Winter Mountaineering in the Spanish Sierra Nevada

Chiz Dakin's cycle touring adventures almost happened by accident, when after a local photography trip by bike she realised that she'd done 50 miles in a single day with a reasonably heavy load. This led to the disconnected logic that if she could do that once, she was now ready to tackle multi-day cycle touring, and two weeks later set out on the Land's End to John o' Groats route. Since then she's done several other multi-day trips including a pioneering Welsh coast cycle route (600 miles and 16km of ascent) but still maintains that you don't need to be seriously fit or fast to enjoy long multi-day routes. (She certainly makes no claim to being either!) She has also recently won an award for her photography. Richard Hartley started walking in the UK hills in the mid-70s. In the 80's and 90's he spent many seasons walking and mountaineering in the Alps. Since then he has led six expeditions to the Patagonian Icecap and joined a Berghaus sponsored expedition in 2013 to ski volcanoes in Kamchatka. In 1998 he quit his job as an accountant in search of a better life and found it in the Sierra Nevada where he has lived since 2002 just outside the spa town of Lanjaron in the Alpujarras. He is the owner of local tour and guiding company, 'Spanish Highs, Sierra Nevada' (www.spanishhighs.co.uk). They run walking, trekking, mountaineering, snowshoeing and ski touring trips into the mountains of the Sierra Nevada and further afield, organise regular expeditions to the Southern Patagonian Icecap.