Pete Royall was born and raised on Walney Island in the ‘South Lakeland’. By the age of fourteen he was spending most of his weekends exploring the mountains and valleys of the Lake District National Park. By the age of 16 he had discovered the joys of granite, and exploration grew to encompass climbing the crags and cliffs of the mountain faces. A move to college close to the Welsh border opened his eyes to the beauty and sport potential of lesser visited Snowdonia in North Wales, and he still maintains his affiliation to that area as a member of the Snowdon based Gwynant Mountaineering Club. Several seasons of climbing in the highlands of Scotland and the European Alps, led to exploration in the Himalaya and eventually most of the World’s Greater Ranges.

After a long and comprehensive apprenticeship learning the skills necessary to stay safe in the mountains in all situations, it was perhaps inevitable that Pete, originally a teacher by trade, became a guide to others wanting to discover this fascinating world.Since 1992 Pete has made his living from leading treks and expeditions to the Nepal and Indian Himalaya, the Karakoram, and Hindu Kush ranges of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to the South American Andes. During this time he has taken close to a hundred groups into the world's Greater Ranges for Britain's premier real adventure travel company, KE Adventure Travel, and has pioneered new routes in the Himalayas and the Karakoram mountains including first pass crossings and first ascents of unclimbed peaks.

Pete’s passion for the mountains and especially those of his home in the English Lake District remains undiminished.

Karen is our organising genius. Prior to setting up Wandering Aengus with Pete she had a successful career as an Executive P.A. in the City of London. Karen's love of wild places and of the natural world goes back to childhood excursions to North Wales and extends to far flung places having trekked and climbed in the Indian Himalaya, and in Pakistan's formidable Karakoram Mountains under the shadow of K2. In her adopted home of the Lake District, Karen is a keen fell walker and scrambler with an impressive and growing cv of routes and summits. It is Karen's commitment to getting the very best for her clients that is the defining principle of our company.

In 2001 Karen and Pete set up Wandering Aengus Treks offering high quality walking and hiking holidays in the best of British mountains. Over the past seven years they have established a distinctive reputation for a different kind of holiday experience, where the accent is on quality and personal service to those who love mountains and places of natural beauty, provided by people who are themselves passionate about mountains.