Dave Nolan, founder and Managing Director of Peak Mountain Adventures.

About Peak Mountain Adventures

Peak Mountain Adventures was founded by Dave Nolan in association with Steve Rouse with the aim of bringing a fresh perspective to outdoor development.  While committed to the real benefits that this form of training can bring to organisations and individuals, we recognised that the industry had become stale and over-reliant on traditional business models and approaches.

Bringing together an extraordinary level of outdoor experience with cutting-edge learning & development concepts derived from our own research, Peak Mountain Adventures Ltd provides a radically flexible yet robust approach in order to generate real learning and performance improvement for our customers.

Together, our clients have included:

• Mitchells & Butler
• Stanley Casinos
  
• Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Greater Manchester Fire Services
• The House of Commons
• Royal Bank of Scotland Group
• RWE npower
• First Data International
• Magnox North
• First TransPennine Express
  
• Le Crossing
• TrainerBase (Girling Mayes Ltd)
  
• Riverside College
• Child Safe (Midlands) Ltd
• City College Manchester
• Manchester Conference Centre
  
• Groundwork (Tameside and Manchester)
• Stockport Youth Offenders' Team
• Stockport CVS
• Autistic Society Greater Manchester Area
  

Our Team:

• Dave Nolan
• Steve Rouse
• Dave Marshall
• Martin Clist
• Ewan Cameron

Dave has worked in the outdoors for over 10 years. Caving is his love and on many an occasion he can be found deep beneath the earth, exploring hydro-formed passages and caverns, searching for new systems and revisiting old. When not acting like a human mole, Dave seeks out his next passion of climbing classic routes in the UK. 

Dave is also a keen canoeist and has a vast number of water expeditions beneath his belt. Spending days paddling British waters and nights beneath the stars, camping out. He has led numerous groups of various experience levels on trips and training sessions.

Trekking the high grounds of our local environment has allowed Dave to maintain his joy of self survival and bush craft. Practising these skills in coastal, forestry and moorland environments has allowed Dave to incorporate these into his team building events.

Dave is qualified to run educational programmes for young people and assist them in obtaining a GCSE through the use of outdoor projects. In his spare time Dave likes to further his skills in horse riding, archery, scuba diving and mountain biking. Again Dave manages to incorporate these skills into his events provision.

Qualifications include:

• Mountain Leader
• Climbing Instructor (SPA)
• Level 2 Cave and Mine leader (CIC Trained)
• GNAS (Archery)
• Level 2 Open Boat Coach
• Asdan Short course and COPE provider.

Since forming his own L&D Consultancy in 2006, Steve has built a reputation for excellence in facilitation and learning design, working with a number of major private and public sector organisations.

Steve's previous civil service career culminated in his role as Senior Designer within the L&D division of the Department for Work & Pensions, responsible for providing innovative learning solutions to over 10,000 senior managers and professionals within the corporate centre. Prior to this, Steve developed a wide-ranging portfolio as a management and leadership trainer.

Steve's specialisms include leadership and management development, stress management, performance management, communication and interpersonal skills, and diversity & equality.  He's comfortable and experienced in working at all levels within organisations, from operations to senior executive and board level.

When not working, Steve is active on the Manchester literary scene as a member of the Monday Night Group of writers. A published poet, Steve is also a past Director of Commonword Ltd, the leading Manchester-based community publishers. He also enjoys walking in the Lake District and in the hills around Manchester.

Steve is CIPD qualified, a Licentiate Fellow of ITOL and has a Masters degree in Management Learning & Leadership from the University of Lancaster. He has presented conference papers on leadership and identity as well as being instrumental in creating the TrainerBase Certified Learning Practitioner standard - a national standard for independent learning practitioners.

Dave has been climbing and mountaineering for 12 years and has worked in the Outdoor Pursuits industry for the last 9. He's been on many expeditions to climb mountains such as Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn and the Barre de Ecrin, as well as leading expeditions further afield, including to Djebel Toubkal in Morocco, the highest peak in North Africa, and Sierra Negra, a 4000m extinct volcano in Mexico. He has also led a trek around the Cordillera Huayhuash in Peru, up to an altitude of 4700m.

Dave also enjoys caving and has extensive knowledge of caves in the Peak District and in the Yorkshire Dales, as well as expedition caving in the Vercor, France. He recently discovered the delights of open boating, which is much more laid back than kayaking and better suits his personality! Dave say s that, "nothing makes me feel more alive and happy than doing outdoor activities and I want to share these feelings with others".

Qualifications include:

• Mountain Leader
• Climbing Instructor (SPA)
• Level 2 Cave and Mine leader (CIC Trained),
• Level 2 Open Boat Coach