Its been a pretty hectic week here in Pembrokehire, with a couple of days giving technical advice, a trip to London to meet the team I’m taking to the Indian Himalaya in the summer, and lots of general admin! I started out on Monday visiting Newgale Lodge, previously a dedicated outdoor activity centre, now its owned by The Development Company, who as the name suggests run management training, but they also have an excellent variety of accommodation options for groups staying there, plus a High Ropes course. I was there in my role as Technical Advisor to inspect the kit that is used on the course, to ensure it was safe to use, but also familiarise Mike with operating the course so he can take his clients on it. We had Sian with us volunteering to try out the course, climb and fling herself off stuff for us! Mike refreshed his belaying and kit use knowledge, plus set up an abseil and looked after Sian as she tried out the course. It is hoped that more local centres might go and use this excellent facility so it gets the use it deserves, so I’m running another day for the guys next month to assess other instructors to use the course.
Technical Advice day at Newgale Lodge, Sian leaping on the trapeze…
A long journey in torrential rain the whole length of the M4 to meet they lads from the school in London (I use the term London for anywhere at the opposite end of the Motorway to us…) that I am going to India with in July and August. It was an opportunity to get to know each other and give them any kit, training or preparation advice they might have. They seem like a nice lively bunch so I’m sure it’ll be a great trip! We will be trekking for 2 weeks in the Himalaya, up to around 5000m.
Another Technical Advice day saw me at TYF, a renowned Outdoor Activity centre in St David’s. They had a bunch of SPA qualified staff that needed signing off to work outside of the SPA remit on the sea-cliff crags the centre uses with their school groups and clients on a weekly basis. The additional skills needed are knowing how to hoist a stuck person up the cliff, how to rescue an injured person, and how to get themselves safely up and down the crag. The skills are fairly technical, with good scope for badly messing things up if done wrong, so they had had a couple of days of training with their more experienced guides, who I had trained last month.
Technical Advice day in Pembrokeshire with TYF
Technical Advice day in Pembrokeshire with TYF
We had an excellent day visiting Porth Clais and Porth y Fynnon, the guys showed me that they have a good knowledge and understanding of the skills needed to keep their groups safe in the sea-cliff environment. They will undergo regular peer to peer observations and yearly sign-offs to keep current, safe and competent. And also hopefully make them safer , more knowledgeable climbers!
The SPA’s from TYF performing rescues on each other..