In 2017 Val spent 2 months hiking alone for 1500 kilometres to complete the first thru-hike of the Transcaucasian Trail in Armenia and Georgia. Read more about the expedition here. He shared tales from the expedition on the stage of the Royal Geographical Society at the Microlectures 2018 event. Through his expeditions and continual involvement in Armenia, Val has a unique insight and appreciation for trail development.
In 2019, Val completed a 800km foot traverse of the Kyrgyz Tien Shan with the aim of launching an open-sourced long-distance route named the Kyrgyz High Trail that will be open to community route edits. Val is currently acting as Project Coordinator for #ProjectArmenia which seeks to develop new rock climbing routes on the cliffs of Dilijan, Armenia.
Val is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and has given talks about his expeditions at Explorers Connect, the University of Cambridge, and numerous primary and secondary schools. If you would like to book Val for a talk please use the contact form here.