Tim’s life began in Kyrgyzstan.

Not literally, of course, he was actually born in the much more normal sounding Kingston-upon-Thames. But it was in this little known Central Asian country that he began a journey.

The expedition was a disaster – he didn’t climb any mountains and diced with death far more times than can be considered healthy for a summer holiday – but the result was the discovery of a love for adventure.

A subsequent and more successful mountaineering trip to Bolivia followed and before he had even got home, he had another idea. Teaming up with his friend Thom, with whom he had shared a rope in Kyrgyzstan, they used every method of transport they could find to travel Around the World in 80 Ways the following summer; a trip which saw them on the front page of a national paper and recognised on the street as “Those guys from the TV!”.

These early trips were supported by the Expedition & Travel Committee at Tim’s university. After graduating, he was invited to join as a committee member himself and has been mentoring UCL students on their expeditions ever since.

The day he arrived back from his around the world adventure, a friend approached him for help cycling a rickshaw across America.  Apparently, Tim had built a reputation as someone who “knows about that sort of thing” and this sowed the seed for an idea that would later come to fruition.

Returning from a Masters Degree in New Zealand where Tim learned to love his bicycle, he took up residence in the Royal Geographical Society, working for youth development charity BSES Expeditions. In addition to giving hands-on experience of Arctic expeditions and logistics, it exposed him to a whole new world of adventurous people.

During his time at BSES, Tim raised some money for the charity by visiting his old sidekick, Thom, on the Isle of Wight. In typical style, he did so by cycling to the south coast, swimming the Solent and running across the island to Thom’s house. He trained for the event by running up 50,000 steps to the height of Mount Everest and appeared on TV again, this time after having his bike stolen during training (and promptly replaced by the kind act of a viewer).

Having squeezed in another climbing expedition, this time to Russia, word began to spread and Tim found himself helping more and more people with their own challenges and this gave him one more idea.

Tim made the decision to leave full time employment and cut back his income in favour of a life with more time to pursue adventures and help others with theirs.

He now runs The Next Challenge, a website where he writes about his experiences and tries to encourage others to embrace life as an adventure. And, of course, keeps planning his next challenge…