If you ever wanted evidence of the healthy benefits of pedalling to the best of your mettle, look no further than the remarkable Lee Craigie.
She has packed more into her life than most people and she is impossible to pigeon-hole, so how best to describe the Aberdeenshire woman?
Well, she is a mountain bike adventurer and cross-country bike racer, a nomadic storyteller, an author, outdoor therapist, award-winning film maker, campaigner for active travel and champion for women in the outdoors.
In her early career, Lee worked as a technical mountaineering guide in the USA and Australia, as an outdoor instructor and group facilitator for Colorado Outward Bound, as an outreach worker in Edinburgh, and as a freelance outdoor instructor for local education authority centres, and for Ratho, Venture Trust, Radical Outdoors, and Venture Scotland. Her cv can make you tired just reading the list of achievements.
Given her exploits, it’s hardly surprising that the organisers of the Fort William Mountain Festival – which is being held next month – have named her as the 17th recipient of the prestigious Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture.
After all, Lee has genuinely enhanced the lives of those around her with trailblazing initiatives. While working for the Highland Council’s pupil support service in 2007, she founded Cycletherapy and delivered cycle training to marginalised young people in the region, working effectively with those excluded from school by using mountain bike riding and mechanics to re-engage them with education or training.
She has also become a sports star
There’s also her competitive success and star status in the saddle. In 2009, she won both the Scottish Series and Scottish Championship titles as the prelude to turning professional and triumphing at the British Mountain Bike Championship in 2013.
And her career continued as a member of Team GB at World and European Championships and Team Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
The challenges have never stopped. Between 2019 and 2022, Lee took on the role of Scotland’s first Active Nation Commissioner and, as an official representative of walking, cycling and physical activity across the nation, supported the promotion of a new infrastructure to encourage more people to become more physically active.
She was subsequently appointed as Scotland’s Ambassador for Active Travel and bestowed with an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. And now, she is the recipient of the coveted Fort William prize.
Wild places are a refuge for Lee
She said: “Wild places have always offered me perspective, gratitude, and calm. Their consistency and timelessness continue to ground me in this fast-paced and ever-changing world, and I am passionate about ensuring more people can connect with them and access them in respectful ways.
“In doing so, we connect with ourselves, our past and our collective future and it’s events like the FWMF that ensure more and more people from diverse backgrounds have these opportunities.”
Lee has been selfless in her contribution to inspiring the next generation of future cyclists. And she will continue to spread that message in the years ahead.
Further information about the festival can be found at mountainfestival.co.uk
