When I was 2 years old, my parents took me to the mountains for the first time. Peter, my dad had been a climber around the late 1940's, cutting his teeth in North Wales, and subsequently his parents Eric and Ruth had bought land and built a chalet in Pelvoux in the French alps. We would go there more often than not twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter. Over the years I watched as climbers passed me on the way to huts and it naturally became something to which I aspired.
By 12 I was playing in the boulders in Ailefroide, scaling whatever I could. At 14 I finally got to start participating properly - my parents paid for a day with a guide from the Bureau des Guide Ecrins, the local and famous guides association.
In a time when child safety was perhaps less particular, I remember the thrill of jumping on the back of my guides scrambler bike, no helmet and hanging onto my guide for dear life as he steered us towards les Dalles d'Ailefroide, the famous school crag of the area. And so it was that I stood at the base of a real route for the very first time and watched in awe as my guide deftly climbed the holdless slabs, barely pausing to breathe. I instantly knew this was my life forever.
Over the years I went on more courses, climbing my first alpine peaks, and by the time I reached university I was thoroughly addicted. Quite how I managed to survive past 25 I don't know, learning virtually everything I knew from "The Handbook of Climbing" by A.Fyffe and I.Peter, and trial and error, but I did, learning valuable/hard lessons as I went.
Over the years I helped as many people as I could to learn, which brings us to today. After years visiting the Italian Dolomites, working for climbing hardwear manufacturers as a product design engineer and starting an accommodation business, Casa Alfredino, I decided to go back to school, to make things official. Having gained my Mountain Leader Summer Qualification, and now working in earnest towards MCI, now is the time to start helping the next generations of hillwalkers, climbers, mountaineers and adventurers achieve their own ambitions.
I'm starting out slow, for the moment we will offer navigation, hill, camping and mountain skills courses, but in the fullness of time we hope to offer much much more.
So tell me me your dreams and ambitions and together we'll work on them!
