Dom Hall

Hmm, looking wild and interesting

I have just got back from an amazing three weeks trekking in Ladakh to Stok Kangri – a trekking peak at just over 6100m.  It was a real rarity for me – a trip which I wasn’t leading, wasn’t involved in organising – I just signed up, turned up, trekked up and came home.

That was a very unusual experience for me – in some ways I felt I lost a lot of the experience – to not know 100% what was happening, to not be involved in every logistical detail, to not even have to cook my own tea – in some ways diminished the fullness of the experience.

On the other hand it was wonderfully relaxing – for three weeks to have nothing to focus on but the views, the summit, and mainly on trying to force enough air into my system to stay oxygenated!

Like so many travel and expedition experiences it is also growing on me on my return.  Day to day on the trip you are focused on what you are doing – its only when you are back that you reflect – I’ve been to the Himalayas, I trekked over 6000m, I saw some of the most fabulous monastries high in the mountains – both physically and methaphorically I stood somewhere new.

So now I am back, the expedition beard scrapped off and slunk away ashamedly down the sink but in small ways I feel recommitted to experiencing new things – a new beautiful running route discovered outside my house, taking a chance and getting up new climbing routes that I thought may be beyond me… and I guess this is why the travel experience is so powerful and I am already planning the next one.

I have to confess that I sometimes complain about being busy – which is particularly ironic as there is nothing on earth I hate more – than being bored…

But this week reminded me how I love to be rushing about meeting such interesting people and doing interesting things.

The day started at Oxford Uni working with an extremely interesting and experienced group of Fieldworkers – running a training course which had some really interesting and constructive chat about Fieldwork Safety.

The course itself was interspersed with phone enquiries about new courses and, in particular, a chap looking to send his son off to explore Irian Jaya, and wanting to chat to me about the idea.

Finally I rushed off from Oxford to Reading University to speak at a Travel Society arranged event where I met more keen travel enthusiasts looking for their next adventure.

I retired to my hotel room with a resolution not to complain about my busy life!

Dom and an orangutan... no jokes thanks

In a vain attempt to claim my El Chorro trip was some kind of work – I did take a new rucksack with me to review – have just managed to get it up online!

Taking in the view

Can’t claim highly professional camera work or editing – but hope it gives a flavour of the night for those who couldn’t make it.  Thanks again to everyone who came along and made for a great evening.

The video is online on my facebook page.

There’s no doubt that making difficult things look easy is a skill – and a skill I don’t have. I’m not a big bold climber but I really love it – love the concentration, love the meditative power, and love being out in the hills. Sometimes I get ideas beyond my station and decide I want to climb hard, push my grade – then I huff and puff a lot, and remember to relax and enjoy the view.

I had to constantly remind myself of that – and not get bogged down in grades, and in what I could and couldn’t do on my recent trip to El Chorro.

It was my first time there and it is a spectacular and beautiful place. My first real sport climbing holiday and I think I definitely have the bug – and I think these photos will show you why!

I’ll be honest – I didn’t know National Geographic had a store in London – I certainly didn’t know it was a huge, grand affair on Regent’s Street, so arriving through the increasing snowfall was exciting but also a little intimidating. But it was great to see such a good turnout – thanks to everyone who made the effort through the snow and collapsing public transport system to be there… I’ve taken a video – highly professionally shot from a handheld camera – but hopefully the hour long shaky footage can be cut together to produce a few minutes of summary of the event! Watch this space…

Have title, will talk...

Down jackets... in the jungles of Derbyshire

Sometimes the life of an expedition trainer can be odd… and never more so than last week when, with the country slowly disappearing under snow I headed to the Peaks to run a training course – in tropical forest safety!

If you’d like some tropical forest training then check out our tropical forest safety course.

Don't give these people knives...

Continuing my theme from the Explore conference last weekend I spent this weekend at the Kendal Mountain Festival. Here was an even more extreme version of my normalisation theory! If last week at the RGS explore conference I found people with a wanderlust and expedition obsession were reassured that they were ‘normal’ – here we had a collection of people who probably considered themselves pretty adventurous, reassuring themselves that these people are just crazy…

Extreme E-number climbing on big walls, death defying mountaineering, biking and base jumping and even the amazing free-basing (if you haven’t see this then check it out!)

My personal favourite was the amazing Euli Steck whose speed climbing achievements were incredibly portrayed in the Swiss Machine – you can see a preview here – .

I left the festival with a funny combination of reassurance and sadness that I had a normal life – that I had a business to run and could never put in the incredible dedication of guys like Ueli – and more to the point that I would never have the balls to do that kind of thing! I left with a resolution to be happy enjoying what I actually enjoyed – chilled days in the hills, normal life – but my itchy feet told me I hadn’t quite achieved it.

It was, as so often with these things, only in the bar that I started to understand. To realise why I love attending the Explore conference at the RGS every year. Its because you are surrounded by others who tell you that you obsession with travel and expeditions is normal – that it is OK – in fact they encourage it.

I had been at the weekend chairing a panel on tropical forest expeditions but had spent much of the weekend chatting over 1001 cups of tea with enthused past and future expeditioners.

Only in the evening did the realisation of the reassuring nature of the event strike me. In most other circles the obsession with expeditions and remote travel is seen as a bit odd, a sign of not having grown up, of not being real life. Yet there, everyone is as passionate as you – and of course as mad. But its a heady mix of enthusiasm and I have left with extremely itchy feet…