Technical Advice
As seems to be the trend, the weather this Spring has treated us well, enabling lots of fun work and personal adventures to be had! I was in at TYF training their RCI qualified staff in the skills needed to safely work at simple top access sea cliffs such as Porth Clais. This is a venue they use a lot but it’s outside the remit of their award. Showing them some new skills and then getting them to go away and practice them, followed by an assessment of their skills, is a way of signing off their technical competencies so they may work on these specific crags. A site specific sign off needs to be re-done every year, so we had some familiar faces, but lots of new ones too which is ace! We also took the less experienced staff and trained them up to be assists on sessions, able to kit the group up and run some fun warm up sessions. A great day of training in my role as Technical Advisor for TYF.
RCDI Provider Induction
I was then up in North Wales for the day, to attend the induction of the providers of the new Rock Climbing Development Instructor award. I was selected to be one of 4 providers for this in Wales – exciting times ahead! We were hosted by the Beacon Climbing Wall, and the team at Mountain Training took us through aspects of the syllabus and how we might run courses. Lots of ideas shared – cant wait to deliver one of these exciting new courses! Check out our RCDI page for more info! Rock Climbing Development Instructor…
New routes in North Pembs
Some personal climbing followed that, in GLORIOUS weather! A bit of South Pembs action on some classics, but then I went out to the rarely visited (shh don’t tell too many people about it!) St Davids Head with Ben and Rach. We popped to a crag with no routes on and each added a new line. Sun, perfect rock, Porpoises and other cool wildlife – it really is a gem out there! With the new-ish Climbers Club guidebooks you’re starting to see some more climbers out there, but a fraction of the number of elsewhere. It truly is a magical place.
Site Specific sign-offs for RCI’s
Back in at TYF then for the Coastal sign off assessments. A nice sunny eve was had and the team did well. I was in to inspect their PPE as well, a lot of companies don’t realise their obligation by law to have a competent person inspect their kit. That’s them all set up for the season now, so enjoy working on the coast team!
A couple of great visits personal climbing at Barcud followed – an ace spot to pop to for a quick hit of training, that always leaves the fingers and toes feeling pretty worked!
Rock Climbing Instructor assessment
Our latest RCI assessment had 4 good candidates on, who had all worked hard to prepare for it. Some really great indoor warm ups and games that I’ll definitely be stealing! Then a nice sunny couple of days on the crags at Wolfs Rocks and Newton Head. Solid performances and 4 passes – top effort from all!
Despite being a super busy period, I managed to fit Sasha in for a climb who got in touch with me at the last minute – always worth a try! We climbed all the classics at Porth Clais, not bad for her first time outdoors climbing!
BMC Climbing Festival & Mountain Training course
I had the pleasure of taking the youngsters from the Haverfordwest climbing team out for the day as part of the BMC Pembrokeshire Climbing Festival. I coach these guys and girls quite a bit indoors so it was ace to see them on real rock! For some of them it was their first time climbing outside, but as they’re all strong we headed to Barcud. A few of them are keen to progress in the future to coaching or instructing, so I was able to run it as a Mountain Training Rock Skills award. This gets them involved with MT and on the pathway towards other things for when they are older. It was so inspiring to watch them get on routes up to e5, and really working together to look after each other. Definitely some climbing stars of the future in the team there if they carry on as they are!
Almost into June now, that must mean its summer right?! A really busy time ahead and not long till my first exped of the year to Nepal – it’s going to fly by!
