ALICE KERR – WINTER MOUNTAINEERING AND CLIMBING INSTRUCTOR AWARD

OS Alice Kerr (R 03-12) started her school career at Sedbergh when she joined the Junior School at Bentham in 2003. Alice quickly established herself as a brilliant sports woman. As she progressed to Robertson House she continued to represent the School in all sports, but had a special interest in hockey and running. In her School sporting career she represented the North, was made Hockey Captain and gained 2nd place in the Wilson Run. She was awarded a place at Durham University where she played 1st Team hockey as she studied Human Geography, and subsequently gained a First Class Honours degree. It was at Durham that Alice started veering away from mainstream team games, starting with the challenge of triathlons and finally finding her true love of the outdoors with fell running and mountaineering.

In March 2024 Alice passed her Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor Award, which is the final and highest qualification that you can gain in the mountains in the UK. In order to get to this stage Alice had to undergo years of training and instruction, passing numerous prerequisite qualifications, before finally becoming accepted as a trainee WMCI. She passed her final award this year after a grueling three day assessment covering both theory of climbing and practical instruction, making her one of only 45 women to have gained this award. In an industry where men have led the way in the past, with around a thousand men having this qualification and only 3% of the WMCI being women, Alice is clearly a leading light in her field. 

It appears that it really is “the hills that are all around us” that were the starting point for Alice to become a truly inspirational Old Sedberghian!

Julia Rollings

Retired Head of Girls’ Games at the Prep School