Tuesday 25 May 2010

Munro-ing...



Well I've just returned from a weeks holiday in Scotland where my other 'arf Caroline has recently (within the last couple of years) got in to ticking off a few Munro's. Over the years I've got quite a few, probably over a hundred and mostly in winter through work but I am not a ticker of lists so quite frankly I havn't a clue how many. Well we got seven in the week mostly around Glen Sheil and I must admit it was quite novel having to get my head in the map and really navigate! I must say the new BMC Mountain map was great and when the going gets a little more technical the Harvey Superwalker makes life sooooo easy......specially with the 'ole mince pies not as sharp as they used to be 'cos it saves you reaching for the specs every 5 minutes. The weather was great for the first few days but then as the heat wave kicked in down south we got a warm muggy south westerly coming in of the coast so it was back to what you normally expect in the north west....Still, there were some good views as the picture taken on the South Clunie ridge above demostrates. However, the other picture could be anywhere in Scotland, and a prize for anyone who can recognise the cairn...

Mal


Monday 24 May 2010

British Mountain Guides Open Day

Mountain Leader Training works in close partnership with the British Mountain Guides - closer than many people imagine, as our training schemes are largely seperate. However, the reality is that MIA and MIC holders can attend shorter training programmes for the UK sections of the British Mountain Guides' scheme on account of "recognised prior learning". The British Mountain Guides sit on the MLT Board in a non-voting capacity, and MLT has a place on the BMG Training Committee in return. All of the Associations; BMG, AMI, BAIML and MLTA are currently working towards closer working relationships through a collaboration group set up last year.

This weekend I attended the Management Committee meeting in my observational capacity as Chief Officer, but the day before was a lot more fun. This involved showing up in my capacity as a keen climber to meet up with a group of young hopefuls on a Guides' Open Day. The afternoon involved divinding up into climbing teams and blitzing Llanberis Pass, followed by a bouldering session at the RAC boulders.

Saturday evening was also great fun. I was a guest at the launch party for the fantastic new Ogwen guidebook from the Climbers Club. This was also a celebration for the work of long-serving editor-in-chief Bob Moulton, after 35 years of service. So the forthcoming Tremadog guide will be the first book to be published by the next generation. During the ceremony I was lucky enough to meet the legendary John Disley, athlete extraordinaire and orienteering advocate. Now in his 80's, he was the man who persuaded the CCPR to purchase the Royal Hotel, now Plas y Brenin. (which sort of means the same thing - King's House)

Monday 17 May 2010

Another busy week.

Well, the past week has been pretty hectic to say the least, with travel to Portugal, Spain and Ireland. The European travel was an accreditation visit to a climbing club based in Lisbon, with a fantastic training and instructor training programme. Instructors on this scheme progress to senior status based on 9 years' experience of teaching within the club programme, as well as regular "trad" and "sport" climbing within this period. If they don't regularly attend club events and continue to climb at trad VS+ and Sport 6a they start moving back down the ladder of instructor status. The scheme was organised to a very high standard and I was most impressed by the energy and commitment of all involved: I watched people teaching on multi-pitch trad and Sports routes as well as delivering teaching sessions and lecturettes, all of which was subject to extensive but supportive peer review.  After the accreditation visit I was shown some of the Lisbon area's best new crags by two young club members, both of whom have been involved in the development of new climbs in the area up to 8a+ in standard. I was lucky enough to be in a position to bag the first British leads of a number of fantastic sports climbs in th 6c-7b region.


The Board meeting in Ireland was very interesting. We were hosted by the fantastic new national centre at Tollymore and apart from some fairly serious travel disruption due to flight cancellations and the knock-on effect on ferry services we had a highly successful series of meetings, resulting in some positive agreements and progress on various projects. On Sunday however I have to admit that I was too drained by the previous week to contemplate climbing in the damp and showery conditions so just tried out the new training panels at Tollymore then endulged in watching a "Welsh Connections" DVD - rather ironic, on reflection.

Thursday 13 May 2010

Weekend play


During the Bank Holiday weekend Rory and I went to the slate quarries, and I was excited about climbing on one of my favorite rock types, unfortunately the part I had underestimated was that my toes would not be use to it as I have been mainly in ski boots of fully rigid boots since October last year.

We started with Fresh Air (f6a and really nice - a route I helped with bolting a while ago), then moved onto my own route called 362 (named after the number of quarry men who died working there. Graded at f5c).
Following this we strolled up to the Zippy Level of Australia and Rory led the pumpy and sustained Ziplock (f7b) - I could give many reasons for not completing this route, but that would be boring!

On the Monday, Alun came over and we only had a few hours and climbed at the Gorbals Level, and started on Harri Back Llanrug (graded f6a), then put a rope on Toe be or not Toe be (graded f7b). Once again failed to do the last move, and managed to blame the pain in my toes.
We then headed over to finish off on Clash of the Titan (a 40m f6a).

This week I went out with Rich, and had a blast at Stand Up Paddle-boarding, and took a journey around the Little Orme. I was interested to see the Diamond area, and we took a lunch break on the boulders below and viewed the crag - its very impressive. That afternoon Tanya and I went up to Castle-Inn quarry do a couple of quick routes in the evening sun before heading home.

Bryn
National Development Officer MLTW

Thursday 6 May 2010

Workshop and moderation visit


Last week I travelled down to Mid Wales to Moderate a new MLT Wales Provider on his first Single Pitch Award training course. Discussions took place in the morning, then the group headed out to Craig yr Ogof, in Trawsfynydd. A nice little crag in a stunning location (well apart form the nuclear power station - but thats been decommissioned back in 1991, and should be safe for demolishing by 2098. Makes you question if the 26 years it was there producing power was worth it!).

Following the Moderation visit I went on to South Wales for a meeting with the MLTW Chair, to discuss the objectives for the future. That evening I met up with Mal Creasey from MLTE to discuss and plan the following days workshop.

On the Friday we ran a joint MLTW / MLTE Provider and staff workshop, based from the Storey Arms outdoor centre. We had a good turn out and discussed various issues throughout the morning and the afternoon was spent with Sunita Welch from the Brecon Beacons National Park.


A good few days.
Bryn

Sunday 2 May 2010

April news round up from the Chief Officer

As we prepare the papers for the AGM and Board meeting to be held at Tollymore in mid-May, a whole series of threads are gradually coming together. As always the day-to-day running of the office is a full-time job in its own right and I can only say that it will be a huge relief when the new Executive Officer starts in post in June. For those of you who are wondering who this is, I can reveal that it is John Cousins, who was my predecessor at MLT so it is fair to say that he already has a good understanding of the various organisations that constitute MLT! Currently our executive are so busy dealing with many issues as well as getting on with their own lives that there hasn't been a statement forthcoming about the appointment, but this appointment will make an enormous difference and will enable me to focus on core issues such as quality assurance at national and international levels, the design and implementation of the coaching scheme and the publishing house, which is after all our main income strand. In any other business these 3 areas would be regarded as a pretty ambitious work plan, so it's not as if I will now be putting my feet up!

The CWLA has been well received, MLTE and MLTW ran a joint providers' workshop on Friday, and registrations levels are very healthy. There are a lot of success stories to celebrate but we also face some real challenges as the reality is that we are still several different organisations all working towards a shared vision but with different infra-structures, largely built on out-dated technology. One example of recent development is the new website, which is database driven. The first indication of the power of this system is the searchable list of courses, which will be a great service for providers and students alike, but until all the home nations join into this database it will not achieve its full potential. I have every confidence that we will bring all this information together during 2010. However the biggest frustration is the cumbersome process involved in registrations; I spend an average of an hour per day dealing with registration enquiries! I can't even begin to express how much I would like to see a simple one-stop shop for all the home nation boards; there are undestandable reservations about a possible loss of autonomy but we need to resolve these and make the registration process work properly. Right now we can be sure that anybody who gets as far as completing the registration process is really committed - this probably adds to the kudos of the ML schemes but it doesn't make good business sense.

I'm currently recovering from an inflamed elbow; it's not the dreaded golfer's or tennis elbow but it was pretty bad by the end of last week, when I could neither bend nor straighten the arm. This was caused entirely by pulling too hard on small holds every evening and weekend! I saw the warning signs, but with a bunch of new routes to squeeze into the Tremadog guide, as well as photo shoots and a couple of days climbing at Montserrat, there were too many goodies around so I decided to pay the price later, when the rains arrived.

Early last week I took a morning out to join the BMC/RSPB crag inspection of Cilan Head on the Lleyn peninsular. This resulted in a new access agreement, and a good chance to document the whole coastline photographically (perhaps a future guide book project?) We were accompanied by a pod of dolphins, who proved very difficult to photograph.