AT

Inching towards 5,800m, my left calf tightens as the crampon digs into snow. The southern ridge ahead curves towards the Stok Kangri peak. Looking over my right shoulder, the powder-clad flank of the mountain surges below into a vortex of snow with sparse patches of rock. About 20 steps ahead, Jigmet stops in his tracks. “We’re almost there,” he shouts, pre-empting me from a second thought of rest, and points to the northeast at the rising hops of undulating snow. A thoroughbred Ladakhi, Jigmet often guides expeditions from Leh (the capital of Ladakh) into the surrounding Himalayan range.

Indoor climbing has recently enjoyed huge growth in the UK but the outdoor climbing scene is harder to find, requires new skills and rain always threatens to stop play. I headed to France to find a new climate and a new approach to outdoor climbing…

‘C’est super,’ calls Alé, our tanned, beaming instructor from what seems like a league beneath me. Looking down at him, a grinning bronze dot far below, I wonder what on earth I'm doing here. I manage to make my forearms stop complaining when I find some better holds and look around – a little reminder of why I left the comfort of the local wall and made the trip to the Ardèche, France.

There is a story in Urubamba, a town in Peru’s Sacred Valley, that several years ago the inhabitants all realised they were having the same dream. They dreamed of the Señor de Torrechayoc, a beloved local saint whose image stood thousands of meters above town on a windswept Andean pass. As they slumbered, the saint visited their dreams and implored them to visit him: he was lonely, no one passed his way anymore due to the newly paved highway. And so the locals responded in true Peruvian fashion: they decided to have a party.

National Holidays are great for providing coach tours that depart from a wide range of locations. Take Yorkshire, for example. They can pick you up from 20 different towns/cities and take you wherever you want to go. Whether you’re coming from Bradford, Rotherham, Huddersfield or one of the other 17 locations on the list, National Holidays can take you to the places you want to visit.