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.
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.
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