Merseyside Mountaineering Club x Capel Curig
A walk around Capel Curig with the Merseyside Mountaineering Club and a camera to chat about exercise, the outdoors and mental health.
“I feel good. I wish I would have done it a long time ago. I spent most of my younger life being a dickhead. It’s just a different group of people with a different outlook on life.
I don’t even drink anymore, I don’t smoke. I used to smoke and drink and take a lot of E and cocaine. The usualy party stuff like but now nothing at all. Going out and getting blitzed and all that, it’s all gone. I look at what people are doing and think that’s not for me anymore.”
— Graham
“One of my friends started weightlifting and I loved it and it made me feel so great! There was a time probably twelve months ago where my job was just so stressful, and I’m generally quite an easy going person, I could see a personality change and even I didn’t want to be around me because of this feeling. Arghhh, I was so stressed!
So when I started lifting weights I just felt great. I just felt like I could accomplish things and I felt strong. It was the first time I linked doing exercise to feeling and I just wanted to do it more.”
— Fadzai
“Just find whatever activity you enjoy, it shouldn’t have to be a chore to have to exercise. Find something you like doing, it doesn’t have to be heavy going. You’ll get seventy percent of the benefit from doing eighty percent of the effort. Going on walks will make a huge difference if you’re pretty sedentary and try to make it social, unless you like going on runs on your own, but try and make it social.”
— Freddie
“The first time I went out with the club and we did a climb and I think self doubt can be a big thing for me, telling myself I can’t do things and stopping myself sometimes. I think with these guys it’s kind of like other people encouraging you and allowing you to be scared as well.
So there was a climb we were going to do and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it and felt like I’d ruin the day for everyone else but they encouraged me and helped. When I finally did it the feeling of euphoria lasted for days!”
— Rebecca
“Don’t think about what you can and can’t do, don’t worry if you can’t do the whole thing. Even if you walk up to the corner there or the gate, sometimes we look at the whole thing and think it’s too hard, but you should break things down.
I was in a running group, another woman said I should go to the hill runs and I said I’d wouldn’t be ready and she said ‘you’ll never be ready’, just come along. When I got there, there were loads of people just like me, it was really hard but some people were just walking, but they were there!”
— Connie
“Being in nature always grounds me and calms me, and also the social interaction side of it is always nice. I think I’m someone that gets an energy from being around people more. Not everyone is into trekking in the middle of winter. It’s quite hard to meet people who are mad enough!”
— Lauren
“Do something that you like, that you enjoy doing and it’ll help with the motivation. That’s a good way of doing it but also you won’t regret doing it. You know you won’t say ‘that wasn’t worth it, I’ll always say ‘that was worth it’. It’s a guaranteed way to help you make yourself feel good.”
— Jake
Thanks to the Mountain Leader, Tom, and all of the members of the Liverpool Mountaineering Club that spent time with me on the day…
Graham, Fadzai, Connie, Freddie, David, Fionnuala, Jake, Rebecca… and to the great outdoors!