Claire Maxted

Claire is an freelance outdoor instructor and is working towards her Mountain Leader assessment.

She is an experienced mountain walker and can usually been seen on the pages of Trail magazine where she works as features writer www.livefortheoutdoors.com Claire is also a gear tester for The Bike List www.thebikelist.co.uk

Here are Claire's answers to our expedition questions:

What is the most memorable expedition that you have been on?

The most memorable expedition I’ve been was in summer 2008. I went to Kyrgyzstan and was able to climb two unclimbed trekking peaks in the Tien Shan mountains at about the 4700m mark. It pushed me to my absolute limit trekking up steep snow slopes and jumping over crevasses but it was an amazing experience.

If you were doing your Gold Expedition this year where would you go?

If I was doing Gold this year I would stay in the UK, it has so much to offer and I’d like to see more of it before going abroad again. I would choose the Lake District for it’s wild, remote-feeling terrain and impressive sharp-edged mountains, whilst still being close to towns and amenities.

What is the one luxury item that you always take with you on an expedition?

On expeditions I always take a diary that I write every day for my luxury. I never leave without one. It’s so easy to forget all those little experiences that add up to one amazing trip and it’s really worth making yourself write and sketch daily for your own souvenir of your adventures. Other than that, my luxury item would be non-melting Cadbury’s chocolate...maybe one day they will invent this!