by Mal Grey » Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:05 pm
My parents took me and my brother with them on their own adventures. As they were teachers, they took school expeditions to places like Iceland, Norway and the Pyrenees every few years, and we got to tag along.
Joined the local walking club as a 6th former, and did some big walks with them in the Peak District, Lake District and North Wales.
When I went to college (Portsmouth Poly!), I joined the walking club there, and soon found myself helping organise and lead trips as I was more experienced than most. I still do most of my Scottish mountain walking with a couple of the chaps I met then, nearly 30 years later.
There was a brief foray into climbing in my early 20s, which helped the scrambling and meant I got to do things like the Cuillins under my own steam as a climber, which was fabulous. Would need to be dragged up on a rope now, I suspect.
Basically, though, we learnt our "craft" under our own steam, by experimentation, sometimes with borrowed gear like my dad's 85cm wooden shafted "alpine axes", which must have been pre-war in origin. We read books avidly, both guidebooks and things like Mountaincraft & Leadership, and later Martin Moran's Scotland's Winter Mountains. Butterfield's The High Mountains was my favourite book, just looking at the images was exciting. Still is!
Living in the south, the regular trips became less and less, so I took up mountain biking to get a buzz, and barely got on the hills walking during my 30s.
For my 40th, I randomly bought myself an inflatable canoe, and paddling has become my biggest passion since. Luckily this works perfectly with walking in Scotland, so I'm now getting up there more than I have for 20 years or so. Fortunately, I'm also fitter than I've been since my 20s, so loving it!