About us
We started with two tents and a borrowed truck.
Fern & Ember is six guides, two old Land Rovers and a workshop full of patched canvas. Since 2015 we have been putting people in the right place at the right hour.
Ten seasonsGuiding in three regions
1,200+ nightsHosted since 2015
6 guidesAll paid year-round
4.9 / 5From 380 reviews
How it started
A season that was meant to be one summer
In 2015 Tom was between seasons of ski patrol and Mira was running logistics for a trekking company. They bought two canvas tents, borrowed a truck from Tom’s father and took fourteen guests into the Cascade foothills between June and September.
The plan was to stop in October. What actually happened was a waiting list, a second-hand trailer, and a phone call from a friend in Keswick asking whether they would do the same thing in the Lake District.
Ten seasons later the operation is bigger and the rule has not changed: eight guests to a camp, guides who live in the region, and a price that includes everything you need once you arrive.
What we believe
Four decisions we keep making
None of these are marketing positions. They are the reasons the business is small and stays small.
01
Eight guests, never more
Nine is a crowd and sixteen is a tour. At eight, everyone gets a place at the table and a guide who remembers your name by the first evening.
02
Guides on year-round contracts
Nobody on our team is paid per trip. It means guides say no to bad weather days, and that the same faces come back season after season.
03
Repair before replace
Our workshop patches canvas, re-waxes groundsheets and rebuilds stove valves. A tent averages nine seasons with us instead of three.
04
One price, no extras
No booking fee, no gear rental, no charge for the sauna. The number you see is the number you pay, apart from getting yourself to the trailhead.
Ten seasons
The short version
Dates that mattered, and the mistakes that came with them.
2015First camp in the Cascade foothills. Fourteen guests, two tents, one borrowed truck. We ran out of firewood in week three.
2017A friend in Keswick talks us into a Lake District season. We underestimate the rain and buy forty tarpaulins.
2019First ridge trek in the North Cascades. Two guides, six guests, and a route we still walk unchanged.
2020–21Two seasons cancelled, every deposit refunded in full and all six guides kept on contract. The empty calendar went into building the canvas workshop.
2022The workshop opens. We repair our own canvas instead of replacing another set of tents, and it has paid for itself twice over.
2023Fully booked from March to October for the first time. We add a fourth guide instead of a fifth camp.
2026The 1,200th night hosted. Still eight guests, still the same rule about the dinner table.
The team
Who you will actually meet
Guides live within an hour of the camps they run. Most of them have been with us more than four seasons.
TR
Tom Ridley
Co-founder · Cascades
Nine winters on ski patrol, nine summers on the trail. Knows every water source between the trailhead and the ridge, and which one to skip.
MH
Mira Halvorsen
Co-founder · Operations
Runs the food, the permits and the workshop. If your tent has a repaired seam, Mira did it, probably on a Tuesday in February.
IM
Iona MacLeod
Guide · Scottish Highlands
Grew up on the west coast, guides year-round and writes the weather call for every Highland trip. Blunt about midges, honest about views.
DW
Dan Whitfield
Guide · Lake District
Former outdoor-education teacher, current maker of the best bread at any of our camps. Ask him about the 2017 tarpaulin summer.
Low impact
What we count, and what we pack out
Camping lightly is mostly admin. These are the numbers we track each season, published here because it is easier to keep promises you have written down.
All firewood gathered within 15 km of camp, ash packed out and composted
Around 80% of food bought from producers within 100 km of each region
Canvas repaired in our workshop; average tent life now nine seasons
Grey water filtered and dispersed 60 m from any water source
1% of revenue to regional trail maintenance crews
Come along
The best way to meet us is around a fire.
Dates for the coming season are open now, with the smallest camps filling first. Tell us what you are after and we will point you at the right one — even if it is not ours.
