Blog
Musings on photography, mental health and mountain life.
A Weekend with the Old Man: Adventure on the Island of Hoy
Poking my head over a ledge I narrowly avoided the famed vomit greeting. Pat led through and deposited us safely at the base of the final stunning looking corner pitch.
Climbing and Photography in Peru: In Search of Adventure
I donned my big mitts and we carried on up the ridge, a dark abyss to our left which greeted us as the swirling mist occasionally parted. It was quite an experience to be so alone so high up. Dani began to throw up, his choice of breakfast came back to haunt him as half the curried noodles and a bottle of condensed milk curiously hadn’t sat well
Capturing Sunrise in the Écrins:
When I wasn’t breaking through the crust and sinking to my knees, I was attempting to maintain enough traction to make it to the next rock outcrop. This carried on for another 20 minutes or so until we found a steep gully to climb which brought us up to the ridge and on to a beautiful scramble towards the summit as Dawn was breaking.
Climbing and Photography in Peru: Arriba Peru!!
I had already sampled the kitchen of the hostel and decided that weight loss would be sufficiently achieved from time at altitude. There was, therefore, no need to run the dysentery gauntlet by cooking in the accommodation.
Meeting Myself: When the Horse Bucks
Tears rolled down my cheeks as I drove to meet a friend for lunch. The boy I had met was a memory I had of me aged 19. For the first time since I was this boy, I had somehow been able to find the mental space and distance to understand what he was struggling with.
Weathering the Storm
So it came to be that I found myself on a climbing trip in the south of France, sat on my rope bag by the river writing myself a list of reasons to stay (to live) versus ones to leave. The list in favour of ending it all flowed so easily, bullet point after bullet point mounted up whilst only two reasons for staying emerged. One, I didn’t want to be responsible for inflicting the hurt and pain that my death would bring to those who have loved me and stood by me for so long. Two, I didn’t want to die, I just couldn’t see a way to make the hurt stop.
Commit Fully!
As much as this is a blog post about me making a commitment to myself for my future, it acts just as well as a metaphor for life. We often fall short of our potential through not giving it everything we have…
Happiness and the Necessity of Risk
It’s been on my mind for a while to try and put into words how I have come to realise that my happiness seems dependent upon a certain amount of personal, physical risk…
Monch, Mindfulness and Salvation
I am drawn to landscape photography, perhaps because it’s potentially the easiest of the different genres, or perhaps (as I like to think) because it helps me to realize the beauty around us.
Skiing the Monch
Lying, waiting for the early alarm to go off in the Mönchsjochhütte, I was like a kid before Christmas. The previous night’s sunset had been pretty special and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky…