Tom Furey - International Mountain Leader
What do you do for work?
I work as a freelance outdoor instructor and expedition leader.
How did you get into the outdoors?
I first started rock climbing with my uncle when I was 15. Along with his help and an inspiring secondary school teacher, Andrew Bowyer, I pursued a GCSE in outdoor pursuits and from then onwards I was hooked.
Have you always been active/sporty?
Not in the traditional sense apart from some rugby from time to time, but outdoors wise I love to run, climb, mountain bike and snowboard.
What do you love most about working in the outdoors?
Working in the outdoors for me provides variety, every day is different. Weather that be working with local school groups taking their first steps in DofE or leading overseas expeditions. I love fuelling people's passion for the outdoors.
I kind of fell into the qualification alongside completing my
Winter Mountain Leader and working towards my
Mountaineering Instructor Award due to the amount of overseas work I was doing at the time. As for why, I suppose it was more like ‘why not?’ for me.
What were the best and most challenging things about the scheme?
For me the best part of the scheme was broadening my skill set and meeting my fellow aspirants and the most challenging aspect of the scheme was managing European languages to the standard required.
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about becoming an International Mountain Leader?
Don't stress. Take your time and consolidate well. Make your specialist chats about your potential weakest subject topic so you have to build the knowledge in that area.
If you had a day to go for a walk anywhere, where would it be?
At the moment I'm super keen to get to Iceland for a look around.
What are your plans for the future?
I'm currently juggling my calendar for the forthcoming year trying to fit in expeditions to Patagonia, Nepal, China, Mt Elbrus and Kilimanjaro and maybe a sneaky Mt Kenya as I've not had chance to go there yet!
