The start of one big adventure!

Disclaimer
What you are about to read will contain poor grammar, spelling and generally make no sense at times. Please stick with it as you might find some good shit mixed in with it!

Where to begin?
All my life I've lived in Cannock, my parents have lived in Cannock and my grandparents have lived in Cannock. And to be honest I love Cannock I have a great family, an amazing group of friends that have started to begin a life away from Cannock.

My point is that where you live becomes a part of who you are and I knew that it could begin to hold me back by making me become comfortable. If I didn't start to venture out and experience new things, see new places and meet new people. My New Years resolution for 2014 was not to lose that half a stone and get ripped for summer, or get my handicap down to single figures like it has been for the past four years. My resolution was a plan to begin living on the edge and having that sick feeling of nerves in my stomach more often, my saying was going to be screw it and just do it! Whatever opportunities were offered to me I was going to grab with both hands.

The reason I'm talking in past tense is that usually that's what my resolution turns into, something I was going to do or thought about doing. But for the first time I've started to achieve my resolution and that bored and monotonous feeling of the gym regime is no where to seen. This blog is remind me of what I have achieved so far and plan to achieve over the next few months and beyond. Hopefully, it will make for some interesting reading at the same time, make you laugh at some of the funny things I done, seen and heard and maybe inspire you to take on a new challenge or explore outside of your comfort zone.

What I've done so far
The year began on a high a week spent on my first alpine trip skiing with one of my best mate's in the beautiful St Anton just outside Innsbruck in Austria. Then joining Wolverhampton Mountaineering club for a weekend in Wales taking on my first indoor leads on 21 metre climbing walls. I then travelled north of the border conquering my first Munro and my first taste of winter mountaineering also meeting my new climbing buddy Sam. The pair of us over the past month have taken on some great climbing locations right on our doorstep. 



I've also heard and witnessed some of the most inspiring things this year from the stories of Andy Kirkpatrick one of Britain's top climbers that added more fuel to the fire for me to take on some big challenges. I was also blown away at times by the moving footage at the Banff Film Festival tour and seeing the best of human curiosity and adventure for the pushing the limits and enjoy life. (I will put on some pieces in the future about these!)  

What lies ahead?
I plan to continue to build my skill and knowledge with the Wolverhampton Mountaineering club over the next few months and visit some great climbing areas around the country and maybe Spain. I will then be heading out to New Zealand in November on an ultimate escape from Cannock to experience nature and wilderness in one of its purest forms in the Fiordland. I also purchased some cross country skis on Saturday which I must admit make my room look like it belongs to real hardcore backcountry kind of guy. (I have some plans in mind for those when the snow begins falling in Wales or Scotland).

Thanks for reading and more to follow soon.

Joe