Running along the ridge of Liathach in Torridon at the age of six, is one of my earliest memories. Many similar days followed on the Scottish hills leading to a lifetime of adventures in the mountains and on the sea.

Now resident in Lancashire, the Cumbrian fells remain home from home, though it is to the far north of Scotland that I will always be drawn, when the mountains call.

A runner first, my formative years were also influenced by classic mountaineering literature, which led inevitably to the Lakeland crags and before long, to bigger walls in the Alps.

Aspiration and reality do not always meet where we imagine and on more than one climb, I learned humility the hard way.

Meanwhile, sea kayaking offered something no less committing, and a means to explore where few others could reach. Eventually, as obsession with individual pursuits broadened into a greater passion for the wild places that the running, climbing and kayaking had taken me to, I began to combine the various skills acquired.

Fell runs became peppered with steeper sections of rock – if an axe was required in winter, so much the better. Kayaking trips inevitably ended with a long run to retrieve the car and as greater hill fitness was gained, so it became my focus once again.

In 2016, I joined Clayton-le-Moors Harriers and in 2019 completed my Bob Graham Round, fulfilling a long-held ambition.