Our team
We are a team committed to bringing hope and creating community by making the outdoors accessible.
Mastering Mountains was born in 2015 out of a desire to help people with MS and FND find hope, positive change and community through outdoor adventure. As a team, we also believe that the outdoors should be accessible to all and that there are enormous benefits to getting outside.
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Nick Allen
MANAGER & TRUSTEE
Nick runs Mastering Mountains Charitable Trust from his home in Ōtautahi (Christchurch). He started the trust after being diagnosed with a neurological disease and seeing the need for a supportive community of active people. Nick was subsequently diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (FND) and fibromyalgia.
When he is not climbing or tramping, Nick also works as a content creator and brand ambassador for MitoQ, Black Diamond and SCARPA. Nick is also a public speaker and writer. Contact Nick
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Francis Charlesworth
TRUSTEE
Francis works for the YMCA Christchurch, managing their outdoor centres. Francis has worked for several not-for-profit organisations, specifically within the outdoor industry in NZ and the UK.
When not working, he enjoys sharing experiences with others in the outdoors, be it in the mountains, the surf or on a bike.
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Katy Glenie
TRUSTEE
Katy Glenie lives in Ōtautahi with her husband and daughter. She has a background in communications and sustainability, and has worked across the public, private and non-profit sectors in purpose-led organisations.
When not at work Katy loves anything outdoorsy, including rock climbing, mountaineering, tramping, open-water swimming and skiing. Katy was diagnosed with MS in 2019 and was a recipient of the Mastering Mountains Expedition Grant in 2021.
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Sam Dawson
TRUSTEE
Sam works as a pilot for Air New Zealand. Based in Nelson, he enjoys doing anything in the outdoors, especially cycling and tramping.
Sam shares Nick’s love of the outdoors and passionately supports the goals of Mastering Mountains.
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Peter Allen
TRUSTEE
Peter is an industry leader in governance practices and owns Business Torque Systems Ltd. His passion is to work with people who want to learn good governance practices.
Based in Taupō, he researches, develops, and advocates a style of governance that is effective for New Zealand businesses and non-profit organisations. Contact Peter
“The great outdoors, therefore, should not be just considered a playground for those who seek the thrills of extreme sports, but emphasis should be placed on access for all.”
Nick Allen’s Story
Nick Allen, on the summit of Imje Tse (6,189m) in the Everest region of Nepal - 2015.
For Nick Allen, Mastering Mountains embodies two passions: his love for the outdoors, and his desire to enable people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) to enjoy the outdoors and achieve their adventure dreams. Like many New Zealanders, Nick's love for the outdoors resulted from a childhood spent outside. However, his passion for helping people with chronic neurological diseases emerged from his diagnoses with these conditions and the wish that someone had modelled for him a meaning-filled life spent outdoors, despite the diagnosis.
As a young adult, Nick was an active climber, tramper and cyclist, propelled by a singular goal: to climb in the Himalayas. Not long after his 21st birthday and despite his high fitness level, unexplained neurological symptoms began to cast a shadow over his dream. Weak, fatigued and often in pain, Nick found it increasingly difficult to walk. By the age of 24, he became dependent on a mobility scooter to get around outside.
Two years later, Nick was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. The diagnosis was devastating. In the beginning, with no one to guide him or model an adventure-filled life after a diagnosis of MS, Nick believed that MS marked the end of his outdoors pursuits.
Through the support and encouragement of his family, Nick found stories of others who, after an MS diagnosis, regained mobility and went on to pursue their sports and hobbies. Although none of those stories were of hikers or climbers, Nick sold his mobility scooter and adopted the Overcoming MS, evidence-based approach to lifestyle, diet and exercise. After a few years of specialist rehabilitation, Nick began hiking and climbing again.
Nick Allen, with Allie Rood (left) and Mark Heighton (right) during their climbing mission on Stewart Island - 2019.
In 2015, Nick achieved his dream of climbing in the Himalayas, successfully summiting Imje Tse (6,189m) in the Everest region of Nepal. Through this trip, he launched Mastering Mountains and raised roughly $10,000, seeding the Trust's grant fund. Then in 2019, Nick led a small expedition to explore the unclimbed granite faces of a mountain range on Stewart Island. While rock climbing there, the team logged a total of ten first ascents.
Nick experienced a series of significant health setbacks in 2019. He found himself reliant on crutches to get outside and plagued by debilitating fatigue and chronic pain. In a few short weeks, Nick lost years of upward progress. However, in assessing this flare-up, his medical team determined that he had been misdiagnosed with MS and rediagnosed him with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) and Fibromyalgia.
FND is a strikingly underresearched neurological condition that is frequently misdiagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis. Like MS, FND causes the signals between the brain and body to become distorted. Unlike MS, this distortion occurs for unknown reasons rather than from nerve damage.
Nick's diagnosis of FND, along with the significant lack of public awareness about the disorder, spurred Mastering Mountains to broaden its mission to include FND. Despite the diagnosis change, Nick remains firmly committed to Mastering Mountains' goal of helping people with MS. Nick hopes that he, along with the grant recipients, might model meaning-filled lives spent outdoors, regardless of whether a person has MS or FND.
Nick and his wife Rebekah live in Christchurch, where Nick is currently undergoing physical rehabilitation and works as a content creator. Nick loves to head into the Southern Alps and Port Hills as often as possible.
E tūtaki ana ngā kapua o te rangi, kei runga te Mangōroa e kōpae pū ana.
(The clouds in the sky gather, but above them extends the Milky Way)
— Māori whakataukī