Jake Phillips
Jake has a reputation for delivering brilliant courses and guiding. He is one of the UK's most active and experienced Mountaineering Instructors and has the lead role, as our Chief Instructor, in developing the quality of our courses.
He is an experienced and accomplished climber and climbing coach and is a course director for the Rock Climbing Instructor, Lowland Leader, Hill and Moorland Leader, and Mountain qualifications.
About Jake
Climbing and mountaineering have been a major thing for me all my life, from my first camping trips in the South West, going for long hikes with mates in Snowdonia and leading my first route, Intermediate Route at Sennen in west Cornwall. It’s taken me to lots of places around the world like Alaska, China and Ethiopia and I’ve gained an intimate knowledge of the UK mountains along the way.
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I'm passionate about the outdoors and the courses I deliver. I always enjoy and relish the challenge of developing people's skills to the next level. I've worked in the outdoor industry for 16 years for a variety of outdoor centres, organisations and companies. In that time I've worked my way up through the qualifications and I'm now proud to say that I hold the Winter Mountaineering & Climbing Instructor (the highest U.K. climbing & mountaineering qualification) and I'm a member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors.
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In 2018 I joined the Adventure Expertise team and in my role as Chief Instructor and Programme Manager, my time is split between delivering skills development courses and guiding, training and assessing future leaders and instructors in walking and climbing awards, staff training and course development. Our goal is to set the standards for UK skills courses and guiding and to have a great time with people outdoors as we're doing it!
Qualifications
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Winter Mountaineering & Climbing Instructor
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Winter Mountain Leader
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Summer Mountain Leader
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Mountaineering & Climbing Instructor
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Rock Climbing Instructor
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Foundation Coach Award
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Development Coach (Trained)
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Sea Kayak Coach (MW)
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Member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors
Professional Highlights
Qualifying as a Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor
Training and assessing the instructors of tomorrow - being a Course Director for Mountain Trainings Mountian Leader, Lowland Leader, Hill and Moorland Leader, and Rock Climbing Instructor qualifications
Working at Glenmore Lodge - the Scottish National Mountain Centre
Providing Filming Safety for the BBC's Countryfile programme
Guiding classics ice climbs in Rjukan and Hemsedal, Norway
Personal Highlights
New routing in the Adwa mountains of Northern Ethiopia
Mountaineering & new routing in the Central Alaskan Range & the Juneau Icefield
Rock climbing throughout mainland China and in and around Hong Kong - very bizarre!
Deep water soloing in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam
Achieving personal climbing milestones of E6 & 7c+
Soloing 100 rock climbs in an afternoon
A one-day winter traverse of the Cuillin Ridge
Climbing Great Gully on Craig Yr Ysfa - it's the best VDiff ever!
