Katie Moore George Fisher staff Stance Socks Hood to Trail

Katie worked in Fishers in 1989, when we asked her what it was like, she came back to us and said 'I will have to shake out the memory a bit - it was back when George was still running the shop!'

We got a bit excited and asked 'What dates did you start and finish, what did you do here at Fishers, who was here, what you were doing – i.e. at school? What you loved, what you learnt… any other fond memories and where you went when you left…'

Katie obliged and came back with the following peek into our history..

'the attached photo is from around about then… also did a bit of ski modelling, but my career was short lived -
you can probably see why!'

So I think it was probably summers of 89 & 90, though not 100% sure.

I was working ski seasons, and moved to the lakes for the summers. I worked in the climbing and boot department, which was hilarious because everyone assumed I was a climber and I knew very little about it (actually got my hair caught in the descender first time I went climbing, and had to be rescued, so a long way from being expert). I'm from Slough originally, and knew nothing about mountains or outdoor sports before my first ski season...

George Fisher still worked in the shop most days, and his wife Mary worked on Saturdays. Their daughter (Janice I think?) ran the bit I worked in. The general manager was David, I can't remember his surname...

Lisa Bergerud (Ferguson then) wasn't working in the shop yet, but we were good friends and part of the same social group.

Things I loved:

• being in Keswick
• the stock of ancient climbing and hiking boots in the store that had been there since the shop opened I'm pretty sure
• the letters in the window that people sent from all over the world, which was a thing at the time. Some just had very limited address details - like a hand drawn walking boot for the address
• great bunch of people working in the shop
• being asked crazy questions by customers (especially about whether things would be waterproof in torrential lake district downpours)

The shop was definitely pretty old fashioned at that time, with George resisting a lot of the moves to bring it into the modern outdoor world, but that was one of the nice things about it.

'Fishers used to display postcards in the window, sent from visitors from all over the World'

I went off back to do a winter season, then moved to France full time. I worked for several years as a ski instructor, then tour guide in South America before settling in Chamonix where I've been living for 18 years. I've been working in film/video production for the last 8 years, first with Seb Montaz (on films with Kilian Jornet, Flying Frenchies etc) and now independently under my own company.

Katie's latest production is with Stance Socks (now stocked in Fishers), she produced a great film about running called 'Hood to Trail.