Going Round in Circles

No, not a navigation problem. The sudden demise of the exceptional winter conditions in Wales and the Lakes rather scuppered my plans for the last few weeks. The fact that the snow was replaced by rather damp conditions didn’t offer any decent alternatives either. When we do get a sunny day (today for instance) I’m stuck in the office.

Still, the indoor scene is keeping me active in unexpected ways. Last week I kicked off a four week introductory course at Awesome. We take novices and build their skills from an introduction to climbing through, hopefully, to their first leads.

The week before, I had a call from Andy Say to see if I would be willing to take part in a BMC training film about the CWLA award. So, the day after kicking off the four week introductory course, I was back at Awesome filming with the BMC. The gist of the filming was showing how the CWLA award is aimed at giving you the skills to introduce climbers to leading in a safe and structured way. Thursday I am back at the same wall carrying on that very process.

Life’s little circles…….

Winter Wonderland

Atop Striding Edge

A little late with the blog and the photos will be even later, but what a fantastic day Sunday was. Allan and I were back in the Lakes, Glenridding this time. Breakfast in Kilners Cybercafe is to be recommended. Could do to open a bit earlier but we were still off up the hill by 10 o’clock. At £7:50 a day, the pay and display is less welcoming. However, out of season, it’s OK to park on the adjacent coach loop for free.

The plan was to do the Helvellyn horseshoe scramble with a slight variation. We extended the normal plods up and down to include Catsycam and Birkhouse moor and also did it anti-clockwise. This makes a nice 8 mile trip with 3 Wainwright’s bagged for the day. The snow line extended all the way down to the shores of Ullswater and we encountered a fair few cars slipping and sliding their way up to the ski club hut. It looked like it was going to be a busy day on the Raise ski tow. Surprisingly, there weren’t that many walkers and climbers about given the brilliant conditions.

Allan ticks Wainwright No 30

Although Allan has done winter walking before, he has never actually ‘tooled up’ before. This was to be his first experience of technical winter walking using ice axe and crampons. As he does not intend to graduate to winter climbing as such, he was reluctant to invest in B2 / B3 footwear and technical crampons. I was equally reluctant to take him on the edges in summer footwear. We could both see the validity of each others view and needed to find an acceptable solution.

The solution was to borrow a suitable axe off a friend and Allan popped off to Hathersage and invested in a pair of Kahtoola MicroSpikes. These were about 10% of the cost of a B2/C2 combination and transformed his bendy boots into useful footwear. Apart from cutting a couple of notches for added security on the steep bit of Swirral, they provided perfectly adequate traction for the whole trip and didn’t require the usual moving in crampons learning curve. In fact, on the final part of the descent where my 12 points became a bit of a liability, I was a bit envious of his effortless progress!

So, I managed two cooked breakfasts, three Wainwright’s, two classic ridges, found a nice solution for introducing people to winter walking economically and experienced virtually alpine scenery. Not bad for a Sunday stroll.

Short Night, Cold Toes!

Last night, I took a friend out for a bit of rock climbing by head-torch. I introduced him to rock climbing a couple of years ago but now he lives 'down south'. Anyway, work has brought him back to the Peak, mid week at least. Having read some of the mountaineering epics, he fancied getting a taste for climbing in the dark and cold.

Scot by Lamplight

We headed up to Windgather. A clear night gave us dry rock but falling temperatures. The air temp was about 1 degree, but the windchill soon had us with cold toes & numb fingers. As the temperature dropped, so did the illumination levels. The cold took out my rechargeable batteries in no time (note, use dry cells in winter).

Anyway, one route was more than enough for him to get his 'taste', so we headed off down the valley to a nice warm pub.

Long Day, Big Grin

Yesterday found me at Redpoint climbing centre in Birmingham. Bit off the beaten track for me but that was where my CWLA assessment was booked, so there I was. Unfortunately, the day's other candidate had been forced to drop out. So that left me one on one with my assessor, Joby, for about 6 hours.

Nail biting is how I would describe the experience. Kind of like doing three or four driving tests in a row but having to wait right till the bitter end to see if you had failed the first one!

Anyway, it all went well. So thanks to Joby, Martin the Redpoint leaper and Beth, Tash and Holly, my three willing students for the day.

Right, who wants to learn to lead then?

Seven Summits

Quality mountain days is a much used phrase in mountain leader circles. You have to log them to get your ML and lead them to get on the MIA. They have to be long days up high, with an element of adventure.

Glaramara Summit

So yesterday saw myself and Allan heading up Glaramara on our 'Seven Summits' day. He wants to bag all the Wainwrights and I need people who want to push the mountaineering boat out a bit. The promise of trying for 7 Wainwrights in 7 hours, including the two highest ones and the classic Broad Stand scramble on the way had him hooked. Glossing over the fact that at the end of the 7 hours we would be at the top of England, 5 miles from the car and on top of a crag helped.

Well we made it, nearly. 5 summits over 900m and 2 more around the 780 mark in just over 7 hours. Had Broad Stand been dry we would have made it. As it was it was wet, very cold and just a bit epic, it took a little longer.

The 'Precarious Pinnacle', Lord's Rake

As for the descent down Lord's Rake followed by a race to get as far back down the corridor route as we could before dark. Well, that became a quality mountain night!

Coaching Progression

Obviously, when you work part time at a climbing wall, unlimited free access is a bonus. Better still though is seeing some of your students really progress.

A couple of weeks ago I was working with some of the 'Rock Gods'. These are kids who just come to the club sessions, maybe once a week or less for two hours. They all lead at least 6b and and boulder at V5 or more. It really makes you work hard to to try and keep up with them!

At a more relaxing level, I was working this week with a brother and sister doing some of their early leads. I taught them to tie knots about a year ago and now I'm helping them work as a team leading 5's on the top wall.

It's all very satisfying.

Day of the Long Drops

After many months of waiting, my CWLA training session finally arrived. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Andy, an MLTA friend, was also on the course. We were also joined by John from Harrogate way and the whole show took place at the Foundry under Danny Brown.

It was all good fun and various things were covered such as games to improve belaying and clipping skills. A top rope 'baby bouncer' for the faint of heart was also tried but the real fun was of course the 'rippers'. Take a dose of slack, a bit of altitude and Geronimo.

Hopefully, the assessment in a couple of months will be equally stimulating then I can get down to the serious business of looking for clients. Watch this space.