Welcome to episode 358 of the Outdoor Biz Podcast and my conversation with Iain Miller. Iain is the founder of Unique Ascent in Donegal, Ireland. Iain says they provide fundamentally two services, the first is a unique and extensive guiding service, and the second is a mountain training service in which they provide Mountain Training courses and assessments. Brought to you by Tourism Ireland, Failte Ireland, and Steller
Brought to you this month by Tourism Ireland
Show Notes
Unique Ascent
How Iain got into the outdoors.
Oh, well, I’m 52 now, and I’ve been, I’ve been playing outside mainly trekking and hill walking or hiking since I was about 12, and then as soon as I got my first car I was just off hiking on my own around Scotland.
01:45 How Iain became a guide?
All the things in life are not planned. It just happens that the more you do something, the more people hear or see that you’re doing something. I was rock climbing. I moved to Donegal and I was rock climbing the sea stacks and stuff there. And the more I did, the more people contacted me. Before long I was taking people out.
04:15 Which of your activities are the most popular?
The most popular is sea stack climbing. People just want to do something that’s different.
18:17 If you could share one tip for anyone coming to Ireland to climb, what would that be?
In coming to Ireland, the chances are that they’re coming from a place where there’s going to be a lot of bolts in the rock that they’ve climbed. I don’t wanna say there’s no place, but there are very few places with bolted roots. When you come to Ireland to climb, you’re likely gonna be on your own. So having your own gear, getting a guidebook, working with the weather, getting things done. There’s more, perhaps more chance for disappointment with weather and not finding cracks, it’s just not a big sport, so just, be ready to have a, have a look about, you may not climb, but you’ll have a nice day anyway
Follow up with Iain
Email: uniqueascent@gmail.com
