Its been a pretty hectic and busy week in Wales, with some time spent in the water and on the rock, in Pembrokeshire and Snowdonia. Busy is good I guess, but I’ve barely had a minute to stop and gather my thoughts! After rushing back from the snowy Brecon Beacons for the wedding of a friend at The Druidstone, I could have done with more than one day off!

The start of my busy week in Wales saw my first venture in to the sea, chilly it was but a bit of swell to spice things up. We were coasteering for the annual sign-off for Dragon Activity Guides, an important part of keeping current and sharing best practise, as well as checking everyone is competent to work taking groups Coasteering for the year ahead.

After drying off and warming up, Tuesday saw me spending the day climbing with Andy and Igor. This father and son team came out with me last year, and the good weather they had then continued – Pembrokeshire didn’t disappoint! We spent the day at Caerfai, with young Igor climbing pretty much all the routes there! He’s such a keen climber and it was great to see them again.

climbing at Caerfai

The busy week in Wales continued with me having a technical advisor day at TYF. I work for these guys on a freelance basis, but also run their staff sign-offs for the SPA holders to be able to work on the venues they use for rock climbing, that fall outside of the SPA remit. I was showing Tom and Dec the skills needed to work in this environment, something these old hands have seen many times before – but so they can then train their staff up for me to come back in and sign their new staff off…

Sea Cliff Rescue Skills

After a lovely couple of days on the sea-cliffs of Pembrokeshire, it was up to mountainous Snowdonia. I was out with Tracy and Vicki, looking at helping them gain more confidence on steep and rocky scrambles before they head out to the Alps later in the year. We had a couple of lovely dry (if chilly) days in the hills, and did two of the classic days out there. Day 1 saw us head up the North Ridge of Tryfan and continuing up Bristly Ridge, and day 2 was spent on Crib Goch and on to Snowdon itself. A top couple of days with lovely people.

Scrambling on Crib Goch

The long drive back down to Pembrokeshire for the final day on my busy week in Wales saw me doing something a little different. I was guiding 3 walkers who were taking part in an event called the Welsh 1000. They were part of a much larger event aiming to have teams walk the entire Welsh Coastal path in the same day. A long old way! The event is in its first year, and aims to raise money for Alzheimer’s UK, so hopefully will grow and grow – it was a lovely day with lovely people…

The Welsh 1000 walk in pembrokeshire

So, after a busy week in Wales – I am super psyched for 2 weeks climbing in France!!! 1 day off then an 1500km drive down to the Verdon Gorge!! Might not feel like too much of a break…

This last week I’ve been over in the Brecon Beacons helping run a Gold DofE training for a lovely school from Ockbrook. We had 2 teams of girls making the long journey over from near Derby. They were well equipped and well prepared (and pre-trained) thanks to Simon, the teacher and school DofE coordinator bringing them over. They arrived at Glyntawe on a sunny day but the weather wasn’t to stay like that!

A bit of a baptism of fire for the team, and they soon realised Gold DofE was a big step up from Silver! The winds on the first day were strong, but visibility good, and the team did loads of ascent with their big expedition sacks and we had a lovely journey re-capping the navigation and risk assessing skills they already knew, relating them to a more mountainous environment. Only 1 hat blew away in the wind so all in all a good day!

Day 1 of our Gold DofE training

Days 2 and 3 took us East over the Brecon Beacons, staying at some lovely secluded campsites and enjoying slightly less ascent than day 1, but over lots of great hills with fantastic scenery. The teams were honing their navigation skills and getting more independence from us, good preparation for their Gold DofE expedition where they’ll be on their own and remotely supervised.

Heading up Corn Du in a blizzard on the Gold DofE training

The last day of our Gold DofE training saw us heading over the highest peaks of the range, and a very wintery Corn Du and Pen Y Fan! A bit of a shock to the system to have blizzard conditions in South Wales in April! The girls coped amazingly and it gave them good opportunities to practise walking on bearings and other nav skills. They really all came together and put in a fantastic effort to stay positive in the conditions and complete their training. Well done girls and I look forward to seeing you for the qualifying expedition!

Gold DofE summit team photo!

Over the weekend before last we had an SPA training course running. The 4 candidates were super keen to learn and absorb all the information I could give them, despite the wet conditions on day 1! We stayed inside as long as was practically possible, at the Haverfordwest climbing wall, looking at group belaying and the use of an indoor wall, along with some of the problem solving aspects of the syllabus, but eventually ventured out into the rain at Newton Head.

Newton Head SPA training

A large part of the SPA training is looking at personal skill, and despite deciding not to lead due to the wet rock, the group practised a variety of different set-ups and personal abseils. The guys really were a credit to themselves with the weather and how much we were able to cover. We ended the day dry and had a brief look at the elements of a group set up for the next day…

On our second day of the SPA training, we had Bryn visiting. He’s the head of Mountain Training in Wales, and part of being a provider is that we have moderation visits ever so often, so the guys at Mountain Training can see what and how we are delivering and that its inline with the syllabus and to a high level. It was great to have him there to share ideas and pick his brain, and I’m pleased to say the visit was a positive one! We got a good report which is always nice to hear!

The day was spent looking at a plethora of group set ups, with top and bottom ropes and group abseils being explored, in a variety of different situations to really cement the learning process with the guys. We finished with a mini “mock assessment” so the candidates could get an idea of how an SPA assessment might run, before a de-brief and looking at the next steps… A fun weekend with really nice candidates, and I’m looking forward to the next SPA training!

SPA training group abseil skills

Sunny Easter Climbing Action!

Sunny Easter Climbing

It’s been an early Easter this year, but the weather these last few years seem to have the pattern of being good around this time, so we had some sunny Easter Climbing action! After the usual busy bank holiday, which didn’t really seem busy at all as we ventured to random esoteric crags that most visitors might not even know about, the sun really kicked off big time! Our Sunny Easter Climbing coincided with Courtney coming over from America to learn to trad lead climb…

Learning to Lead Climb in Pembrokeshire

Courtney was keen to learn as much as she could to take back to the US to compliment the styles and techniques she had learnt over there. She had been told that Pembrokeshire was the place to go to learn these skills, so this week we’ve been visiting the crags near St David’s. The sandstone crags in the area are a perfect learning ground, with plenty of friendly routes, with good gear and at a pleasant angle so you don’t get too tired… Plus there are some harder steeper routes to get the arms doing on, and some desperate thin and bold slab climbs! It really has it all…

Learning to Climb in Pembrokeshire

We had some super sunny Easter climbing weather, and the cliffs of Pembrokeshire were deserted as usual! Courtney’s enthusiasm and willingness to learn meant we packed loads in to each day and she did heaps of trad climbs and seconded some harder lines. We had long days to make the most of the awesome weather, and made sure we finished with an ice-cream at Gianni’s in St Davids. A top week with lovely company, and I think Courtney has caught the Pembrokeshire bug and will be back!

Courtney on her first trad lead climb!