FAQ's

Here is a list of common questions I reccieve that are to do with mountaineering and climbing, or just the outdoors in general. If you have a question, check out this page before you email me - I might have already answered it!

Q: Do you consider yourself a climber or a mountaineer?
A: Neither. I'm not good enough to honestly say I am a climber or a mountaineer - I haven't experienced any of it enough yet. Although I suppose my climbing is all training for mountains, so if I had to say it, I'm a mountaineer.

Q: Which mountain are you aiming to climb?
A: Good question. Lots of them, ideally. This isn't a "oh I've done x mountain I can give up and go home happy" type affair - I enjoy climbing, I like mountains and I intend to do it for some time. So lots of mountains. Maybe only some small Scottish hills, or a little bit of Alpine work, or even, if I'm good enough, some proper high altitude stuff. We'll see what comes my way.

Q: Can I come with you to the alps/wherever you end up going?
A: Unfortunately no. Due to the dangerous nature of climbing and the fact I am pretty much a complete novice, I need to be able to put a huge amount of trust in whomever I'm climbing with, and the same for Charlie. The only reason we are doing this is because we will have the pre-training together to understand if we will work as a team or not. If you really feel a burning need to do an expedition or climb, get in contact and we'll talk, or join the forums at UKClimbing.com and see whose going where.

Q: Can you recommend this equipment? or What piece of kit do you use for x, y or z?
A: In terms of recommendations, that's totally dependent on the way you work as an individual and what you're doing. If it's hillwalking or tropical climate stuff I can possibly help you out. If it's technical mountaineering, then unfortunately no, because I probably know just as much as you do on the subject. There is a vast reserve of knowledge out there. Check out the Links page for places to go and look for further information.
And if you want to know what kit I am using, head over to the My Kit page for the latest general kit list.

Q: Where and how do you train?
A: At the moment my climbing training is done at the Westway Sports Center and all my physical conditioning and strength training is done at the Quintin Rowing Club.
Climbing training is pretty self-explanatory, but my conditioning is a little more specific. At the moment I'm concentrating on core strength and attempting to lose weight. I have a friend of mine who is a qualified nutritionist helping me with modifying my diet. I'll blog about it, then permalink it here.

Q: You seem to have lots of kit for a student; where do you source it all?!
A: I have the advantage of working for an outdoors company, which means I get first dibs on sale items and a reasonably healthy staff discount, as well as a very generous girlfriend. My rack is actually mainly sourced from Field and Trek - they stock all the decent brands (DMM, Wild Country, Grivel etc) but at pretty decent knockdown prices. Staff don't really know what they are talking about though, so you have to know exactly what you're looking for. I don't think that anything on my rack has been bought at standard retail price!


If you have any other questions or comments, get in touch via the Contact Me page and I'll get them up on here for everyone to see!

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