One of the activities I always looked forward to were school visits to the the White Hall Outdoor Pursuits Centre just north of Buxton. Those stays at White Hall introduced me to bush walking, camping, rock climbing, caving and canoeing and the love of the outdoors helped push me towards subsequently being a geologist.
During one of those stays at White Hall the rock climbing instructor in residence was an extremely well known climber of the time - Joe Brown. A few years ago I came across and bought his autobiography "The Hard Years" in a used book shop and to my great surprise one of the photos was of his time at White Hall, taken during a LEGS stay and in the photo are myself, right, Graham Fells, centre, and John Spencer, still climbing with Joe Brown handling the ropes. I remember the day still - after we had all done the climb we had to abseil back down - the first time we had ever done abseiling.
During one of those stays at White Hall the rock climbing instructor in residence was an extremely well known climber of the time - Joe Brown. A few years ago I came across and bought his autobiography "The Hard Years" in a used book shop and to my great surprise one of the photos was of his time at White Hall, taken during a LEGS stay and in the photo are myself, right, Graham Fells, centre, and John Spencer, still climbing with Joe Brown handling the ropes. I remember the day still - after we had all done the climb we had to abseil back down - the first time we had ever done abseiling.
Caption from Mike Owen