Tom Jobling

24 year-old Tom grew up climbing under the grey skies of North England before swapping the cliffs of Warton Crag and Hutton Roof for the Italian Dolomites in the summer of 2019.

He hasn't looked back since.

Prior to this, Tom spent the winter chalet-hosting in the French Alps where days-off were spent snowboarding down the slopes of La Tania and Courcheval 1850.

Currently based in South Tyrol, North-East Italy, Tom is working on a number of climbing projects alongside a handful of other young climbers from around the world.

We caught up with him recently to see what he was getting up to and what his plans are for the upcoming year.

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Tom, you've been in Italy for a couple of months now, what's been the most memorable experience you've had so far?

"Probably the lightning storm on my second day in the dolomites. It kept hitting the Fanes Massif, which is right above our chalet, and the whole sky line just lit up."

We've heard you're into your cooking, have you been learning any Italian dishes?

"I'm working in South Tyrol and one of the local land ladies, Petra, taught us how to make Tyrolian dumplings using her grandmother's recipe which was pretty cool."

Climbing in the Dolomites or bouldering in the Lake District?

"I'm really enjoying having more people to climb hard with out here in the dolomites but I still definitely miss the Lakes."

We see you've been doing some multi-pitch climbing recently. How are you finding that?

"The multipitch has been amazing, things here are just on a different scale to back home. Ludomania was over 200m and Sas Ciampac, which is our next project, is over 400m."

It looked as though you had a great time in the French Alps last winter, have you got any plans for next season?

"France was amazing, and I can't wait to get back on my board so I think another winter season is very likely. Currently debating whether to go back to the Three Valley's, stay here in the Dolomites or possibly Chamonix."

And lastly Tom, any bear sightings?

"No actual bear sightings but on a walk recently we did see some paw prints in the snow higher up that looked way to big to be a dogs."

On behalf of everyone at Bjornfell, I'd like to wish Tom a successful summer of climbing and hopefully we'll get to see him back on his board this winter! If you'd like to keep updated with Tom's adventures, make sure to follow him on Instagram @goblin_jobling.