I’m Ben, and the outdoors is where I feel most alive! With a life spent hiking, cycling and endlessly poring over maps, I want to enable others to grow their own love for the outdoors by equipping people with the skills and confidence to get out and explore.
I am a qualified Summer Mountain Leader. I was incredibly fortunate to have had Emma as a mentor during my process to qualification, and I’m now very pleased to be working alongside her, helping to deliver her courses.
I have particular interests in nature, conservation, access and land use – and see time spent in the outdoors as a key way to engage with these increasingly important topics.
My professional background is in the legal industry, and in my “day job” I lead a team working with legal technology in a law firm.
I am based in Chesterfield, on the edge of the Peak District, and also spend a lot of time in the Lake District – I’m most at home amongst hills and mountains!
What our clients are saying
As a trainee ML, I have worked with Ben twice on ML skills refresher courses (including night nav) led jointly by Emma and Ben (a few days in the Peak District and a wild camp expedition in Eryri respectively).
Ben is patient, supportive and good humoured, setting clear tasks and goals and providing logical, detailed feedback. He has provided valuable advice about ML assessment and the training days have been good fun. Ben – thank you for helping me grow in confidence and for helping me identify my strengths and what I need to work on before ML assessment.
Thank you!
– Shelley – ML Trainee
I had a 7-hour 1:1 session with Emma’s associate, Ben Hunt – about half and half daylight/ night navigation. I wanted to consolidate my nav skills before assessment for a Scout hillwalking permit. Everything was fantastic from my first contact with Emma through to the session itself and then follow-up advice and support afterwards. Initially Emma and then Ben took great care to find out about my prior experience and what I wanted from the session. Ben had the perfect balance of stretching my skills and building my confidence (which is what was needed).
I came away with a buzz, feeling that there were no longer any hidden gaps in my knowledge that might catch me out during assessment. After the session, Ben emailed with a summary of his advice and has also followed up with detailed explanation in response to a specific query – above and beyond what was expected.
Thank you!
– Janet Wood
I met Ben Hunt on my Silver NNAS course in 2024, he was also delivering the course with Emma.
Ben sets you at ease no matter what questions you might have, reassuring you that “no question is a stupid question” he is kind and approachable in nature.
His manner is unassuming, but cleverly answers your queries in a way that gets your brain working; by this I mean he often answers your question with another, to get you to consider all the possible outcomes. This, I felt, helped to give me confidence in decision making.
I would highly recommend Ben as an instructor or mentor to anyone looking to improve their navigational skills at any level.
– Nicky Daly, veterinary nurse, Ripon North Yorkshire.
Having been on several of Emma’s courses along with her one to one sessions, the new addition of Ben to the team has complemented Emma’s skills and teaching. I found Ben to be very informative and interactive when I was on my recent Gold NNAS navigation course. Ben brings some great knowledge of navigation and mountain leader skills to the session and his manner when demonstrating or reviewing your skills out on the hills puts you at ease . The team of Emma and Ben will go from strength to strength as they both have a proven knowledge of the outdoors along with a very interactive friendly & supportive teaching technique.
– Vinny Gidley – Trainee Mountain Leader
Just wanted to drop a quick note to say how brilliant Ben was yesterday. He has a nice way of explaining things, without being condescending and was the perfect person to help build my confidence. He is certainly going to be a great asset to your business. It was a brilliant night navigation session last night.
I really enjoyed it and came away feeling much better about the whole thing. Ben presented everything in a logical and clear way, which helped me to feel much more at ease. We covered all the things that I wanted to and the evening flowed really well.
Thanks once again, Ben. I really appreciate all the effort you put into making it such a good night nav session.
– Helen
