I was fortunate enough to receive £200 funding to contribute towards the Mountain Leader Training at Plas Y Brenin, an outdoor education centre in North Wales. I made new friends – both human and non-humans – found a new mentor, affirmed my passion for the outdoors and my pursuing of the mountain leader qualification, and I remembered how bloody beautiful North Wales and Eyreri are. I learned about so many lichens and birds!

I came away with a strong sense of my strengths and weaknesses in the training, and a knowledge of what I need to do next before I take my assessment. According to Sam, our course director, I am a people person. I loved the people element of the course. Physically I am pretty capable – fit, strong, flexible, but I do not really play any sport or do too much with it in a competitive sense. I want to use these abilities to support other people in the outdoors, and I think that shined through during my assessment. Just yesterday I was playing volleyball in Cambridge with my friends. My long time friend Fin got really into it – he would usually put himself down when it comes to sports and not give it a go! We also got random kids involved from the park! It was a beautiful day, and I found myself sitting with this thread again: of bringing people together through collective movement and chemistry, no matter
their ‘physical abilities’ – whatever that means.

What’s next for me in regards to the mountain leader qualification is honing my ropework skills and navigation skills. I understand the ropework conceptually, and find it quite extraordinary what one can do with a bit of rope – I just need to make it muscle memory. In terms of navigation skills, I am impressed with myself, as I only picked up a map and compass for the first time in December last year, and was managing to hold my own with ex-military trainees. However, I still need a bit more practice. So, over the next year, once my commitments in Devon finish up with Wildwise, I hope to spend some months living in Scotland and North Wales. I have never been to Scotland!

The bigger picture remains the same. To transform education for young people in Doncaster, in the UK, and across the world. I want to build holistic, sensuous and embodied programmes that celebrate the entire person – their mistakes, their gifts, their passions, their experimentations. Last month I submitted a funding bid to Big Change, and designed my first ever programme ‘FirePath’. I hope to find out in mid-May that I have been shortlisted for the next stage: the pitch!

I managed to make a mentor-like connection with the course director, Sam, a very
experienced and wizened outdoor leader. I got his email, as well as some organisations that offer expenses covered opportunities to ML trainees – I sent emails off to them today!

So, the ML training and the Jack Bloor support has done a lot for me: the fund and training are giving me tangible resources to realise my dreams. I imagine that the qualification will not only increase my skills, but will give my CV respect, and allow me to bridge-build into more traditional worlds who give greater respect and value to formal qualifications. I think for true systems change we need everybody. Nobody can be left behind. And I think that the ML qualification and the JB fund brings people together through a love for the outdoors. God Bless us all.

Over the February half term, I travelled to Fuerteventura for a triathlon training camp with the Yorkshire triathlon academy. The training camp involved around 25 hours of training including 270km of cycling, 23km of swimming, 35km of running and 3 strength and conditioning sessions. This camp was a great opportunity to complete a full week of training which was uninterrupted by external factors for example the weather or schoolwork. It was also useful to experience training like an elite athlete for a week which covered not only the specific run, bike and swim sessions but we also had time to reflect on the sessions and work on mental strategies for racing and training days. These mental strategies included reframing setbacks to make them positive learning opportunities and how to stay calm during races if something goes wrong. 

This camp also allowed me to increase my fitness before race season starts in March. Specifically, the long rides allowed me to make gains on my cycling endurance and learn fuelling strategies which work for me. The swim technique sessions allowed me to look at my stroke more carefully to make small adjustments which will increase my speed. The strength and conditioning classes allowed me to learn new exercises which will help me work on my weaknesses and prevent injury. 

Ethan Clarke, member of Yorkshire Dales Cross Country Ski Club, was selected to represent GB at the FISU Winter World University Games in Torino, Italy.

I was the flag bearer for GB at the opening ceremony, I had some good races on the skis, but not so good on the shooting side. However it was a great experience and I learnt lots!

I competed in 4 races, the individual and sprint were the two main races that I did, where the skiing was my best I had been all season, but the shooting not so good which led to not finishing as high as I could have.
I then did a relay race but unfortunately we got lapped in that race, plus in the pursuit race where I also got lapped but we started 4 minutes behind so unless I shot clear it was very likely to be lapped.

Thanks to the Jack Bloor Fund for helping me fund this trip.

This January I flew to Molveno, Italy to represent Great Britain in the Ice Swimming World Championships. Ice swimming is defined as swimming in under 5 degrees water in only a swimming costume (no neoprene!), 1 hat and goggles.

The water temperature in Italy ranged between 1.5 and 2 degrees through-out the week. On the first couple of days of competition racing was delayed by 30 minutes to allow the organisers to break and clear the ice that had formed over night on the pool.

I raced in 4 individual events throughout the week gained a 3rd in my age group in the 500m and 100m Freestyle and a 4th in the 250m and 50m Freestyle. I also was selected to race in one of the 4 x 50m Freestyle relay teams.

I am incredibly grateful to the Jack Bloor Fund for supporting me in getting to the Championship. I also feel proud to be supported by a fund that was created to carry on a legacy of Jack. I hope to have done both Jack and his legacy proud and in the future I hope I will also be able to support younger athletes achieve their potential.

Thank you again for supporting me and other young athletes who without your help may not be able to achieve high levels in sport.

Cover photo by Becca Harvey.

An Adventure in the Alps: My Jonathon Conville Alpine Course Experience

This July, thanks to the support of the Jack Bloor fund, I went on the Jonathon Conville Alpine Course in Chamonix. Over the course of three days,  it is designed to take you from a competent UK climber to a confident alpine mountaineer.

During this time, I learnt all the crucial skills needed to navigate the Alps. From glacial travel to crevasse rescue and moving together as a team, our brilliant guide ensured we were well-prepared for the challenges ahead. The experience was truly remarkable, not just because of the wealth of knowledge gained but also for the opportunity to meet with other young climbers at a similar stage in their mountaineering journey.

The highlight of my trip was undoubtedly putting my newly acquired skills to the test on the Cosmiques Arête. With perfect blue skies above, a small group of us took the first lift and set out to tackle this iconic route. It was an incredible day and the perfect culmination of the course.

A huge thanks to the Jack Bloor fund for their support in making this possible!