About The
Author Dave B.
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As
you can see I am not Adverse to climbing mountains in Winter. This is
Snowdon in January. I was born in Peterborough in the year we won the world cup (work it out for yourselves). My father was ten years old when the second world war broke out and introduced me to walking in local woods from an early age but my first real experience of hill walking as such, was walking in North Wales at the age of ten on the Lleyn peninsula. My first solo outing was not to come until I was nineteen though, a rather short lived trip across Ilkley moor in North Yorks. A short but entertaining career in the TA followed which really brushed up my navigating skills and taught me field craft as well as introducing me to regions of the country I did not know existed, the Cheviots, Brecon Beacons, Salisbury Plain. The only problem was that I was too busy playing soldiers to truly enjoy my magnificent surroundings. |
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| Within a few years of leaving
however, I was to meet a friend whose appetite for the outdoors was as
passionate of mine. We both decided to learn to climb, first on a
dissused railway bridge, then a climbing wall was opened in Peterborough
by sir Chris Bonnington, top bloke, and then into the peak district. All
this time, I had continued walking, either with my climbing partner Mark
(Beefy) Bothamley, or with other interested friends, venturing to the
Lake District, Scotland, Dorset and returning to North Wales for the
first time since my childhood (Llanberis Pass still had dragons flying
around it). After the birth of my one and only, the hills took a bit of
a back seat, but within three years of my happy arrival the marriage
collapsed. Once again I found solace in going to the hills, a sort of
self induced therapy away from the carnage of divorce. One positive thing to come out of it all was the opportunity to start ticking those elusive tops off. Buchaille Etive Mor followed Tryfan, followed by Crib Goch and the Aonach Eagach, all those legendary British greats. Thats where I am today, after another failed relationship (I'm coming to the conclusion that I am probably not cut out for them) I am still enjoying walking, scrambling, climbing etc. meeting fantastic people and getting out there. Why not do the same? See ya on the hills. Dave. |
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