I’ve had a brief flick though my (many, many) photos from 2022 and stopped on a few that caught my eye or reminded me of some fun times. They’re not necessarily the best photos or a particularly accurate representation of the year, but give a good indication of some of the variety of work, travel and general ‘Mountain Lifestyle’ fun from 2022. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did selecting them…
January – The year started off, at home in The Cottage, North Wales for the first time since we’ve lived there! All was quite around Snowdonia and there were some warm ‘un-wintery’ conditions but good light…
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| Sunrise mountain light, North Wales |
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| Beach Mountains, North Wales |
February – Combining some work and travel, Clare and I were able to spend nearly two weeks in Costa Blanca in Spain, climbing warm rock at a variety of locations.
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| Guadalest, Spain – Rock Climbing |
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| Gandia, Spain |
March – A brief visit over to Ireland to see friends and a hike a section of the coastal path was a highlight of the month.
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| Dublin, Coastal Path, Ireland |
April – One of our best trips from the year was ‘discovering’ the rock climbing around Datca on a remote western peninsular of Turkey.
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| Datca Main Cliff, Turkey |
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| Climbing in Datca, Turkey |
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| Ancient Ruins, Turkey |
May – Up north of the boarder on a hiking expedition in a lesser travelled part of the Scottish Highlands.
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| Trekking in Knoydart, Scotland |
June – All the way from the Highlands, I drove down to Lands End on a climbing expedition to Devon and Cornwall.
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| Climbing in Devon & Cornwall, England |
July – Another major highlight – A three week long Cycle Touring Expedition across Holland & Germany
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| Riding alone the Rhine |
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| On the Tour… |
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| Tent Life |
August – Got back to the UK in time for ‘The 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebrations’, swapped bikes for climbing kit and travelled to the French Alps for a month of climbing and trekking, based out of a chalet in Marnaz.
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| Crystal Hunting, Mt Blanc |
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| Col de la Colombiere Climbing |
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| Alpine Bivi |
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| Glacier Crossings, Mt Blanc Range |
September – Back in North Wales for some local days out in the mountains and surf with friends, along with a week in the Lake District assessing a Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Expedition.
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| Surf time, North Wales |
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| Tryfan Sunset Scrambling |
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| Lake District Trekking |
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| Snowdonia Scrambling |
October – Another cycle tour! This time up North – Coast to Coast along Hadrian’s Wall and ending with a family holiday in Richmond.
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| Hadrian’s Wall Cycle Tour |
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| Newcastle by Bike |
November – A short hiking expedition in Mid-Wales and some super local surf days.
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| Trekking along the Mawdach Estuary |
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| Surf Life, view from the van – North Wales |
December – A brief taste of winter in Snowdonia! A ski tour ten minutes from The Cottage, a ice climb and some beautiful moonlit mountain journeys, followed by a return to summer conditions in Greece, where we saw the year out swimming and climbing in the sun!
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| Welsh Winter Ski Touring |
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| Greek Tranquillity |
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| Multi-Pitch Climbing in Greece |
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| Keeping it fun! |
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| Room with a view – The Greek New Years Villa |
If any of these photos catch your eye, or you want more information about the venues, routes, or logistics, then just flick back through the blog and you should be able to find more information. If not, just drop me a note…
And finally, the other big achievement of the year has been publishing my first book of Van Travels, which is available to
buy here. It’s called “The Van Bivi Logbook” – Check it out and let me know what you think and if it’s not too much trouble, a review on
Amazon would be amazing…
Good luck and best wishes for an adventurous 2023…
Mountain Lifestyle 
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