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Uplifting Magic of Mountains

Yoga on top of a hill under a bright full moon, an all night thunder and lightning show, the company of good friends, a wet and windy scramble up the north ridge of Tryfan, climbing in the sun on sparkling quartzite, watching the sun turn into a pink ball across the sea, gazing at the stars, a moonlit scramble up the north ridge of Tryfan and another pink sunset, this one above Cwm Idwal and reflected in the still waters of the llyn… now that’s what I call mountain magic!

I went to Wales feeling the pressure of my finances reaching rock bottom. I came back feeling inspired and interested in what life has to offer. Sometimes, amidst the fear of things going wrong, it’s good to leave the troubles behind and connect with what’s most important. A few weeks earlier I was wondering if I would be able to continue with Mountain Magic at all. After some help from friends and family, I was feeling more hopeful but still a bit weighed down. Last week in the mountains lifted me right back up.

Thanks to Rachel, Rafe, James and Mike for your great company and the shared adventures! Here’s one of Mike’s pictures from our spur of the moment, moonlit scramble up Tryfan:

Tryfan at Night

Environmental Sustainability

The Castle Climbing Centre asked me to write a few words about Mountain Magic’s approach to sustainability. It was good to think it through and get it down on paper. Here it is:

Taking care of our natural environment is fundamental to Mountain Magic. The deeper our connection with nature, the more we realise we are an integral part of it and the better we take care of it.

Mountain Magic connects people with nature and raises environmental awareness. As director of Mountain Magic, I am inspired by The Castle’s sustainability policy and I am delighted to be associated with it.

My home, office and equipment store is a van. I burn 65kg/year of carbon neutral wood and 5kg/year of gas. My lighting is rechargeable and I have had to learn to be really good at conserving water.

The van is approaching 5000 miles/year and I want to reduce this further. In terms of your travel to a course, I encourage you to lift share or take the train, where I will pick you up at the station and drop you off on your way home.

Mountain Magic uses eco-friendly accommodation providers. Glencoe Cottages (Gold Award for Green Tourism) and Inside Out Camping (yurts with wood burners and solar lighting) are two good examples.

We are lucky to have Booths supermarkets in Cumbria. They care about reducing their greenhouse gas footprint and I can buy all our food in the knowledge that it has come no further than the neighbouring county.

I use a second-hand laptop and my Phone Co-op contract includes a Fairphone. Ethical Consumer Magazine says this is the most sustainable combination of network and handset currently available. Check it out.

The combined carbon footprint for my life and the work of Mountain Magic is 4 tonnes/year. That’s 2 tonnes for transport, 1 tonne for vehicle production, 0.6 tonnes for food and 0.4 tonnes for financial services.

4 tonnes/year is 40% of the UK average/person but double the global target. To achieve that, I need to be vehicle free and I hope to get there by 2020. In the meantime, it costs less than £50/year to offset the emissions.

There will always be improvements to make. I feel it’s important to ask myself what I really need and to work towards a sustainable life. It’s been a worthwhile, enjoyable and life enriching journey along the way.

Growth

Four and a half months have passed since I last wrote in this blog. Work, injury, friends, family, festivals, parties, illness and learning have all played a big part during that time. I would like to write more often and I have learned that to write regularly, I need a broader scope than before. I have also learned that the biggest reasons why I want to work with Mountain Magic are love, peace, nature, adventure, freedom, growth, health and happiness. They should provide a rather wide scope! No excuses there then.

I would love to catch up on the past 4.5 months but I am also learning, again and again, that I can’t do everything all at once. Growth has found its way into my top eight values for Mountain Magic and learning is right at its heart. Learning should feature quite regularly in this blog and I hope it does just that. Exploring new ideas and new territory are also fundamental to growth and I am wondering about the different perspectives from which I could be writing this blog. Mountaineering instructor is just one of them.

There are so many aspects and faces out there and I would rather explore them all. The past few months have reminded me that there is so much more to life than climbing and that being the director of Mountain Magic is so much more than a mountaineering instructor or climbing coach. Being a climber is wonderful and working with it is a joy. Directing Mountain Magic is a challenge that makes me feel like a complete beginner time and time again. Battery is running low and it’s time to go. Until tomorrow…