Winter Skills With the first snows of the year having fallen, and ahead of our Winter Skills courses this season, I wanted to write up some of my thoughts on what it takes to get out in the Winter mountains. To be as safe, efficient and competent a Winter mountaineer as possible requires the coming together of a vast amount of different skills. This article assumes you’re a competent Summer walker/mountaineer already – you can… Continue reading
Winter Skills Kit List Here’s what we send our clients as a Kit list before our Winter Skills courses: It is assumed as a hillwalker you already have much of the stuff in the Winter Skills kit list below.. It is possible to buy very specific fancy kit but much more reasonably priced kit will suffice, get in touch if you need any advice. I’m not going to recommend any specific brands as much of… Continue reading
I’ve just had 4 days in the Brecon Beacons assessing a Gold DofE exped for Ascot School. The group were well prepared and ready to depart at 8am in the morning, with clearing forecast for their first day over the eastern side of the Black Mountains. they left the beautiful Llanthony Priory with heavy rucksacks. They headed over Bal-Mawr and Twyn Talycefn, a route which I mostly followed – but couldn’t resist a detour up Lord Herefords Knob. Some great place… Continue reading
Navigation Skills Checklist Here’s a whistle stop tour of some of the vital Navigation Skills you may need in the hills, summer or winter, to be safe and have a great day! Be honest with yourself – Do you really know how to do the following?: Orientate the map? Understand what’s on the map? I.e.- refer to the map’s key! Take a bearing? Have an idea of how to plan a route? If the answer… Continue reading
SPA Training in Pembrokeshire This weekends Mountain Training SPA training in Pembrokeshire was a tale of two halfs weather wise… The 4 candidates were a group that had been working for TYF this season, a company that I act as Technical Advisor for, as well as freelance working with them too. Using a climbing wall is a small but important part of the SPA training, so we spent a while inside at the Haverfordwest climbing wall, looking… Continue reading
North Wales Last week I was able to get up to North Wales for some mountain action. I was working for JBMountainSkills for a few days, so decided to spend a couple of days getting some personal stuff done too.. On the Monday Joey and I took a super windy, soggy, cold run up the North Ridge of Crib Goch, a North Wales classic scramble, unsurprisingly in the conditions, we had it to ourselves! After the ridge we dropped back down… Continue reading
SPA assessment in Pembrokeshire This weekend I’ve been running an SPA assessment, a climbing instructor award overseen by Mountain Training. I run these awards down in Pembrokeshire, one of THE best areas (in the world?!) for climbing… My candidates on this weekends SPA assessment were Dylan and Damien. Our first day was spent at Newton Head, where the rain held off till just as we were getting back to the cars (thanks rain!), though we did… Continue reading
This week I’ve been working for Birdgwater College, on an outdoor activity week with their MOD engineering apprentices. Working with a great bunch of instructors co-ordinated by Gwilym from Wet and High Adventures. It’s great to get down to Dartmoor for some hill action, and this last week was my first one down there where I didn’t need to put a waterproof on all week! Bridgwater College sent us 30 apprentices, who were hear mainly to bond in… Continue reading
With Pembrokeshire quieter now summer has passed, we have the cliffs and sea almost to ourselves, so we had a lovely week Climbing and Coasteering. We started the week with a small group of managers from Mears New Homes. They had been brought to us by Andy, of Fresh Tracks Consulting. Their ongoing development was the focus of the day, and Coasteering was the challenge. Big swell and low tide at St Nons, the group pushed their comfort limits, and we linked… Continue reading
Pembrokeshire new routes With the bird bans recently lifted, on my day off I was desperate to do some new routes and explore some unclimbed sections of cliffs that are off limits for much of the summer. I’d done handful of new routes at Pointz Castle last year, and new there was scope for loads more. Persuading Nik to come along with the temptation of some new routes we headed out to the crag, not far from the busy… Continue reading
