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About Bread & Butter.

Charlie and a climbing partner grinning at the camera on a snowy col, one of them flashing a peace sign.
Two climbers looking up at the camera from a granite slab, ropes running down the rock.
Charlie and Carmen on a summit in sunglasses and harnesses, the glacier behind them.
Two climbers with ropes coiled over their shoulders, one throwing a hand up to the camera.
Charlie and Carmen in sunglasses pulling faces at the camera.

More than climbing.

Just a couple of oddballs.

Two people who fell for the mountains, and then for each other, in roughly that order. Now, through Bread & Butter Climbing, Charlie and Carmen share their passion for nature and adventure with others. Here’s what they’re building and why.

Come climbing with us
Carmen and Charlie squashed together on a staircase, both pulling deliberately ridiculous faces at the camera.

How we got here, and where it’s going

01.

How

A climbing trip can change your life.

We met in a climbing gym — pretty cliché but it's true! Just a few months later we set off on our first climbing trip together in Mallorca, and it’s been mountains ever since. Climbing changed who we spend our time with, where we live, and what we want the next thirty years to look like.

Three people eating at a folding table between a car and a van below a crag, a border collie sitting on the rocks beside them.

02.

Why

We need more connection.

The world has got lonelier and more screen-shaped, and a lot of people are feeling like something doesn't add up. We believe that something is connection. Connection with people and connection with nature.

Six people crammed onto the bed in the back of a van, eating together and raising bottles to the camera.

03.

What

Our own little paradise.

One day, a small bed & breakfast — ringed by mountains, with good snow in winter and better rock the rest of the year. A few animals, and a climbing wall for when it rains. Somewhere families and friends come to stay and be properly out of contact with everything else for a week.

Charlie and Carmen in a Pyrenean village at dusk, ivy and red shutters on the stone houses behind them.

The team

Charlie grinning in a hooded jacket and climbing helmet on a misty ridge, a climbing partner on the skyline behind him.

Charlie

Climbing guide

I cut my teeth in the mountains at a young age and haven't looked back since. At 8 years old I began competing in ski slalom and it was around this time that I first stumbled into a climbing gym. Hobbies came and went but the mountains were always calling. I always felt a strong drive to share these incredible experiences with others and at the ripe age of 30, I began my journey to become a climbing guide.

Climbing
TD2 de Escalada
Mountain
TD2 de Media Montaña
Member
AEGM
Winter
Ski instructor, Baqueira
Carmen in a helmet and sunglasses, walking poles in hand, climbing a sunlit snowfield.

Carmen

Mountain leader

Carmen is a veterinarian by trade, and a qualified hiking guide finishing her mountain leader qualification. Mountains are her half of this — the walking, the high ground, the country either side of the rock. The climbing guiding is Charlie’s.

Hiking
TD1
Mountain
TD2 — in progress
Also
Veterinarian

Moments from the mountains

Looking down a steep limestone wall to a climber below, the trees far beneath them.
Two climbers at a belay high on a wall, looking down at the camera with the forest far below.
A climber pulling through a steep roof, silhouetted against a pale sky.
Three of us on a snowy summit ridge, snow-covered peaks running to the horizon behind.
A big orange limestone wall catching the last of the sun, climbers small at its foot.
A climber high on a sea cliff, the Mediterranean flat and blue below.
A climber moving along a rocky ridge, the rope running back down the crest.

Why “Bread and Butter”?

No frills, no bravado, nothing to prove. We believe that this is the “bread and butter” of climbing.

What guiding usually sells

  • Extreme activities
  • Ego-feeding numbers
  • Macho leadership

What we sell

  • Facing fears
  • Empowering through knowledge
  • As many laughs as adventures