Your Stories: Jay Jackson

Every Sunday we're featuring someone with a Mountain Training story to tell.

This week: Jay Jackson

Climbing started for me when it became clear that the rugby pitch was not the place for a non-competetive, mild-mannered and bespectacled eleven-year old.


Fortunately a kindly teacher found space for me with another class on the climbing wall, and Games was no longer a thing to be dreaded. I regularly skipped school, taking the bus into Plymouth, then immediately catching another one out to Dartmoor to return at the end of the day, sneak past the teacher back onto the school bus, and muddle my way through my classmates' notes so I could convince my parents I had actually been in lessons.

As the end of my school years drew ever closer, a job involving climbing was all I could countenance. I had visited plenty of Universities (under the guise of checking out this course or that) and having contacted their climbing or mountaineering clubs previously, spent many happy trips to most of the major climbing areas in the country. I thrive on the fact that I can pass on these skills and enable the adventures of others. I thoroughly enjoy working with clients of all ages and abilities, from guiding someone's first steps into the hills to training other instructors.

I've worked all around the country as a freelancer, and spent six years as an Outdoor Education Instructor and Boarding House Master at a secondry school in Plymouth. My work interests tend to focus on longer-term development, so working in a school was great. I'm currently working at High Sports in Plymouth, developing a large climbing wall which is a great challenge that I'm really enjoying.