First post

I'm Matt. I'm 24 years old. I live with my parents and work in an office in Central London on a healthy wage for someone my age. I have a great bunch of friends and a good masters degree from a good university. I also suffer from cripplingly low self esteem.

This has simmered under the surface throughout my teenage and adult years. It has infiltrated every aspect of my life, filling my head with evil lies that I came to believe because there seemed to be no alternative. I've never felt myself to be good enough, often in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, never been able to take pride in my achievements, and never really felt that I've deserved any better. Self destructive thoughts have led to self destructive actions, which feed back into my self perception. The vicious cycle seems inescapable and at times throughout my life bitterness and despair have threatened to consume me. It is only now, approaching the age of 25, that I've realised the full extent of the problem and decided to get professional help.

But that isn't what this blog is about. This blog is about my love of life and the world around me.

I graduated from my masters degree in July 2011. It ought to have been one of the proudest days of my life. Instead it was lost to regret for everything that I didn't do during what were supposed to have been the best four years of my life, and fear about the future, which didn't possibly seem like it could be worthwhile. But I had this one opportunity left to me... I was heading to the Alps for a trekking holiday, between Bavaria and the Dolomites.

Having never set foot on a proper mountain before, this was a massive culture shock at first. It soon developed into the greatest adventure I've ever experienced. Storms, encounters with Alpine ibex, exposed paths on cliff edges and a chance ride on the back of a tractor, all set in continually magnificent scenery. On returning to the UK I found I wanted more of the same, and soon found myself scrambling up Tryfan and crossing the exposed knife edge of Crib Goch. One thing led to another, and I now find myself regularly tied in to a rope in positions I never would have thought I could get myself into (or out of)!

I'm not going to wax lyrical and claim that climbing has turned my life around, or helped me overcome all my other fears. But it has given me hope, and something to be excited about, and will hopefully be a catalyst for change. This blog will be about my adventures, routes climbed, summits reached or missed, photos taken, good times had.

I'm going to start things off with just a few or my favourite photos from the last few years. When this is up to speed I intend to use it to log my climbing days out.