Well, it has been quite a year. One which has been very offline compared to many before. I have barely written anything on this website, although I have written a great deal elsewhere. I haven’t really been on any fun trips either. And, although not quite as harrowing as 2021, I feel like 2024 has had far more lowlights than highlights. Many of which I have no business sharing on the internet. Nevertheless, let’s see what we can find in the photo reel.

As ever, here are all of my year in reviews for each year since I started this blog: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017.

January – book finished 🙂

We’ll start the year on a high. Having decided in 2023 to start acting like writing books was my main purpose, I finished my first fantasy novel in January. I was printing its first three chapters at midnight into new year after being let home early from a work shift. I sent my first few pitches out to literary agents and then began the long wait.

February

Again, I don’t really have a lot to say for this month. I had my head down and I was working hard. Both in writing and elsewhere.

And camping. Obviously camping. Always camping.

Oh, and I suppose also we (Mountain Rescue) got called to a multi-agency response when they found an unexploded blitz bomb in Plymouth. Not every day you get a 7am briefing at Home Park.

March

And March too, I have very little idea what I did this month beyond work. I did send out a second batch of pitches to literary agents this month. Oh, well and camping. Obviously there is always camping on the moor in January, February and March.

April – 13 Valleys

Although I have moved away from freelance writing as a source of income, I jumped onto the 13 Valleys Ultra press trip with a commission for Advnture.com It was a lovely 2 day trip based out of Keswick – an eye-opener for me to stay in a fabulous hotel rather than a bunkhouse. My room was huge, bigger than my living room, with an enormous bathroom and floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the park.

As ever, I felt a bit out of place on a running press trip – since I’m a walker at heart, who happens to run. But it was very interesting to meet people who write predominantly in the running or fitness space (rather than adventure or travel). We had a fantastic run-walk from Honister up and over into Buttermere, then a 5km/mile run from Grasmere into Ambleside. It is still the longest I have ever run on tarmac. We also got completely soaked at the finish and I reiterated my belief that downhill is simply the best ever.

May – Ten Tors

And on we continue with the turning of the year: May is Ten Tors, mercifully with only two weekends back to back this year, rather than the normal three. We had an interesting event – after one of the wettest training seasons in memory, the event itself was a scorcher. With an enforced 30 min break ruling coming in when it was already early evening and the ruling that the risk of lymes was greater than the risk of heat stroke (shorts banned). The cut off times being 1 hour earlier than previous years didn’t help either, making for a very challenging event for participants. Pleased to say that both Plodders teams made it across the line in good time. Highlights for me personally include: being attacked with lime green face paint as soon as I arrived at the Plodders’ camp, meeting a 35er who had read my book (at Wilsworthy at like 7am) and a dorm room without snoring!

I also started my writing YouTube channel after a few months of prep. And at the Memorial Walk (which is crazily the 10 year anniversary already) I got my medal for 15 years of volunteering with Ten Tors!

June

There was no question about the picture for this month. I snapped it mid-callout on the night of the summer solstice, of the stretcher party lit by torchlight against the sunset. I’m tempted to get it framed. Every now and again, you are afforded a moment’s breath during a callout when you can pause, look around you and think: wow, look where I am.

June was also the inaugural Sidetracked Elements Festival (coming back for 2025 but in May). We were based at Kudhva near Tintagel, which is a glamping site made out of an old mining area on the hillside overlooking the sea. It was very windy. Especially on the Wednesday when a storm was coming through and we were literally all hands on keeping the big marquee from taking off by hammering pegs into the mud. But Cornwall allowed us to pass and the festival days were calm and mostly dry. Top memories include meeting some lovely/epic (or both) people working in the creative outdoor industry, attending my first ceilidh in years, trying yoga for the first time (verdict: cold). Also spending hours the evening before the festival creating a couple of hundred welcome packs, then eating our bbq dinner at like 11pm.

Also memorable was tagging along on one of the bushcraft walks with Jamie and crew of Howl bushcraft. It was just basic plant identification from the hedgerow, something I’ve always taken for granted as a child who grew up in hedges and ditches and bogs. They’d just taught about foxgloves and I heard a girl (well, a fully grown adult woman somewhere near my age) say to her friend, “Wow, but they look so edible.”  As a country girl, a fox glove looks like death to me and I was really struck with how what is considered such basic knowledge where I live is being lost somehow. And honestly, half inspired me to start teaching that very basic level of bushcraft myself. Not making fires or knives or nets, but just knowing which plants you can eat.

July – Morocco

Soooo then there was the big trip of the year. My final research extravaganza back into the Toubkal range to finish off my guidebook for Cicerone. It would have been better if it hadn’t been quite so close to the submission deadline, but I’d missed the slot for snow-free passes last year by being in America. Still, we went. I’ve very grateful to the crew of friends who came with me and sorry that so much of my brain was tied up in working. But I think we all enjoyed ourselves – if not always Type 1.

Briefly (I do intend to write much more about this) we did the Toubkal Circuit Trek up until Toubkal Basecamp. Then up to Toubkal by the south col and back down the north. Then we met up with Faical, who did Ouanoukrim with us, then took us over the west ridge on a magical mystery tour to another bunkhouse. Then back over again further north to descend into Imlil. Now my brain has freed up from the practical side of all this, I really want to tell you the full story of our adventures. It was not always smooth sailing!

August – The Book Cave

The finishing of the guidebook was not fun. It has been a real struggle to fit in alongside trying to pay my mortgage, while also writing it to a standard that I am happy with. Ideally this will be the definitive book on the Toubkal area (there is no other in English) but it is hard to cling onto that vision sometimes when you’re pulling all nighters to meet the deadlines and not getting paid. (I won’t get anything until the book starts selling in April 2025 – we will talk about the business side of this next year sometime.)

Still, I was pleased with what I submitted.

September – Antartica

Some very scary things happened in September, that threw everything sideways. But I did get my second medal for voluntary service (everyone who’s been in Mountain Rescue over 5 years got one for the King’s coronation). And was struck with the scary thought that I’m fast approaching TEN YEARS in Mountain Rescue. I started as a trainee in November 2015. Where on earth did all that time go?

I also helped out, through the team, with a training day for British Antarctic Survey Medical Unit recruits. This was held out the the Dartmoor Training Center, which I’d somehow never been to before! We were doing rope work scenarios, a basic stretcher lower on a steep slope, then body belays etc. It was very interesting to meet the kinds of people who go to Antarctica. Once upon a time I thought about applying as a field guide, but with only an ML never really felt qualified. Surely you have to be a “proper” mountaineer to go to Antarctica. I realise now that I would have been very qualified. And say this in the hope that it encourages even one person to take a chance and apply.

October – Aurora

After missing the aurora on Dartmoor during the Friday night of Ten Tors (I decided I couldn’t justify staying up late while being on duty at 4am) I wasn’t sure I’d ever get another chance. But my word did I. By pure luck and insomnia, I managed spotted a friend’s message (thanks Jon) showing red-ish sky from his house. I checked the aurora watch website and set out immediately.

I can’t say I really have a bucket list, but seeing the nothern lights from Dartmoor was on it. My rationale has always been that there’s no point trekking all the way up north to try to see them, because they’ll be stunning but you’ve got no point of reference. I’m pleased to say I was right. It was utterly jaw-dropping seeing the red and purple and green waving the sky above a landscape I knew so well. And I mean that. I was walking home at about 1am with my jaw on the floor, unable to shut my mouth or take my eyes off the sky. Good job I was on autopilot or I’d have easily fallen over.

Other things… I walked the Abbot’s Way Walk for the first time in years and was pleased to get a different colour patch and a warm pasty at the end. Well, sausage roll because we were near the back of the pack (we stopped at the FTC for chips). Somewhere about here I hit 1000 subscribers on my YouTube channel. Also worth mentioning: I was invited to go hiking in Korea this month but couldn’t make the dates work in the end. But I did a fair bit of research on it, so would love to actually go sometime.

November

November was quiet. Well. I had no free weekends the entire month, but nothing groundbreaking happened. A residential course, a lot of rescue team bits and I requalified on my Outdoor First Aid. I guess the highlight is probably walking across the side of Sheep’s Tor by starlight on my way to a lackluster bivvy spot. I love those moments when you stand alone in the middle of the moor and think: wow, this is my home, look where I am! Special mention to the two gents off on a dog walk (?) who I passed on the way and I could see from miles away thanks to their head torches. But who didn’t seem to see me until we were casually passing by, like it was normal to be out on the moor at that hour.

December

Hmmm and December, I’m not sure I even have a photo for you… It’s been a month of storms and striving to get things done quicker than they fall apart again. I mean, really that’s been the theme for this year. It feels like nothing moves unless I push it – and if I don’t push anything things will start sliding downhill past me. I’ve had to be somewhat ruthless with prioritising my time (or at least, that’s kind of what it feels like when I don’t say yes). So I guess I’ve been finishing up projects, recovering and recuperating. And working out what in heck my strategy is going to be for next year.