For me the hills and mountains are my sanctuary, a place to be happy, to achieve, to celebrate life. It's where I go when I can’t see clearly, when I am lost and don’t know which way to turn, they are my escape, my salvation. They have seen me at my worst and my best. The John Muir quote ‘The mountains are calling and I must go’ perfectly explains how I feel. I connect to nature, experience a profound peace and a simplicity that fills me with content. This year I turned 50, I have worked in the outdoor industry for over 20 years with most of this time spent living in the foothills of Spanish mountains. I regularly climb, run, trek and explore. I had an idyllic life in Spain, one I was very grateful for, but probably didn’t fully appreciate. In 2015 everything changed. I had a serious car accident. Sitting in my parked car, I heard a sudden loud screech, glancing up I saw a van veering towards me, brakes on, wheels locked. It's a cliché but everything really did happen in slow motion. I saw everything with a surreal intensity, so clear and vivid, but the sounds were strangely muted and distorted, like being under water. The impact hit hard against the side of the car, everything shifted, my body involuntarily moved from one side to the other, hitting anything in its way, a fierce blow on the opposite side as my car hit another parked car pushing my body back and forth again, a bag on the seat seemed to defy gravity, levitating expelling it contents, glass cracked and splintered, floating around me. Eventually the movement stopped, everything fell silent and my senses diminished. I looked down, my mind disconnected from the reality of what
For me the hills and mountains are my sanctuary, a place to be happy, to achieve, to celebrate life. It’s where I go when I can’t see clearly, when I am lost and don’t know which way to turn, they are my escape, my salvation. They have seen me at my worst and my best.
