A New Kind Of Adventure
These are people who, most often, lead from the middle. They listen carefully, they communicate clearly, and they laugh easily.
Happy Friday!
And a warm welcome from the Palace.
I’ve been fortunate to have worked with and for many, many brilliant leaders in the course of my life.
To name — and so embarrass — a few: Harri and the core team at Thighs of Steel, Nic, Grace and the leaders of New Forest Off Road Club, Beth Granville, my co-writer and co-producer of Foiled, Sarah at Young Roots youth club, many of the outdoor adventure leaders I’ve worked with, especially those at Off Grid Adventures, and of course many other family, friends, teachers and mentors, including
(not least for inspiring this Substack).These are people who, most often, lead from the middle. They listen carefully, they communicate clearly, and they laugh easily.
These are the people who I remembered as I picked a path through my Hill and Moorland Leader assessment last week, in thick rain, wind and fog.
And these are the people I credit most for the positive feedback I got from my assessors: that I was the only person on assessment who showed strong group management skills.
Conditions were horrible; it was easy for us all to turn inwards, to focus on ourselves and worry more about ‘getting there’ than about group spirit and togetherness on our journey.
Remembering all the brilliant leaders I have known — what would they have done? — I did my best to bring the whole team together: listening, communicating, and leading from the middle, rather than marching off into the misty moor.
Thank you, team!
For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel, Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society — and, finally, a qualified Hill and Moorland Leader.
In this newsletter, I write stories that help you and me understand the world (and ourselves) a little better.
Sometimes I stand on the shoulders of giants.
Young People Need A New Kind Of Adventure
Earlier this week I wrote a short piece for Alastair Humphreys about what the charity I work for, British Exploring Society, is doing to address the current crisis in young people’s mental health. Here it is: short, sharp and bittersweet.
The Mental Health Crisis Among Young People
The rise of social media, exacerbated by pandemic isolation, has created what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has coined ‘The Anxious Generation’.
One in five young people in England had a probable mental disorder in 2023.
89% of 18-24 year olds in the UK say that anxiety interferes with their day-to-day life.
At the same time, funding for youth services has plummeted by over 70% in the UK since 2010, leaving our most vulnerable young people with little access to the freedoms, role models, and confidence-building support they need to thrive.
Building Resilience: The Proven Power of Adventure
Despite these challenges, young people who participate in British Exploring Society expeditions report significant improvements in confidence, resilience, and overall wellbeing.
Using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS), we have seen post-programme wellbeing scores increase each year since 2021.
By the end of their expedition in 2024, our Young Explorers were scoring inside the top 15% for mental wellbeing in the UK — proving that the courage, challenge, community and self-belief that young people find on adventure has the power to transform lives.
British Exploring Society was founded in 1932. We know what works and our proof is a lineage of Young Explorers that goes back 93 years.
A New Kind of Adventure: Evolving to Meet the Need
But as young people increasingly absent themselves from school, socialising and the workplace, so they are also dropping out of our expeditions before they can experience the full benefit of life in the wilderness.
We cannot help young people who aren’t with us. So British Exploring Society is evolving once again to meet young people where they are today.
In addition to our famous multi-week expeditions, we are now introducing two new UK-based programmes that offer young people a chance to find their feet and hit their stride without compromising our unique person-centred approach, based around Adventure, Knowledge and Personal Development.
Adventure Weekends (for ages 14+) provide an adventurous entry point, with two nights under canvas at a residential outdoor centre.
Adventure Weeks (for ages 16+) offer a wilder challenge, with five or seven days of immersive adventure in England and Scotland’s most dramatic and remote environments.
These UK Adventures will allow young people to build confidence gradually, at a pace they choose.
Our ambition is that our Young Adventurers of 2025 will become our Young Explorers of 2026 — ready to explore the wildernesses of places like Arctic Iceland, mountainous Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, and the deserts of Oman.
Books for Reflection
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt – exploring how social media and screentime has impacted young people’s mental health.
Life in Three Dimensions by Shigehiro Oishi – mapping the adventurous third path to a good life. Alternatively, Oishi’s foundational paper with Erin Westgate: A Psychologically Rich Life: Beyond Happiness and Meaning.
Call to Action
All British Exploring Society programmes are free-to-access for young people resident in the UK and aged 14-25.
One thing you can do today is share our Expeditions page and help your favourite young people apply to join our Adventure Weekend or Adventure Weeks. They have nothing to lose and a whole world of adventure to gain.
Our expeditions and adventures are led by an incredible community of professional volunteer leaders, including social workers, scientists, bushcraft instructors, school teachers, psychotherapists, engineers and mountain guides. If you are interested in leading with us and helping young people unlock their self-belief, please get in touch.
Thank you.
Three Tiny Big Things
1. The Brothers Arms
My local is now Britain’s first men’s health pub! A sample of events on offer:
Grab your Sunday lunch with friends and family and get to know some key facts about heart disease and men’s cardiovascular health — free blood pressure testing throughout the day!
What’s killing 12 men a day in the UK? Join us for a powerful documentary about male mental health and suicide prevention.
Is there such a thing as the male menopause? A thought-provoking evening exploring how declining testosterone levels in middle-aged men can impact everything from libido and mental health to relationships and physical wellbeing.
Join the brothers at Westow House, SE19 1TX. 19 February to 7 March.
2. On Garbage
A funny thing happens when a Snickers bar goes from whole to eaten — the wrapper transmorgifies from useful to toxic. Suddenly, this thing that was keeping germs and dirt off your chocolate sugar log is now “useless” and with this comes the heaviest burden a modern person unencumbered by genocide or famine can hold: garbage responsibility.
3. A Podcast About Everyday Leaders
The Happiness Lab: How to Inspire the People Around You:
Leaders aren’t just generals, presidents and CEOs. You’re probably a leader too! Someone in your home, school or workplace might look to you for guidance – and that’s leading. So how do you inspire the people around you and make yourself the best leader you can be?
Thank You
Huge thanks to all the paying subscribers who helped make this story possible. You know who you are. Thank you. 💚
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As always, thank you for your eyeballs and thanks for your support.
diwyc,
dc:
Congratulations on the qualification! I half-heartedly started looking into it, but have let it lapse: I figured that, if I can't go out on a single moorland walk without at some point sinking up to my thigh in bog (and I can't) then perhaps I'm not the best person to be leading. Plus I got really hacked off that 90% of the stuff they send me is about mountaineering (and gear fetish), I have almost zero interest in mountaineering, certainly no interest in leading it, and it pisses me off that to become a moorland leader I have to subject myself to so much mountaineering spam.