ABOUT NICK:

Born in Lancashire in 1974, Nick Hancock was educated at King Edward VII School, Lytham. He moved south to attend the University of London, Queen Mary and Westfield College, where he studied for a BSc(Hons) in Environmental Geography. During this time he served for four years with the Officer Training Corps, having been awarded an Army bursary with the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (QLR). At university Nick spent a month in northern Pakistan trekking in the remote Karakorums, and was attached to 1QLR in Germany and Canada, having completed a one month officer training course with the United States army on Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Following a mis-diagnosed knee injury, Nick did not join the regular army but went into a career in property. After four years, and having had his knee injury correctly diagnosed and treated, Nick took a sabbatical. Over the next two years he led treks on the Great Wall of China for a variety of charity organisations, and worked for VentureCo taking a group of students around northern India for three months to undertake a tiger census and various community projects, followed by leading them on a 16 day trek to Everest base camp in Nepal.

Nick was also privileged enough to work for both John and Rebecca Ridgway for six months at John’s Adventure School at Ardmore, Sutherland. Here, Nick was senior instructor and taught rock climbing, sea kayaking and mountaineering to multi-national corporate management teams. A return to property after this period in the outdoors led to a second degree, in Surveying, before passing the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence. He has summited both Kilimanjaro (2001) in Tanzania and Elbrus in Russia (2008), and climbed Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States, solo in 2003. Nick is a qualified Mountain Leader, is Winter Mountain Leader and Single Pitch Award trained, and is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

His other interests include SCUBA diving, Nick is PADI ‘Advanced Open Water Diver’ and ‘Pearl Diver’ trained. He has run the London marathon twice, several triathlons at both Sprint and Olympic distances, completed Trailwalker, the Highland Cross, and Caledonian Challenge events, and enjoys sea kayaking. Nick completed the London and Edinburgh marathons in 2009, and the Glasgow to Edinburgh Double Marathon and the legendary Marathon des Sables in 2010.

Copyright © 2009-10 Nick Hancock