Learning To Lead

I have always loved the outdoors whether its climbing trees, riding my mountain bike or just walking in my local woods. There is something about it that you just can't compare it to... well for me anyway!

I have always loved hiking trails no matter where they are, from Whistler B.C. in Canada to my local woodland Clowes Woods. As long as I have a rough idea of where I am and where I want to go, then I get the feeling that the world really is at my feet.

So the natural thing to do would be to lead or guide a group, right? Well, up until recently I never had the confidence to lead; whether it's just me and my partner or a big group, I would always be in the middle and just help but never truly commit to a route or say that is definitely where we were. It most probably stems to the fact that I never was a Scout, nor did I partake in The Duke of Edinburgh scheme, but most of my friends did so I just followed and explored with them.

At the beginning of the year, I went up to Wales and did a six day Mountain Craft course (thanks to SimplyHike) with expedition leader Rob Johnson. We spent the six days navigating the many mountains of Wales using different methods. We improved our scrambling skills and even did some wild camping; it was a massive confidence booster!

Let us fast forward to a month or so ago; I was asked to not just feature in Simply Hike's new advert, but also help the video crew get up to the top of the hills safely so they could film our 'journey' to the top. Oh, did I also mention that none of the crew have ever hiked before in their lives or walked great distances, and I was to take them up main paths as well as off-the-trail scrambling routes!?

But it wasn't just the hiking and scrambling I was worried about. This would be the first time I had to truly lead people up and down mountains (well really big hills!), and not just that, but I would also need to bring confidence to the people I was guiding! We set off to the Peak District in the KinderScout Region because we could get some epic shots on the way and at the top, without having to properly climb!

Right, so the first day of shooting we decided to film some scrambling parts to the advert; I have climbed a lot of stage one scrambles and was very confident that this could be done by everyone! Our aim was to reach and scramble Red Brook (which in the Cicerone guide is route 33). It had some nice shots on the way up and to top it off, scrambling a waterfall is always nice.

Anyway I'm getting off track here (no pun intended). I needed to boost the confidence of the guys that I was hiking with so I went through 'what means what' on an OS map and handed it over to them, and let them lead the way, We used key points of the map to use as stop points to check our positioning. Without sounding rude, I feel the slowest member should always lead the group (I have always found that you are only as fast as your slowest member!)

After about two hours everyone had nipped the OS map in the bud (they were like pros!) which for me was fantastic. A real confidence booster, and for the crew it was even better! We then approached the scrambling sections.

Before we started I went through some key pointers about foot positioning, stepping, body ratio and how to get out of a situation if you got stuck. Then we were off! I led first just so they knew what sort of positioning to take, but within half an hour they were all finding their own routes and scrambling up freely! (to be honest I felt a bit cheated. They were too good!) We got to the location and filmed what we needed to film and came back down a different and far steeper way, but hey hum it's an adventure!

Once we got to the pub and ordered food, I saw the tired but amazed expressions on their faces about what they had just done. It was amazing, and the buzz from that first hike stayed with us the rest of the week!

I'm so proud of the whole team. They did so well hiking in the rain, wind, and sunshine and through all the ruddy midges! And what did I learn? Don't lead...guide! Because you are on the journey with them!

**thank you Gemma Mount for proofing

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