Three months in Patagonia at the age of 21 changed everything for me. I left Chile with a new outlook and a better understanding of what would be important to me.
The simplicity of expedition life in a wild and remote place had a lasting effect and the career that I had been studying for the previous four years would, in time, be left behind.
I hadn’t before committed so much time to one single endeavour and training at the boat club took over my student days.
Hours spent on the river, with three or seven friends, training hard to perfect one seemingly simple movement, and aiming to be able to repeat it perfectly when on the edge of physical exhaustion was surprisingly addictive.
I left university with a place on a graduate scheme in London. I’d taken no time out between school and university and there was an opportunity to spend three months abroad, with my employers blessing.
Looking for something with a clear purpose I joined an expedition to southern Chile with Raleigh International. It changed everything for me.
The expedition had three phases, with teams returning back from each phase to a central basecamp.
There was a community phase in Tortel, a remote village along the western archipelago, at that stage untouched by the reach of tourism.
We would provide manual labour to the local craftsmen who linked houses perched on rocky outcrops by a complex network of wooden boardwalks, and teach lessons in the school. The tenacity and skill of the locals was incredible. They were poor in the way that we knew from our sheltered lives in the UK, but rich in so many more meaningful ways.
Then followed an environmental phase in the lakes area around Cochrane. Hard graft clearing paths through thick forest to encourage education and eco-tourism in a national park.
The final adventure phase tipped the balance for the future.
We set off from Puerto Chacabuco in double sea kayaks along Seno Aysen and through the ever widening coastal channels of the western archipelago. We would camp on small shingle beaches, often only in bivvy bags, and cook as a team around open fires.
Sixteen days of incredible scenery, wildlife encounters and every weather you could imagine. The simple rhythm of an expedition; travel, eat, sleep, plan, travel as we worked our way down to Laguna San Rafael, where the North Patagonian icecap carves icebergs into the sea. I’d never experienced anything like it and I loved every moment.
I’ll be with the young people that come here when they are in the mountains and on the sea.
I flew back from Chile on a Friday to start work in an office in the City on the Monday. I could still smell the woodsmoke from months of cooking on open fires. On that Monday morning I saw more people in one tube carriage than I’d seen during the entire three months in Chile. London and an office wouldn’t be for me.
Seeing through a professional qualification on the graduate scheme would take a little over two years. Journeys up to the Highlands to go hillwalking and to the Alps to climb with a good friend broke the monotony of an office job.
In 2002 I went to east Africa to climb Mount Kenya. My grandfather had farmed in its foothills before and after the Second World War. We set off from Timau, the village where he had lived with my grandmother and infant father.
After pursuing a couple of dead ends and with a couple of years of experience as a Chartered Surveyor, I left London. I was 25 years old. I packed all my belongings into an old blue Peugeot 306 and drove to the Highlands to become an outdoor instructor.
I’ve been working in the outdoors now for a little over 15 years and I have lived and worked with Rebecca here at Ardmore for over a decade.
My love of wild places has only grown stronger since those days in Chile and sharing it with the young people and adults that come on courses here is a privilege.
I’m a Summer and Winter Mountain Leader, a Rock Climbing Instructor and a British Canoeing Advanced Sea Kayak Leader and BCU Level Three Coach amongst other qualifications.
In brief forays away from Ardmore I have led a youth expedition to Venezuela, spent a month sea kayaking solo around the Outer Hebrides and spend time in the winters ski touring in Scotland and the Alps.
I’ll be with the young people that come here in the mountains and on the sea and leading bespoke and leadership courses with adult teams.
I am the Chief Instructor and I manage and support our small team of instructors daily. You’ll usually find me taking the morning swim before breakfast, sea kayaking with our teams, joining them on the mountain tops and dropping children onto survival island from the boats.
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