Way back in time before the onset of adulthood I enjoyed countless days heading into the hills of Yorkshire with nothing more than a squashed sandwich & youthful sense for adventure!
Despite long past youthful and work commitments keeping me in the city, the sense of adventure and love for the outdoors never left me. After digging my boots out and returning to the hills I attended a number of courses to improve my hill knowledge and skill base, during one of these courses it was suggested I join the Mountain Leader Training scheme and was delighted go on to gain the MOUNTAIN LEADER Award in April 2012.
As well as spending time on the hills and mountains of the UK I have also enjoyed trips to the Nepalese Himalaya, Swiss & French Alps, Mallorca’s Tramuntana, Andorran & French Pyrenees, Morocco’s High Atlas, Tanzania’s Mt Meru & Kilimanjaro, Argentinian & Chilean Patagonia and winter expeditions to Norway’s Hardangervidda.
Since gaining the ML I have also gained the SINGLE PITCH AWARD, INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAIN LEADER AWARD and the WINTER MOUNTAIN LEADER AWARD. I am now enjoying working in a freelance role whilst trying to get out climbing as much as possible.
During October/November of this year I was lucky enough to join Rob Johnson's expedition to Kala Pattar and Everest Base Camp in the Nepalese Himalaya.
The trip involved an internal flight at either end to take us to/from Katmandu to the tiny airport at our trek starting point of Lukla. The airport is famed for its short narrow runway which is cut into the mountain side at a sloping angle of 12.5degrees, unfortunately there have been a number accidents in the past.
I was fortunate enough to get seats on both legs of the journey directly behind the pilots on the twin prop 15 seater planes which gave a great view out of the front windows as we made our approach to Lukla, and as we left again.
As our plane headed for Lukla we passed low over ridges and through valleys until we made our final approach the pilots looked to be working hard to make the descent on to the tiny runway which appears approx 1min 45secs from the end of the video.
As we taxied away from the terminal to leave Lukla the pilots steered the plane to enable them to use every inch of tarmac for take off from the very short runway, which ends abruptly as the mountain side drops into the valley!
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