Blog Archive - 2014
4th Dec 2014 A Warm Welcome On A Cold Night
I was driving home after a meeting yesterday. It was getting dark and I spotted a guy up ahead with a large rucksack on heading into a particularly dangerous section of woods (dangerous as in...
7th Nov 2014 Should We Put Strava Signs In The Peak District?
It occurred to me the other day that we have a national park full of amazing natural resources - crags and cliffs, woods and trails - but that we don't do a very good job of signposting them. I've...
4th Nov 2014 Family Cycle Touring In Denmark
It started out as a basic concept. To go away as a family with our bikes. Simple. Actually not so simple. There were some sub-clauses you see. The boys are only 5 and 8 so no big hills; it was...
11th Aug 2014 Are We Becoming Too Cautious?
A number of separate things happened this weekend which made me think that we are becoming over-cautious here in the UK. First of all I read a press release issued by the Snowdonia Mountain...
8th Aug 2014 Bringing Adventure Film Festivals To Your Lounge
So a couple of months ago the guys from Steepedge approached us at ShAFF to ask whether we might work together, helping to source films for the platform, and then to promote them, as there's a lot...
5th Aug 2014 A Film Every Teenager Should Watch
A couple of years ago I was sat in my lounge on yet another night of watching films pre-ShAFF. 10 minutes in and I called upstairs to my wife to come and watch. She got half way down the stairs...
1st Aug 2014 Is There Such A Thing As An Urban Fell Race?
It's a tricky distinction deciding what constitutes a fell run and when a fell run becomes a trail run. I grew up in Snowdonia where fell runs (and races) were literally up and down a mountain. I...
31st Jul 2014 An Alaskan Madman
Yesterday I asked for people to send in their best hith hiking stories. My Dad sent this one through... This isn’t baloney; it’s true in every last detail. October, 1991. Haines Junction,...
30th Jul 2014 Couch Surfing, Hitch Hiking & Ironman Karma
When I was a kid I remember it was a common sight to see people by the road side with a big rucksack and piece of cardboard, thumb out, and looking friendly if not desperate. Hitching was also...
17th Jul 2014 Welsh 3,000ers Run
Not many summers go by without an attempt at some challenge or other. Previously they've always been climbing related ones - starred HVSs at Stanage or Millstone for example - but this year it was...
11th Jul 2014 A Shift In Attitudes - Adventure Film Rental Comes Of Age?
First there were video tapes, then came DVDs which lasted a while and still exist in small numbers today. Blurays took over from DVDs at about the same time as digital files became available...
7th Jul 2014 Don't KNow What You've Got 'Till It's Gone
I remember listening to a song by that title as a teenager and applying it to all manner of things and thinking how true it was then. I'd re-write the phrase now as 'You don't know what you've...
20th Jun 2014 Cycling - less rage, more mutual respect
I've been cycling for 30 years and driving for more than 20 and even passed my advanced driving test 10 years ago. You'd think I'd drive in a considerate manner to cyclists... Read full...
7th Mar 2014 Film Can Change The World
Last night I organised a film screening of Chasing Ice. It's a feature length documentary about a renowned photographer by the name of James Balog, who has dedicated much of his life to...