A GoPro Swedish Adventure
At the end of October life was getting a little bit hectic so we made a last minute decision to recharge our internal batteries with a short wilderness trip to Sweden. We hired a canoe and made the most of being outside. Patrick got the chance to practice making feather sticks and together we played lots of Gin Rummy.
During our 5 days camping we got to paddle, chop wood, make fires and toast marshmellows so now our souls have definitely been recharged with a warm smokey glow.
Whilst we were there we took time out to experiment with our GoPro HERO camera and Read more on A GoPro Swedish Adventure…
Howies CYB 2011 film
Here’e the film from our recent little adventure. Howies Coed-y-brenin Enduro MTB event. 60km or 30km of trail riding over a single lap course. The route itself was good with a mix of oldskool hike-a-bike and plenty of singletrack sweetness. Unfortunately you always have to go up to go down so there’s plenty of hill climbing thrown in. There’s plenty of refreshment options and changing facilities at the Coed-y-brenin centre on the day. There’s even a hot tub you can book for the end of your ride….impeccably organised and excellent fun. This is the link to the blog of the event I’ve already written up, it should give you more of an insight…. Howies Enduo blog post
Howies Coed-y-Brenin Enduro. It went up, then down, then up and up and up….
It all started with this tweet…
It finished like this… Read more on Howies Coed-y-Brenin Enduro. It went up, then down, then up and up and up…….
Alpification: A Mountain Biking Film
Finally made a little time to create this little edit of our recent mountain biking holiday to the French Alps. We spent the first week in a catered chalet with our own guides at The White Room in Sainte Foy and the second week self catered in Morzine. Both were fantastic and quite different in terms of trails. We completed over 5000m of descent on the first day alone, we got through 4 sets of brake pads each, ate too much cheese, celebrated my 30th birthday and topped it all off with a proposal of marriage! Not a bad trip.
How to ‘Alpify’ Your Mountain Bike
Alps Mountain Biking Bliss at The White Room
A review of The White Room, Sainte Foy, France – July 2nd to July 9th 2011
The guys I ride with around the Manchester/NW area had for the last few years entered the PPDS which takes place late June each year. I’d always been keen to ride in the Alps since I started mountain biking properly but the strands of other adventures had always got in the way. That was until 2011. Steve, the internet overlord and general organiser for our disparate group piped up saying he was thinking about an Alps trip and after a few hasty conversation with the missus we decided we were also in. Read more on Alps Mountain Biking Bliss at The White Room…
Rafting in the French Alps
So the first half of July was spent having an awesome time in the French Alps. It was primarily a 2 week mountain biking trip splitting our time between Sainte Foy and Morzine, but on our second week we took a day out and booked ourselves on to a Canorafting expreience with FrogsRafting.com.
A beautiful and bonkers Indian adventure
My expedition to India last summer was a truly beautiful and bonkers experience. I saw so many inspiring sights and filmmed so much footage that I wanted to create a video to remind me of the adventure forever. I decided to experiment a little with my storytelling and create a splitscreen video to incorporate all the different types of footage I had gathered. Hopefully it comes somewhere close to providing an insight into the visual feast that comes with any Indian experience. I called my film ‘I ♥ India’…and I really do.
La Nina, daydreaming and snowboarding
I’ve been daydreaming about snow a lot recently and how I wish I had the funds to go boarding in this epic winter season we seem to by having. Oh to snowboard during the current state of La Nina. Last time I went boarding was in Fernie, BC during the 2004/05 El Niño which led to such mild temperatures the snow was washed away by rain.
Videos from my Raleigh Expedition to India
My Raleigh expedition to India this summer feels like many moons ago but I finally have something to show for it…(other than the amazing memories, friendships and shiny silver earings).
Since I’ve been back I’ve squirrled myself away in the office where I’ve sifted through over 200GB worth of video footage. After throwing out the crap and importing the good into Final Cut Pro, I’ve now have 3 short videos for the Raleigh International marketing department to use as they encourage more volunteers to take up the challenge. This is one of the videos which captures the Adventure Challenge phase down in Kerala. All footage was shot on my Panasonic GH1.
Algonquin backcountry paddling trip summer 2009
Our Algonquin Trip report
In the spring of 2008 I went on a Hen do, long story for another time, where I got talking to a friend who told me of an amazing trip he’d been on the summer before to a place called Algonquin. What a weird name I thought. After talking about their trip some more it realised it was exactly what I had been looking for. Since Hannah and I had been going out she had always talked about doing some kind of paddling trip. As this was a sport I had no real experience of I always banked the idea and moved on. This sounded like the perfect time to withdraw the idea and win some serious brownie points!
Read more on Algonquin backcountry paddling trip summer 2009…
Raleigh India Expedition 2010
Here’s a collection of photogrpahs from my recent trip to India as a videographer on a summer expedition with Raleigh. Raleigh is a leading UK based youth and education charity that provides adventurous and challenging expeditions abroad for young people from all backgrounds and nationalities. My overall objective was to provide a wide range of high quality videos for marketing both in country and for use in the UK at Raleigh Head Office.
Raleigh India Expedition Music Video
I’m still out in India filming on the Raleigh expedition but here’s a little music video which we’ve been creating over the last 6 weeks. Get the mouth was out, gargle and sing along!
Team Pickle dabble in a little do-gooding
Little bit of background info – Nearly 10 years ago at the age of 18 I volunteered with Raleigh International on a 3 month expedition to Belize. My experience was empowering and life changing so as a happy ‘grown up’ I have chosen to give something back to Raleigh and volunteer my time and skills on the summer 2010 expedition to India. I will be living in the heart of some of the most remote areas, working as part of a team who will facilitate the growth and development of the young people on expedition as they work on sustainable community and environmental projects.
Serious Fun Road Trip Video
I’ve been reminiscing a little recently, looking through old photos, and decided I wanted to make a little reminder of our 2004-05 serious fun road trip adventure. I had so many photos sitting on our hard drive I just decided to stitch them all together in chronological order to create a little video of our 9 month trip in 6.30 minutes.
Algonquin Park Photomotion Video
It has taken a while but here is our photo & video trip log from Algonquin Park Canada. The footage is a combination of photographs and video. All taken using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. Music is Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim.
Paddling in Algonquin Park Canada – 2009
17 days in the Canadian backcountry within Algonquin Park. It was our first ever canoe trip but we’ve already started discussing the possibility of buying our own canoe…but surely then we would also need a van to help us transport it and us around. We better get saving. Here are a selection of our photos illustrating the ups and the downs. A fantastic trip!
Algonquin…the plan.
The back story….An upcoming wedding, a hen party with a difference and a walk across fields towards a good pint led to a conversation about trips we had been on and trips we wanted to do. A canoe trip was mentioned which peaked my attention. A story of flat water canoeing, camping and lots of Canadian wildlife. It sounds perfect I thought, H has always mentioned she wanted to do some sort of canoe trip. Not being that way inclined during my adult life I was a little sceptical if open to suggestion or certainly persuasion.
A Tryfan Summit
I was shocked to find out recently that Paddy had never scrambled to the top of Tryfan in Snowdonia – not that I am exactly familiar with the route, having scaled it only once before as a teenager during a Duke of Ed trip. Anyway we were in Wales for a friends birthday weekend so six of us thought we would give it a go.
Striding the Edge
My dad has wanted to hike Helvellyn & Striding Edge for as long as he can remember so this bank holiday weekend the weather looked good and we decided to tick it off the list! Two days later and my thighs still ache!
Celebrating NYE on the Isle of Skye
A great hiking, eating and relaxing trip with friends to the Isle of Skye over the NY holidays. We stayed in Fistavaig Bay, hiked on the edges of the Cullins and managed to squeeze in a whiskey tasting trip to the Talisker Distillery. Big thumbs up and already planning where we can go next year!
Watch the slideshow
Paddy’s second trip to Yosemite – 2007
A return trip to Yosemite in 2007 with Rick Abbott and Will Hobbs. Not as successful as the first trip back in 2001, but a lot of fun none the less.
Cross-country skiing in Norway – 2007
For my Dads 60th birthday we were lucky enough to be able to make a short trip to Norway as a family. Paddy and I then stayed on a little longer, rented cross country skis and slowly made our way to a lovely little hut in the middle of nowhere. Perfect.
Serious Fun! A 9 month road trip – 2004/05
We had been together for nearly two years living, loving, climbing, surfing and boarding. Summer 2003 was spent slack lining in the loacl park, this gave us a taste for the stress free lifestyle, a plan was hatched, to bunk off work for 9 months (or as long as lasted). The plan, 1. spend the snow season in Fernie relishing the powder days 2. stock up for a trip down the Baja Peninsular surfing, 3. surviving Baja we aimed to tackle the best climbing America had to offer.
