Less than 200km from Dublin, Snowdonia's offering of endless hiking, scrambling and rock-climbing lured Jonathan Redmond across the Irish Sea. "I can see the Wicklow mountains from here. It's so close to home," he says.
Originally from Redcross in Co Wicklow, Redmond attended Glenstal Abbey in Limerick, completing his Leaving Cert there in 2008. He moved to Dublin soon after to embark on a degree in landscape architecture in University College Dublin.
"It's a blend of architecture and landscape design, often involving landscapes, parks and recreational areas in urban environments," he says. "During my time at UCD, I started rock climbing and joined the mountaineering club, regularly heading to the peaks of Ireland and Europe to gain experience. I got hooked."
After completing his degree in 2012, he worked for a year with Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council before moving to Wales to work at an architecture practice in Cardiff.
"But after a year, I decided to pursue a full-time career as a mountaineering instructor and an international mountain leader. In 2010 I gained the rock climbing instructor award and, in the following years I got my international mountain leader award in Snowdonia here in Wales at the Plas Y Brenin outdoor cenre, before coming back to start my own business in Ireland."
In 2014 he founded mountainodyssey.ie, a mountaineering, climbing and hill walking company.
“My accreditation, which took four years, saw me undergo training and assessments in Snowdonia, north Wales, the Pyrenees and the Alps in both summer and winter. I also spent a number of years gaining the mountaineering and climbing instructor award. This acccreditation allows me to guide and instruct climbing and mountaineering anywhere in the UK and Ireland.
"The International Mountain Leader award allows me to guide on treks around the world." These have included the famous treks to Nepal's Everest base camp, and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with Earth's Edge adventure company as well as guiding treks around the Alps, such as the Tour du Mont Blanc.
He also competed for Ireland in the bouldering World Cup in France and the bouldering world championships in Munich 2014. Bouldering is a form of climbing without ropes or harnesses on small rocks or artificial rock walls.
Redmond has significant experience on some of the world’s most famous climbs. One of these is a one-day ascent of the Nose, on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in the US. As one of the original technical climbing routes, the Nose has a vertical gain of 880m and is often achieved over a series of days.
“My climbing partner and I started at 1am, climbed through the night and day and topped out at 10pm. You have to bring minimal equipment up the cliff, minimal water, food and gear and we ran out of food and water after around 13 hours. When we stopped at 10pm, we were absolutely starving.
“A friend left a gallon of water for us at the top, but we couldn’t find it so we fell asleep. We found it the next morning and walked down – hungry and exhausted.”
Another notable achievement was an ascent of the northwest face of Half Dome, also in Yosemite. “It’s a long route, and we slept on a ledge on the cliff without any sleeping bags or mats to reduce weight. We went really lightweight so again we didn’t carry much.”
Redmond also skied Mont Blanc. “We didn’t quite make it to the summit that day, because a storm blew in, but we skied down in around two hours. You need to be careful about crevasses which are just covered by a layer of snow and serac falls [blocks of ice].”
Since moving to Wales full-time last year, he is guiding rock climbs in the mountains or on sea cliffs, scrambling, and mountaineering and navigation skills in the mountains.
“I work with people from all over the UK, and Irish clients who travel across to north Wales for mountaineering and hillwalking activities. I love introducing people to the mountains, sharing my passion, teaching climbing and passing on my mountaineering skills and knowledge so others may have the skills, experience and confidence to enjoy the mountains for themselves.”
He is currently trying to grow his business in Wales. “Outdoors has gotten more popular as a result of photo-sharing sites and popular movies, coupled with a pandemic, but it is great to see people enjoying the outdoors for the first time.
“I live close to Snowdon in a town called Llanberis. It’s beautiful here. Besides the peaks, there’s wild swimming, scrambling, incredible scenery and it’s close to the sea.
“This region here is fantastic for any level of climber and I guide people on days out on rock routes or mountain scramblers. There are 15 mountains above 900m here so there’s endless opportunities.
"I live full-time in Wales now, but I still guide in Ireland, Scotland, the Alps and am about to embark on a trip to Kilimanjaro with Earth's Edge as a trekking guide. After almost two years of pandemic delays and cancellations, it's great to finally get out there again and guide to the roof of Africa. "
