World's End and Craig Y Tonnau 24th & 25th April 08

Just back from two days with the guys from ProAdventure in Llangollen learning a few techniques for setting up single pitch climbs.

Day one saw us heading out to the limestone crags at 'World's End'. A fabulous place with dozens of routes but, more importantly, a good number of natural anchors to learn setting the rigs to climb.



Here we set a couple of routes to allow bottom rope climbs on simple HVD and S grades.



For day two the weather turned very wet so we head off to Craig Y Tonnau. A crag with strange rippled, igneous rock where grip is not a problem in the wet. The only problem here was the lack of natural anchors and the need to use gear to set our rigs.



We set two top rope routes here including a rig using a single rope demonstrating different techniques that can lead to multi pitch climbing. After setting another couple of routes (we forgot the guide book so didn’t know the grades) we spent the afternoon climbing the face.

Next steps...

1. Get the credit card out for some rope
2. Find a willing volunteer to come climbing.... anybody?

Richard S

Great Gable, via the Climbers Traverse, 24th April 2008

Today saw John D and Davie on Great Gable in poor visibility and low cloud.

Finding the climber's traverse from Sty Head Tarn is just as testing as the books say, but a little experimentation saw us on our way.



The poor visibility on the tops meant that we didn't actually see the Needle this time and we did the circular route around the back of Great Gable, taking the Kirk Fell path to reach the top.




A good day out until John had a small mishap on the descent, doing an amazing face plant into the sharpest rock he could find. Some hill first aid saw our hero safely on his way but stitches will probably be required - I did offer to put some in for him in situ, but he bravely said he would prefer to keep walking.



Did he fall or was he pushed?

Who knows....

Haystacks, Lake District. 17th April 2008

Today saw Davie doing a recce of Haystacks and the surrounding area, prior to our camping trip and 'expedition'.

Weather was excellent although a cold front was blowing in from the east bringing snow. Fortunately I managed to see it in my rear view mirror as I left.



The views from Haystacks were fantastic and it's easy to see why it was Wainwright's favourite mountain. I've often seen it from the Pillar side of the valley but today was my first visit to that area.



The views back across the valley were outstanding too and it was nice to see Pillar from a different aspect. There were great view across to the Gables and Sca Fell Pike was peeping throught the gap between Kirk Fell and Great Gable.



It would have been easy to spend a few hours up there and it should be a great place to wild camp - we might need to be a bit clever with tent placement though.

No way could this be called a 'quality mountain day' in ML terms, but still a great day out.

Ill Crag, Lake District. 15th April 2008

Decided on a bit of a leg stretch and headed over to the Lakes. Weather was glorious here in Yorkshire, but as is so often the case, once I got to Penrith.....

Weather was changeable on the way up to Esk Hause and I decided to have a quick recce down to Angle Tarn at the foot of Bow Fell to look at potential campsites for the future.

There was a lot of snow lying about on the northern slopes and a cold wind was blowing from the north threatening a blast of more snow.

Not a day for hanging about.

Retraced my steps back to Esk Hause and followed on up to the base of Great End before carrying onto to Ill Crag, north east from Sca Fell Pike and listed in Wainwrights tops.

In all the times I've been up Sca Fell Pike I've never taken the detour to take in the views from Ill Crag. Looking over the edge at the shear drops, I know why.

The weather was closing in on Sca Fell Pike and after a photo session I beat a hasty retreat across the snowy plateau in search of some poor sucker to take a picture.

In the meantime, someone was doing it in style on top of Great End, landing a helicopter to take their snaps... bloody snobs!

Confirmed the scramble route up to Sca Fell Pike that I've mentioned before and it looks great - one for the summer perhaps.

Going to try and get back over tomorrow and have a crack at the Fairfield Horseshoe in the Helvellyn area.

Post to follow.

ML Training, Cairngorms. 31st March - 5th April 2008

Well, a great week was had by all.

There were times where the weather was more like a winter ML, but in all fairness it would be in conditions like these that the tools and techniques would have to be used so it was great experience.

Course agenda went like this:

Day 1 Hill day: personal navigation skills, timing, pacing, group skills, navigation, environmental issues. Weather talk. Ropework session, knots etc.







Day 2 Mountain day - group management, route choice, safeguarding group on awkward terrain. River crossings. Environmental issues. Party leadership issues.



Day 3 Security on steep ground, deployment of rope in emergency situations. Emergency procedures, mountain rescue. Pack for expedition.

Day 4 Depart for expedition, looking at navigation, group management, party leadership, environmental issues. Night navigation exercise. Camping.

Day 5 Return from expedition. Session on consolidation period between training and assessment.

Day 6 Mountain day, reviewing technical steep ground procedures. Group debrief, individual debriefs.






... and highlights? The night navigation exercise, with Ginger beasting us over the peat hags until the 'wee small hours' of the morning. and the severe ground days, especially Saturday, with Pete making the sessions very lifelike.


Many thanks to Pete Hill for a very professional and informed approach and a huge thanks to 'Ginger' Lee for his friendship, support and inspiration over the week.




Assessment already booked for September... so the training begins in earnest!