Climber Tim wins youth mountain culture award
Aged just 23, Tim Miller is already an experienced mountaineering and climbing instructor, volunteer climbing coach and university Earth Science graduate and can now add The Scottish Youth Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture to his haul of honours.
West Highland College UHI and The Fort William Mountain Festival have announced Mr Miller is the sixth recipient of the award, established in 2015, to celebrate adventurous young people, the landscapes they explore and the outdoor pursuits in which they excel.
The young recipient needs to have shown resilience and determination to succeed within their chosen area of expertise, shown results through their own efforts and ideas, given back to their community, whilst being thought of as an example of excellence by others.
A delighted Mr Miller said: ‘I am really delighted and humbled to be receiving the Youth Mountain Culture Award.
‘It has come as a big surprise and it was a lovely gesture by Rob MacKenzie [2017 youth winner] to nominate me.’
From his first days being coached at the Glasgow Climbing Centre, Mr Miller was hooked, quickly becoming a passionate, competent climber and making a name for himself on the competition scene in the city.
In 2013, in his first foray into competitive dry tooling, he won the Junior Scottish Tooling Series.
With limited ice climbing experience, he finished fourth in the Youth Ice Climbing World Championships in
France the following year. However, it was when he made the transition into outdoor climbing that he found his true calling.
In a climbing career spanning less than a decade, he has completed many epic alpine and mountaineering adventures; numerous hard traditional and winter ascents, demanding test pieces and first ascents, including grade VIII winter ascents.
He has also undertaken many technical expeditions to the Greater Ranges [the high mountain ranges of Asia] where he has climbed up to 7,000m on new routes and unclimbed peaks.
Mr Miller has not only dedicated time to honing his own skills. From the age of 17 he has dedicated a great deal of time to passing his knowledge on to the next generation of climbers.
He went to school at The Glasgow Academy, which has a leading outdoor education programme. Upon his graduation, Mr Miller began giving back to the programmme, volunteering to work with the young climbers coming through the school.
Through working with the school and getting a taste for teaching and instructing, Mr Miller has focused his efforts into learning and gaining the experience he needs to make a life out of guiding and climbing instruction.
He has recently passed The Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor Scheme qualification awarded by Mountain Training UK.
He is now working towards becoming one of the youngest people to be accepted on the British Mountain Guides training scheme and is a member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors.
Mr Miller also runs a successful guiding and instructing business, Miller Mountain Guides.
Rod Pashley, chairman of The Highland Mountain Culture Association, organisers of the Fort William Mountain Festival, said: ‘What is striking about Tim Miller is his countless achievements on such a rapid journey; his development and honing of technical mountaineering skills and his mountaineering experiences.
‘What is also striking, and one that would no doubt be expected from a professional mountaineer, is his passion and love of the outdoor environment and the sharing of it.’
Lydia Rohmer, Principal and Chief Executive of award sponsors West Highland College UHI, added: ‘This year’s recipient clearly epitomises the resilience, entrepreneurial excellence and commitment to the outdoor community we strive to develop in our students at the School of Adventure Studies in Fort William. We wish Tim every success in the future.’