This is a special, bonus summer edition of the podcast. I visited the Cymdeithas Eryri/Snowdonia Society weekend in Nant Gwynant to find out more about the Society and the event.

Cymdeithas Eryri's Make A Difference (MAD) weekend was funded by the UK Government, with funds administered by Gwynedd Council.

A full new series will start in November

Angela heads up the Ramblers in Wales. She leads a team campaign on behalf of footpaths and walkers. We chat about what the Ramblers are doing and how they are going about it. We touch on many topics, such as working with Welsh Government, volunteers and landowners.

Rich is a climber, walker, biker and A&E Consultant. He heads up the medical team for Ourea Events and is an active member of, and doctor with, the busiest mountain rescue team in the country.

Mountain Leader, Nature Friendly Farmer, former Bannau Brycheiniog Ranger, former Yr Wyddfa Warden, Former Head Warden and Senior Manager at Eryri National Park; Helen Pye chats about her new role at the National Trust the land the Trust own, how it’s managed and a few other tangents besides.

Former headteachers Fiona and Rob Nicholson have been running Gwesty Plas Coch in Llanberis since 2019. Their vision was to develop Plas Coch as part of the outdoor community whilst themselves working hard to become part of their new home village community. Their knowledge of the Eryri mountains and lakes have helped them to establish themselves and drove their recent endeavours to become the first ‘Gold Level’ business under the Plastic Free Yr Wyddfa scheme.

 

Phill has been an active mountaineer for over 40 years. During that time he has completed the Winter Mountain Climbing Instructor (WMCI) qualification and the British Mountain Guides scheme (IFMGA) which qualifies him for all aspects of mountaineering activities world wide. Phill is a qualified teacher and has worked for private and local Education based centres throughout the country on an instructional basis and as a technical expert. Based in Snowdonia, he is now a very popular provider of National Governing Body Awards for Summer Mountain Leader (ML) Rock Climbing Instructor (RCI) and Hill & Moorland (HML)

 

Pete Edwards owns and runs his own business, Prowess Climbing Coaching; helping climbers of all abilities and ages to not only improve their climbing grade but also their enjoyment of their climbing by helping improve technical, tactical and psychological skills. Prowess also provides coach education courses, including the BMC FUNdamentals of Climbing workshops and other CPD workshops.

Pete speaks intelligently about the relatively new world of climbing coaching.

In a wide ranging conversation with Tom about his role and how he comes to be doing it we touch on all sorts of things, including the fact that it didn't freeze on Clogwyn Ddu (850m) at all last winter!

Mal Creasey has influenced thousands of mountain leaders, instructors and guides in a climbing career spanning over 60 years. He worked as the Technical Officer for Mountain Training England, as a Guide in the Alps and as a member of staff at Plas y Brenin. He was involved in the first two MIA (now MCI) courses, he’s an author, writer and is still active walking and climbing every week.

Dewi Davies is the Project Manager for National Trust Cymru focussing on the Uwch Conwy catchment in the east of Eryri National Park.

Dewi leads a team of people on the restoration of nature, predominantly peatland at the head of the river basin, but also working on rivers and their catchments to improve habitats by restoring natural processes and increasing tree cover. The project also supports farming tradition and heritage. They are working on access improvements, so that people living and visiting the area can benefit from nature, too. All this helps with mitigating the effects of climate change -fire, drought, floods and species and habitat declines.

Paul Poole runs a range of mountain based training courses in north Wales. He's a very popular provider of the Mountain Leader Courses and the Rock Climbing Instrucotor courses. Paul also runs trips to Scotland, Morocco and Nepal. Listen in to find out more about him and the way he does things.

Sarah believes passionately in the importantance of walking for all. Her business is based in a lowland area and she thinks the Lowland Leader could be more valued. “There are such a high percentage of the population that, if you have ‘hill’, ‘mountain’, ‘challenge’ or ‘hike’ in the title of anything, they won’t even consider it.” Sarah Price.

My guest today is Robbie Blackhall-Miles of Llanberis. He is, amongst other things, a conservation scientist, ethno-ecologist, ecology lecturer at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, writer, horticulturist, and the charity Plantlife’s Vascular Plant Officer for the National Heritage Lottery funded Natur am Byth project - a partnership project between Natural Resources Wales and 9 environmental charities.

Dan Lane, Operations Manager at RAW Adventures is a Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor, Chemistry Graduate, keen climber and proud dog owner. Dan is also a trustee of the Tom Furey Trust.

In Dan's role he employs many walking leaders and climbing instructors, he organises major events and manages to climb in between. He works on ML courses and has been central to the setting up of the Tom Fury Trust.

Jut a little chat about First Aid in the outdoors. To fill the mid-summer gap before Outdoor Lives returns in the Autumn.

James McHaffie is well known in climbing circles for his high-end ascents of some of the hardest sport and trad rook climbs in the world. He has climbed over 200 routes of E7 and above. He has soled 100 Extremes in a day in the Lake District, he has completed all the climbs in Ken Wilson’s Extreme Rock book and he’s the ‘King of the Pass’ having climbed Jerry’s Roof, Central Icefall Direct and Lord of the Flies all on the same day. But he’s more than a climber and today I wanted to ask him about working for the BMC, working as a mountaineering instructor, climate activism, but most of all his new book Eleri.

Warning, this podcast contains bad language.

Let me tell you more about the pictures used in The Mountain Leader -a practical manual.

This is a bonus podcast where I simply talk about the book, The Mountain Leader - a practical manual. How the book came about, what it covers, who it's aimed at and much more. Just a bit of insight for you really.

Sabine Nouvet is a project officer with the Celtic Rainforest Project. This 7-year LIFE project is funded by the European Commission Nature and Biodiversity Fund and Welsh Government Green Infrastructure Grant. It focuses on protecting and restoring 5 designated temperate rainforests across 40,000ha of Wales.

As an Ecologist, Sabine has been working with farmers and landowners across Eryri for more than 15 years with the mission to improve the environment in cooperation with people and their livestock. Before that, she studied Fish and Wildlife Management in her home country of Canada, and helped with various ecological research projects across North America, from the Yukon to New Hampshire. Her appreciation of the role humans have in our natural systems stems from experience with hunters and trappers of Canada, as well as journeys around the world. For Sabine, the Holy Grail of conservation management is finding solutions which deliver high value nature while including people and their culture.

We find out what these rainforests are, how to recognise them, how special they are and how the proect is working hard improve them.

Guy Wilson is the founder of Pure Outdoor, based in the Peak District. An award winning Outdoor Training Centre and B Corp. Guy has been working as a
mountaineering instructor and in business development at Pure Outdoor for over 15 years and loves spending all of his spare time in the hills. Guy is another example of people who make things  happen and makes them happen well. Lot's of inspirational advice in this one.

Dr. Nathan Chrismas, Mountain Leader, climber and Lichenologist. Nathan is a keen outdoor person with a passion for the natural world. He’s a key member of the British Lichenological Society’s education team. Nathan has joined in with one or two of my workshops and his enthusiasm and natural way of introducing the world of lichens has proven fascinating and inspiring to the group. Nathan will the be leading on a Nature of Snowdonia - Lichen Special Workshop in the Rhinogiau, look out for these on www.mikeraine.co.uk 

Kevin Walker, author, photographer, mountain leader and public speaker, perhaps best known for his range of mountain and moorland navigation books and courses which he runs from Crickhowell, in the Brecon Beacons.

Staff Sergeant Nathan Jones is an Adventurous Training Instructor (ATI) in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps (RAPTC), Nathan is on a mission to transform people's lives through the power of the outdoors by connecting wannabe adventurers with professional guides and instructors through the Discover A Guide platform.

Ned Feesey, Nature Trust Ranger and Farmer.  Ned works for the National Trust in north Wales and he’s currently the Area Ranger for the Carneddau and Glyderau. Ned set up and led the National Trust’s footpath team from 2017 to this year.  Ned, with his wife Teleri Fielden, runs a small nature friendly farm. The farm we visit on our Down on the Farm Workshop.

We talk about managing the National Trust’s projects in the Carneddau, footpath work and running a small nature friendly farm.

For this year's Christmas special I was very pleased to be joined by Nick Livesay, expect it all, with baubles on ! Nick Livesey lives and works in Snowdonia. He’s appeared on podcasts before and has an uplifting story. Many of you will know him from the cheery counter service he provided at the Moel Siabod Café, but what has he been doing since he left? We engage in conversation bout what Nick has been doing, though lockdowns and building the Secret Snowdonia brand. We share our passion for Yr Wyddfa and the quieter, less spoilt, corners of Snowdonia.

Lucy Wallace, Mountain Leader. Lucy is a Mountain Leader, Winter Mountain Leader and International Mountain Leader living and working on Aran. She is also the President of the Scottish Ramblers. She is a member of the Aran Mountain Rescue team. Lucy leads wildlife walks on Aran and travels to work as a Mountain Leader including to train and assess other Mountain Leaders. We also talk about Lucy’s role as the Honorary President of the Scottish Ramblers, being a role model and our shared love of the upland environment.

Her photograph is used courtesy of the Scottish Ramblers

John Cousins is the Chief Executive of Mountain training UK and Ireland.  Mountain Training UK & Ireland administers six qualifications and is also the coordinating body for all of the national Mountain Training organisations of the UK and Ireland.

John is an experienced leader and instructor himself, being a qualified British Mountain Guide and Mountaineering Instructor. He’s been on many climbing expeditions and has done some particularly interesting and challenging family canoe adventures across the Canadian Wilderness, he’s still very active in the hills as a keen fell runner.

Rachael Crewesmith, mountaineering instructor, mountain bike leader, former hockey international and compere. Rachael has been heavily involved in the Women’s Trad Fest and the Women in Mountain Training Conference. She will be hosting a stage at the Kendal Film Festival. We talk about getting to be an instuctor, leader and coach and the importance of role models.

Dom Ferris founder and director of Trash Free Trails.

Dom began thinking about doing something different back in 2017 whilst still working for Surfers Against Sewage. He wanted to be for something not against. He knew there were litter problems in our society with many businesses producing materials for us to waste. Rather than see poor littering habits developed in urban and roadside areas spreading to our trails and footpaths he wanted to positively influence the way people behave in the countryside. He wanted them to connect better with these special places and the nature within them and thence look after them better. This is his story…

Dr. Mark Avery is a former Conservation Director with the RSPB, a scientist and naturalist, he his passionate about birdlife. Mark is the author of Inglorious (2015) a hugely influential book which accused the driven grouse shooting industry of being completely unsustainable. He campaigns on conservation issues, he’s a blogger, writer and public speaker. Mark, along with Ruth Tingay and Chris Packham, is a director of the legal campaign group Wild Justice

Elfyn was the Access and Conservation officer for the BMC in Wales. Elfyn hails from Blaenau Ffestiniog, he’s a walker, climber, mountaineer and qualified mountain leader. He volunteers with the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team. He’s a qualified countryside manager who has worked for the Pembrokeshire National Park and as the National Trust Land Manager for the Carneddau. He’s the son of a farmer, a farm his brother still work whislt his mother is from a slate quarrying family. Elfyn is a first language Welsh speaker, all this makes him the perfect ambassador for Hillwalkers and Climbers in Wales… He’s also a cancer survivor.

Rhys works for a combination of the National Trust, the Eryri National Park and Natural Resources Wales. He is the warden and public engagement officer for the National Nature Reserve that contains Cwm Idwal.

Steve and Helen run a business offering First Aid and other training courses for mountain leaders. Steve and Helen are very experienced mountain rescuers, search dog handlers, they have walked the Munros and most of the Corbetts too. They are both recipients of the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal for services to Mountain Rescue.

Russ is a climber and mountaineer who was a member of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team for twenty years serving as chairman for two years before retiring from the team. He’s climbed in the Scottish winter and the Alps as well as the greater ranges of Greenland, Alaska and Patagonia.

He says that whilst sitting in a hotel room once, playing with geo-location code ( as you do) he came up with a germ of an idea that became SARLOC. SARLOC is a technology which has been adapted by search and rescue teams around the World and is a standard part of UK practice, listen in and find out more ……

Pete Barron is the John Muir Trust Property Manager for the Glenridding Estate. He’s the man that manages Helvellyn. Pete worked for the Lake District National Park as a ranger for 23 years on everything from upland management and path maintenance to raptor protection, supervising volunteers and community engagement. He is now charged with looking after one of our favourite mountains. We find out what the JMT intends for Helvellyn and how they will achieve their aims.

In this episode Mike Raine, Nature of Snowdonia, chats to Carey Davies editor of TGO. Carey has made a successful career as an outdoor journalist. He has written for many outdoor publications and the Guardian newspaper. He has also had a stint as the BMC's Hillwalking officer. Carey remains a keen and committed hillwalker.

The Carneddau is a special and varied landscape. A partnership of organisations is delivering a scheme to help people discover, record, care for and celebrate the Carneddau with the help of funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Marian oversees the programme of 24 projects that make up the Carneddau Landscape Partnership Scheme, supporting the core team and partners to achieve the Partnership’s vision. As a local resident, hill walker, runner, biker, and place-name enthusiast, it’s a place that’s grown close to Marian’s heart and has been her refuge during lockdown.

Dewi Davies is the National Trust’s Project Manger for the Upper Conwy Catchment Project -a landscape scale project to improve the quality of the environment and heritage of the Upper Conwy catchment. Dewi comes from a background of working in the uplands on land management, access and conservation. He has also worked for Snowdonia National Park as Senior Warden and was the first Cwm Idwal partnership officer. Dewi believes in taking action to improve access to the countryside and land management for nature, and doing this with other people who care about the same things. A fluent welsh speaker, Dewi wants future generations of people living and caring for Eryri to be able to spiritually connect with this special place, its names and its people through Cymraeg. He is a passionate believer that the communities of Eryri can work together and lead the way in protecting its special qualities, and that even when individuals can seem at odds with each other, there is always common ground. Perhaps this passion can be traced back to his childhood, roaming the hills and valleys above his home town of Llanfairfechan. We’ll be trying to find out where Dewi comes from, what makes him tick and how he has landed a succession of dream jobs.

Franco is the managing director of Pesda Press which he founded and has steered to becoming one of the most respected specialist outdoor publishing houses with a fleet of sea kayak, canoe, climbing and canyoning guidebooks alongside specialist instructional manuals and the visionary Nature of Snowdonia; the ‘ML’s bible’. He worked for many years as a kayaking coach and a mountaineering instructor including stints as Head of Paddlesports at Plas y Brenin and at Plas Menai. He has paddled throughout the United Kingdom and in many parts of the world including Nepal, Scandinavia, the coast of Brittany in France, the European Alps, Peru and Western Canada. With his partner Kath he has spent the last five years living on a thirty-six foot yacht called ‘Caramor’, whilst running his business, and sailing around South America (via South Georgia) and across the Pacific to new Zealand. Covid 19 has forced a longer than expected break from this journey but he is making the most of being back in North Wales (climbing, cycling and kayaking) and plans to re-join Caramor and continue with the circumnavigation in 2022.

30 year old Teleri is a new entrant farmer who, despite not growing up on a farm, has always wanted to be in agriculture - announcing to her Mum at the age of four that she wanted to be a 'lady farmer'! Teleri has recently began a 10 year tenancy on a 100acre farm in Nantmor, Beddgelert with her fiancé Ned (who also isn’t from a farming background!) and sheepdogs Roy and Ralff. She works off-farm for FUW (Farmers’ Union of Wales) and is also on the Nature Friendly Farming Network steering group for Wales.

Barbara is an ecologist and climber who was, until a few years ago, the Upland Ecologist for Wales involved in researching and advising on the ecology, conservation and management of the Welsh uplands. Her main interest is in arctic-alpine vegetation and she is the expert on the Snowdon Lily. Cwm Idwal is a special place for arctic-alpines and it was Barbara who worked to conserve these plants and increase the size of their populations by removing most grazing from the Cwm. Hopefully, you have spotted the difference there in recent years! Barbara often pops up on TV as ‘the strange woman who hangs off ropes looking at plants in the mountains. She has a long association with the BMC where she acts as an adviser on the interaction between climbing and the natural world. She taught outdoor education for a number of years and being an active climber she works hard to help reduce conflict between recreation and conservation interests. In recent years this has included setting up the ‘Groups in Gorges’ initiative, the White Guide booklet, informing winter climbers how to reduce their impact on cliff vegetation and writing conservation notes for the Climbers Club guides in North Wales.

Rob is the current Chair of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI). He is a keen climber, freelance mountaineering instructor and technical advisor based in the South Lakes. He offers offer Rock Climbing Instructor (RCI), Climbing Wall Instructor (CWI) and Climbing Wall Development Instructor(CWDI) courses. He can provide guiding, and a range of climbing courses.

David is a conservationist and naturalist, and this book is a story of nature, farming, conservation and reconciliation in the Welsh uplands. It is set on one particualr farm and we get to learn about that farm, the people who work there, their history and the story of their land. It's a great read. In this podcast we discuss some of the issues raised in the book and glance at the interaction between farming and conservation.

Chris Forrest – Chief Instructor Joint Services Mountain Training, former Senior Instructor at Plas y Brenin and Instructor at Glenmore Lodge. UIAGM Guide, Kayak and Canoe Coach, Climber, skier, paddler and family man.

Lou, from Devon, is now living and working in the French Alps as a Mountain Guide. She talks through gaining her Mountain Training Qualifications and then becoming a Guide. She tells us what it's like to work as a Guide. She now lives in Chamonix with her Mountain Guide husband and they are expecting their first child, which is always a challenge for self-employed people. We do, of course, touch on the added challenges a female climber has living the life of an instructor and Guide.

Helen Moran of the Martin Moran Foundation talks to Dr. Nathan Chrismas for the Outdoor Lives Podcast The https://www.martinmoranfoundation.co.uk/ aims to inspire people through the power of mountain adventure, climbing and community in wild places. To elevate the lives of young people through purpose, passion and powerful experiences in the mountains and to remove barriers for young people who want to explore the beauty, freedom and value of our natural world. Find how Martin’s son and daughter are leading the work of the foundation

Darren Johnson is a Midlands based Mountain Leader who is currently the Chair of the  BMC Midlands committee. Darren has a lifetime of diverse experience and a passion for bringing people together, he brings more to the outdoors than a love for adventure. Over the years, he’s built a multi-faceted career, spanning local government management, social services, and business ownership, which has given him a unique perspective on fostering resilience and connection. Darren runs a mental health charity which offers counselling and psychotherapy. Darren is keen to create spaces—whether in the wild or in conversation—where people feel understood and supported.

Gus Routledge is a Scottish ecologist with a particular interest in bryophytes, though he also puts a good case for grasses and sedges. He operates in the uplands, where he has found several very rare plants. In this podcast he discusses with Nathan what he does and the projects in which he is involved. Take a look at his inspiring posts on Instagram @pinkfootedgus

Iago is managing upland peat restoration on the National Trust Ysbyty Ifan estate here in Eryri National Park. He helps to understand why peat and blanket bogs are incredibly important and how they are trying to enhance the status quo.