you’re indestructible and made of rubber was totally lost on me. Tendonitis, stress fractures, pulled muscles and blown knees have made me, weirdly enough, who I am today. Being injured sucks but, until recently, I thought I […]

Welcome to the Alps- Part 1

The Écrins mountains lie in the southern alps. Compared to the northern alps where Mont Blanc and many of the other more famous glaciers, ski resorts and mountains stand the steep and sharp peaks of the Écrins tower proudly above the deep valleys below. It definitely holds its own. The ice festival has been going […]

“LAZY TRAINING SYNDROME”: Time for a Rest

There is a dangerous circle that I get into when I train for a project, expedition or race. A self-induced and ego-driven syndrome of “Lazy Training” as I’ve come to understand it, is what anyone would have experienced when they get really passionate about a sport or a demanding goal. Recently, I’ve been pushing to jump […]

Injuries: An inconvenient “Reset” Button

Injuries. Anyone that has gotten deep into a sport can have some sort of understanding to the annoyance of having that niggle turn into something “less-than-productive”. I have a history of damaging myself, not so much with broken bones (touch wood), due to the fact that I’m quite a wuss and largely conservative at putting myself […]

Climbing: my vertical journey

Disclaimer: the following blog will have an unnecessary amount of climbing jargon 😉 For the past year and a half, I’ve devoted myself wholeheartedly to sport climbing. I was always pretty clunky when it came to technical rock climbing. As a good friend once told me, after my first climbing trip to Montagu ( I’d […]

Pole-Pole ¡Venga-Venga! An Intro to my journal…

This past year has been demanding in ways that I never expected it to be. I lost someone very important to me. I, like the people around me, have been dealing with this loss in our own ways. I’ve sunk into depression several times over the past 12 months and hit some almighty highs only […]

The mountains are calling and I, for now, must study French Subjunctive…

There are many things that I want to achieve in my life. I have my rather long- slightly-deranged- pipe-dream goals which include an 8000m peak without oxygen. Then I have my more realistic goals (this doesn’t mean that I’m not very much bent on doing the whacky pipe dreams) …. these realistic ones are broken […]

Krakadouw, feeling small in a big place

There was something incredible about topping out on the summit of Krakadouw just as the sun began to set and we found ourselves immersed in a maze of gargoyles and wind beaten sandstone formations. It had taken us 8 vertical hours, going through some of the most aesthetically stunning pitches on one of the biggest […]