[Click for full size]

While the handwriting is much better than some of our staff, if you can’t read it here is what they have written.

• Work together.
• Put 100% into everything you do!
• Support each other.
• Walking boots will be your new best friend!
• Find a positive in everything.
• Be on point at all times.
• You need to each as much as you can.
• Stay up beat at all times – a happy group will progress.
• Negativity is infectious.
• Challenge yourself, you are not doing to die.
• You will only ever do this stuff once.
• Think outside the box.
• Work with [what] you know, work out what you need.
• NO restrictions means NO restrictions, use whatever you can.
• CAN’T is not a work in your vocabulary.
• Sleep a lot.
• Get ready to push yourself to the ultimate limit.
• Do not argue, resolve instead.
• PLAN, do not dive in head first.
• Bring supplies! (junk food, fizzy drinks, etc)

We’re not sure about the last one but otherwise I’m not sure we could have written a better list ourselves.

“Explore, Get Dirty, Dream Big,  Be You” pretty much sums up our attitude at Totem, and that of many of our clients as well. Make today your day to jump in puddles, hatch some plans, set sail for distant shores (with or without a fish) and wave your flag.

Posters for girls round 2

via BoingBoing

Way Back Home is the incredible new riding clip from Danny MacAskill, it follows him on a journey from Edinburgh back to his hometown Dunvegan, in the Isle of Skye.

You can read about it and watch the interviews with Danny at http://www.redbull.co.uk/waybackhome

Dutifully, although with slight trepidation, I arrived, with a rather more colourful jacket and top hat in place of the more traditional evening wear. Old friends began to arrive, many of whom were mountain people, all of whom I had shared tents, boats, climbs and adventures with. In a field we changed into our finery and our adventure began.

Assembly of a small pile of equipment began, with people producing pans and stoves, candles and table cloths, boxes and bags, cutlery and crockery, folding chairs, plywood sheets and scaffolding. It was quickly divided up and disappeared into rucksacks.

Leaving the road we set of on our path. Despite the heavy, awkward loads the equipment presented, there was a sense of amusement and good humour as we took the steep path up towards the top of Tryfan. As the path gave way to scrambling the pieces of scaffolding were passed hand to hand up the rock steps and the people followed. Two hours hard work and we were on the summit.

Once there, the miracle began. The scaffolding and plywood became a table, complete with cloth, candlesticks and cruet set. Some laid it for our feast while other set to cooking the meal. Dressed as if for a country house, we dined on soup and goulash, bread and biscuits, cheese and fruit, and wine and port and watched the sun slowly set over the Irish Sea.

More photos here

I recently read this at my sister’s wedding and I love the sentiment contained within it.

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the couple who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets.
Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “We don’t choose to go there.”

With your heads full of brains
and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down,
any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.

It’s opener there
in the wide open air,
Out there things can happen and frequently do
to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

You’ll join the high fliers who soar to great heights!

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have all the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang, and you’ll soon take the lead.

OH! THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!

Wherever you fly you’ll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.
Except when you don’t.
Because sometimes, you won’t.

You’ll get mixed up of course, as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up with so many strange birds as you go.

So be sure when you step. Step with great care and great tact
and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.

Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed? Yes! You will indeed!
(98 and three quarters percent guaranteed.)

You’re off to great places! Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting. So … get on your way!

Oh, The Places You’ll Go! on Amazon.co.uk

“For London is like prison for children, especially if their parents are not rich. Of course there are the shops and theatres, and entertainments and things, but if your people are rather poor you don’t get taken to the theatres, and you can’t buy things out of the shops; and London has none of those nice things that children may play with without hurting the things or themselves—such as trees and sand and woods and waters. And nearly everything in London is the wrong sort of shape—all straight lines and flat streets, instead of being all sorts of odd shapes, like things.”

Edith Nesbit, Five Children and It

However, Dave from Boulder Adventures called and said he had a new gorge to explore and would I like to tag along. Jumping, swimming, climbing and sliding, all mixed up with a little adventure, of course I would!

Multiple layers of wetsuit warded off the worst of the cold as the four of us waded into the Afon Cynfal. The slow seep of frigid water in through the zips and up the cuffs caused occasional curses but, once moving, the temperature was bearable, if not comfortable.

As we headed downstream, the river quickly gorged up, with a series of waterfalls from the knee high to well overhead. Each one took careful inspection, both for safety and the extraction of maximum fun. Some provided jumps into deep pools, others slides or mini rollercoaster rides through a series of waves and drops.

It was great to be out and about, functioning as a team and exercising judgment in the stunning but hazardous environment. For two hours only two things mattered, the safety of the group and having fun.

The sides of the gorge began to steepen and narrow. We scrambled up onto one side and peered down ahead of us. The river plunged over a spectacular 40ft waterfall and then disappeared through a slot less than 3 ft wide. Glad we’d exercised caution we continued downstream.

A small foot bridge crossed the gorge and provided an ideal platform for scouting ahead. The river once again narrowed and disappeared from view. A trip along the cliff edge 100ft above the river showed a series of increasingly large and impassable waterfalls. We scrambled on until a 50ft waterfall into a pool less that 8ft wide convinced us that our exploration was at an end. As Dave put it, this river changes quickly from “gentle to mental”.

Photo: Dave Crombie, Boulder Adventures

For him it represented a series of principles which guide the decisions and behaviours of an expedition’s members in order to achieve the maximum across the team with the minimum of stress. By 1974 he’d refined the idea enough to write 17 pages on it in his seminal “Wilderness Handbook” and it continues to be at the core of NOLS courses today.

Expedition Behaviour means being prepared, on time, organized, flexible and humble; seeing the humor in everything; exercising a tolerance for adversity, uncertainty and discomfort; and putting the needs of the group and others on the same level or above one’s own needs. Some people do it instinctively, others take a while but eventually, given the reality that wilderness places in front of us, almost everybody gets it.

Nowadays, NOLS defines Expedition Behavior as the following:

• Serve the mission and goals of the group.
• Be as concerned for others as you are for yourself.
• Treat everyone with dignity and respect.
• Support leadership and growth in everyone.
• Respect the cultures you contact.
• Be kind and open-hearted.
• Do your share and stay organized.
• Help others, but don’t routinely do their work.
• Model integrity by being honest and accountable.
• Admit and correct your mistakes.

Not just applicable to expeditions, I think they have a lot of relevance to all team endeavours, don’t you?

Find out more over at the NOLS website.

Then one night the cloud disappeared and it was clear. No moon meant dark skies and the stars leapt out of the inky blackness. The Milky Way traversed from horizon to horizon.

Donning head torches, two friends and I walked up into the old quarries behind the village, built a fireplace from some pieces of slate and lit a fire. Under the stars we toasted marshmallows and put the world to rights. There was a cold wind but lots of layers and the fire kept us warm.

It was gone midnight when we picked our way through the slag heaps and back to our homes. Our eyes were red and our hair and clothes smelt of smoke but it didn’t matter, it was just nice to have been out doing something.

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

Andre Gide