Member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI)
Dave Williams
Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor
I help people unlock confidence, independence and joy in the mountains. I guide them through challenge, uncertainty and adventure with skill and calm judgement. My mission is to open doors so anyone can feel at home in the hills.
How I Ended Up Here
I'm a friendly Yorkshire lad, brought up on a farm with a simple mentality: if something needs doing, get your head down and put the work in. That work ethic has probably shaped me more than anything else.
I first found the outdoors through the military in Glencoe, and I've been hooked ever since. For me, adventure is about the unknown outcome. It doesn't have to be some huge expedition; adventure can be found anywhere, as long as you don't quite know what's going to happen.
My route into the mountains started through the military, where I served in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps before becoming a full-time outdoor instructor. I worked in Eryri, North Wales, before eventually moving to the West Coast of Scotland. I never really looked back. Scotland became my playground: endless rock, ridges, mountains and wild country.
I've spent years coaching and working across different disciplines, alongside my own climbing, mountaineering and endurance challenges. I'm still ticking things off myself too, with 30 Wainwrights left and working my way through the Munros, ideally doing them with as many different people as possible.
But the biggest reason I do what I do is simple: I love unlocking doors for people. Whether that's helping someone stand on top of their first Munro when they never thought they could, getting someone onto rock for the first time, or taking someone into the bigger mountains and watching their confidence grow.
My aim is simple: to give people the confidence, independence, happiness and freedom to enjoy the mountains for themselves.
I love the high-pressure days: the Cuillin, Ben Nevis, Glencoe and big mountain objectives. But I also love the less glamorous side of Scottish mountaineering: the days when you're soaked through in Glencoe teaching navigation, the whiteouts on the plateau, the days when the weather turns, the visibility disappears and you have to rely on your judgement, skills and experience.
That's what I love about the mountains. You never quite know what they're going to give you. And after all these years, I'm still just as excited to find out.