For 18 years now the BMC have been running a Student Safety & Best Practice seminar at Plas y Brenin. I don't know why but it had never occured to me to work on it before. Anyway, after a conversation with Jon Garside a few months ago and some late drop outs, I joined about 90 students and 30 volunteer instructors at he National Mountain Centre.
The weather could have been a lot better but, then again, I've been out in far worse. I headed out to a local outcrop called the Ricks & Racks with another volunteer and 8 of the students. It really wasn't climbing weather and the rock was
very slippery. However, the aim of the session was to look at general security around a crag, belay building for personal and group use, pros and cons of various bits of gear and all that other good stuff. So, although we climbed not at all, hopefully lots was learned.
After about 5 hours, it was decided we had had all the fun we coud take and would return to PyB. This was excellent timing as coffee and cakes were freely available and very tasty. This provided the opportunity to review the session a bit then we went to the vacant lecture room to look at belay devices in more detail.
On the social side, I saw a couple of old friends from long ago. We used to work together in a centre near Buxton and it was great to catch up a bit. Hopefully, it won't be as long till the next time we meet up.
Talking of next times, would I do it again? Absolutely. Having come through a university climbing club myself, I think these seminars are a great idea, lots of fun and really useful.
