Lowland Leader chat with with Katy Draper, Assistant Regional Coordinator for England, East Midlands and Anglia region.

Hi Katy, could you tell us a bit about your background and why you decided to become a Lowland Leader? 

  
I'm a nurse with 40 years commercial healthcare experience and ran my own healthcare marketing consultancy for more than 20 years. I realised one day that the joy had gone out of it, so I started to look at what I really did love. I've always been a passionate walker, and love endurance sports, so I spent a lot more time outside walking. 

 

I decided to join a few walking groups and found that I really enjoyed them. I thought I'd quite enjoy leading some of these groups and found out about the opportunity to lead walking holidays. During the process I discovered Mountain Training and the Lowland Leader qualification, so I thought this would be fantastic because it would recognise my skills and enable me to do what I really want to do in a professional way. The Lowland Leader qualification is highly regarded, and as 85% of the UK is lowland terrain, there's masses of scope to use the qualification to lead walks all across the UK.

 

How did you find the process of going through training and assessment? 

  
I found the whole process really enjoyable. I did my course with a provider quite local to me, so it was easy to arrange and simple. All of the courses are advertised on the Mountain Training website so it's just a question of finding a course that suited me. The arrangements were managed by the course provider who sent me lots of materials beforehand to get me organised. 

 

After completing training, I went into the consolidation phase (the time between training and assessment). As lowland walking is my way of life anyway, it meant that I was in a fortunate position to just record all the walks I was already doing. I added what I was learning from those walks that was relevant to the qualification for my Dlog. 

 

My assessment was in the Peak District. I made sure before I went that my Dlog was as good as it could be and went through every record to make sure I had more than enough to show I was demonstrating what I'd learned throughout my consolidation period. 

 

I utilised Steve Long’s Hillwalking Handbook, which is the handbook that is recommended for Mountain Training walking qualifications, and did a lot of research into the flora and fauna of the area I was being assessed in. During the assessment we were required to provide a little talk about a relevant topic of interest. I chose forest bathing, something that I love. We discussed the benefits of taking people into nature and connecting with the forest. 

 

What did you find most enjoyable? Did you experience any setbacks?

 

I wouldn't say I had any setbacks at all, fortunately! I found the process to be fairly straightforward, and I was eager to get qualified and out into nature ! I felt confident and competent in the Lowland environment and the information I needed to become more familiar with readily available. I loved immersing myself in the topics. 

 

The most enjoyable part was that I did my assessment in the autumn. I loved seeing the autumnal trees and there were loads of mushrooms where we were. There were also piles of ants’ nests all around our assessment area, which was fascinating, so I enjoyed being out in nature which was just awesome. 

 

  
How do you use your Lowland Leader qualification? How does it fit alongside your other commitments? 

  
Since qualifying I have used the Lowland Leader in so many ways. The first thing that I did was apply to become a walk leader with HF Holidays and started to do some Duke of Edinburgh work, just freelance in my spare time. I enjoyed that and it helped me become a lot more confident leading walks for my local Ramblers Group. I’m also a Nordic Walking Instructor – so it helps me be much more confident talking groups out and about here too. 

 

The experience has opened more doors for me now, I’m really passionate about my other work as a business and personal coach and now use the Lowland Leader qualification to take my clients outside into nature confidently and safely. I’ve subsequently gone on to do the Hill and Moorland Leader qualification, so I have developed my skills further.  Lowland Leader has been a great addition alongside my other commitments. It has made me feel more confident as a leader when it comes to taking clients out walking. 

 

  
Could you tell us about your involvement with the Association? How did you first get involved and what do you do as a volunteer? 

  
I got involved with Mountain Training’s Association right from the start. I saw very quickly that there was a large variety of workshops on offer, and it was a great way of travelling around the country and getting to meet other members of the Association who were doing the same things as me. I just got myself well stuck in and got really involved. I started to get to know other members and was regularly reading The Professional Mountaineer magazine. I decided to offer my help with a few bits and bobs, and I think my enthusiasm was recognised! 

 

I put on a nature connections day for the Peak District regional group which was brilliantly taken up. It was great to see so many people on board with that event. Following this, I chatted to the Association staff and with Mark McKenzie, who was then our Regional Coordinator for the England, East Midlands and Anglia region, and I applied to be the Assistant Regional Coordinator. Since becoming the Assistant Regional Coordinator for the region, everything has just gone from there really. I have become involved with the Lowland Leader working group which meets to discuss ways in which we can develop involvement with the Lowland Leader qualification across the UK.  As well as running peer-to-peer workshops for the Association, I also ran a workshop at their national conference which was all about helping people start their own business in the outdoors. That was great to be a part of. 

 

I think the Association helped me most by providing information and being very open to me getting stuck in! I would say that if you're wanting to get involved don't hold back, push yourself forwards! Start attending workshops and accruing CPD, start making a your Dlog as brilliant as it can be and just take it from there! 

 

 
Do you have any exciting plans for the future? 

  
Oh, lots of plans I've always got plans and I'm always doing things!  I walked the Pennine way earlier this year and I am going to do another trail walk with my husband in October which is quite exciting.

 

I am also considering doing my Mountain Leader which is something that I always think about but always tell myself that I'm never going to be able to do!  Personal goals are to do a lot more mountain walking and try to overcome my fear of falling off!

 

At the moment I'm spending quite a lot of my time taking my coaching clients outdoors.   I have just finished my ICF Accredited Burnout Coaching course for helping people who are about to burn out and are having quite stressful lives and nature is a great facilitator to help with my practice. I enjoy doing that outside, so I suppose I'm going to spend a bit of time developing that. 

 

Thank you