ABOUT CHRIS
I spent my childhood playing in the fields near my house.
I started going to the Lake District from the age of 8, and never stopped, and now it feels like my second home.
I went straight from education into a job in investment banking (Mergers and Acquisitions for those who care). During that time, I tended to my outdoorsy urges by going on as many hiking and mountaineering trips as I could, including a full year away climbing all over the world.
When I had kids, the mountains were too far away, so I switched to going to the woods loads. I did a week-long bushcraft course in 2009, and then tried to pretend that Clapham Common was the Great North Woods.
In 2011 I realised it just wasn’t enough, and I was slowly starting to go bonkers indoors all day, so I figured I’d resign with no plan, and see what happened, and I fell down an adventure hole… which now feels like my third home.
And so it began…
Since then I have been designing and delivering juicy outdoor experiences for a wide range of people, who are interested in seeing what happens when you unleash yourself into the vibrant, dynamic environment of nature.
My business is with adventurous experiences and adventurous lives.
For myself and for the people who join me. I don’t just mean exciting trips; I mean having adventure as a keystone of life, rather than a background yearning. A mentality, a mindset, that can sit perfectly well with anyone, regardless of the day job. (Maybe even that informs and enlightens the day job).
The fields I used to play in have all been built over now, the cul-de-sac is choked with cars, and the only decent patch of grass bears the dreaded sign: “No Ball Games”.
It feels like our imaginations have been paved over as well, our wildness and our very sources of inspiration buried underneath structure. With so much comfort and convenience, we don’t need to do much for ourselves anymore; just focus on our narrow set of anxious tasks.
Getting outdoors, seeing the stars while you sleep, feeling the wind properly on your face, shouldering a burden and undertaking a meaningful endeavour with a group of fellow adventurers: it changes us, or reminds us of something we used to know, something we used to feel.
Our minds are as big as the environments we are in – nature’s horizons are boundless. That’s why poets have always gone outside for their nourishment, and why any human experiences poetry when they do too.
And our bodies… it seems sometimes like they have become vehicles for our heads. When in reality they are the finest sentient marvels ever created. Easily numbed into lethargy by too much comfort, excessive technology, a body is easily re-awakened in nature, as you begin to recover with wonder the gifts that evolved with you when you spent hundreds of thousands of years in the elements and amongst the trees.
The raw outdoors is perhaps the most rich, generative and inspiring environment available to us, but it would appear that, in general, people lack the skills and confidence to spend much time there. I provide a bridge over these barriers.
The raw outdoors is perhaps the most rich, generative and inspiring environment available to us, but people often feel they lack the skills and confidence to really venture out there. I provide a bridge over these barriers.
What people say about me
Where I operate
I live in Forest Row, East Sussex.
For woodland events, you’ll find me in Wapsbourne Wood, near Scaynes Hill, West Sussex (nearest postcode RH17 7NP).
For hill and mountain trips, we might be in the Lake District, Peak District, Dartmoor or Snowdonia.
