Wet Windy Rock Climbing & Winter Skills...in Wales

A final weeks work in Wales before the Scottish season begins for me. Monday to Friday with UCLan's Outdoor Leadership course on a rock climbing week working with Olly Sanders. We had mixed weather through the week but managed to duck and dive around the weather in and out of the wall - Trevor Quarry, Tremadog, Willy's crag and Pyb walls, Pot Hole Quarry and Plas Madoc wall - in all a good mix to get them started with some rock skills.

Over the weekend I have been running a winter skills course with Russ and Dave for Ryan Glass Mountaineering. The three of us have been out with a team from the Royal Veterinary College. On saturday we headed up Cnicht to give them a taste of navigation in windy and wet conditions (good training for real winter!).

Perfecting the dark art of walking on a bearing!?

Today we had a workshop based day skills covered included avalanche awareness/avoidance, route choice, use of axe and crampons, winter kit and rope work for winter mountaineering and walking. Even though it is NOT winter in Wales right now, we have looked at the sort of skills they would need to put into place to make the progression from summer hill walking to winter.