Edinburgh adventurer Peter Allison to be honoured for leading role in expeditions

HE HAS been leading and supporting expeditions for youngsters for more than two decades.

Now Peter Allison, who lives in Willowbrae, is set to be presented with the Stephenson Award by the Young Explorers Trust (YET) in recognition of his longstanding involvement in youth expeditions.

The annual award is presented to an individual who is a member of YET, or an affiliated expedition group, for outstanding service to youth expeditions.

The 38-year-old, who will be presented with the plaque in London on 8 June, said: "I'm absolutely flattered. It's just a great honour and I feel as if it's thanks to all the people who helped to organise the expeditions and the young people who have come on them.

"Expeditions are a group process and involve a lot of people doing a lot of work before, during and after, so I'm very thankful to all of those people."

Mr Allison became a member of the British Schools Exploring Society in 1988 aged 17, and went on his first expedition to north-east Greenland shortly after. Since then, he has been involved in leading and supporting around 15 expeditions to the north-east, west and south of Greenland, as well as the Indian Himalayas.

Mr Allison, who has also been involved in a number of adult expeditions, added: "When I went to north-east Greenland as a young person, it was such a profound experience for me and I was keen to help support other people to have similar experiences. What I have seen since then is that there are opportunities for people to learn a huge amount about themselves on expeditions.

"The most important expeditions I have done have been the ones to Greenland, where I have taken people into beautiful wilderness areas where they have undertaken scientific research and gone exploring.

"The expeditions in the Himalayas have been important culturally, with opportunities for young people to learn about different cultures.

"I've also led a couple of expeditions up Kilimanjaro."

Mr Allison is a lecturer and researcher at Edinburgh University, with expeditions and their value forming the basis of most of his research.

The scientific research carried out during the expeditions is led by the youngsters themselves and has included checking a map of part of the Himalayas for inaccuracies, and submitting corrections which were subsequently made, as well as studying the speed of glaciers feeding into a river in Greenland at different times of the day.

The youngsters taking part in the expeditions are from across the UK and range in age from 17 to 20. The expeditions vary in size from ten to 70 people.

In 1997, Mr Allison completed an expedition with friend Karen Darke, who was paralysed in a climbing accident.

Along with two others, they cycled 1,000 miles across the Himalayas from Kyrgyzstan to China and then into Pakistan. It took them a month to complete and they raised 11,000 for charity in the process.