‘Mountain man’ up for awards

A Guilsfield man who gave up his job locally to pursue a career in the mountains is up for two awards in North Wales on Thursday evening.

Stiwart Breese, 47, (pictured) moved to Snowdonia in 2014 to fulfil his lifelong dream of working in the outdoors.

With his wife Tracey they set up their business, Breese Adventures, an outdoor events company and in 2017 introduced a brand new walking challenge, which is unique in the UK.

The Snowdonia Challenge was held in Betws-y-Coed in June. Over three days 150 walkers took on 100km of the best Snowdonia has to offer and raised £25,000 for a range of charities.

The success of the Snowdonia Challenge has led to them being selected as finalists in three local awards.

The awards include two North Wales Tourism awards for Sport/Adventure Tourism and Best Newcomer; whilst Tracey is also a finalist in the F2N Business Network Rachel Elnaugh Enterprise Award.

Stiwart, who now works full time in the outdoors said: “When we started our business our aim was to provide opportunities to make the outdoors more accessible to a wider range of people. Creating this event inspired people from all over the UK to take part and from as far away as USA and India.

“We couldn’t have been happier with the feedback we received after the challenge and to now be announced as finalists for these awards, for doing something we love, is a real honour.

Tracey added: “We created the Snowdonia Challenge to give more people the opportunity to take part in a challenge event; to enjoy the experience of discovering what they are capable of while being able to explore more of Snowdonia National Park.

“It was inspired by Nijmegen Marches, a walking challenge in Holland which I took part in in 2009. Our aim was to create an event which inspired people by challenging them both mentally, physically and emotionally.

“We also wanted an event which helped raise awareness of the environmental issues both in the national park and further afield and so made the first Snowdonia Challenge ‘single use plastic free’”

Stiwart added that in developing the Snowdonia Challenge it was “really important to us to work with the local community and organisations within the national park. We will be building on this for 2018 and how these organisations can be more involved to provide an even better outcome for everyone involved.”

The Snowdonia Challenge will return to Betws-y-Coed in June 2018. Information on the challenge can be found on Breese Adventures website www.breeseadventures.co.uk.