I first fell in love with mountains when I moved out to Eastern Canada in 1997, and wanting to explore the great outdoors I joined some local clubs and started road biking, hiking and canoe camping in Quebec and across the border in Vermont. In the winter initially as I was new to skiing I started by doing down hill, and then moved onto XC and back country skiing to get away from the crowds. In 2000 I joined the Alpine Club of Canada and took up rock climbing and winter climbing too, (with some snowshoeing), and spent most weekends in the Laurentians in Quebec and the Adironadak mountains in New York. The Alpine Club became a big part of my life and I got involved leading outings, planning trips and editing the magazine. Last year having been back in the UK for 3 years I discovered the HMC and felt that in regards to mountains my life was back on track. I attended most of the meets last year including the Alps Trip and intend to do many more