Stunning week of climbing in Rodellar

I joined my friends from Lisbon for a climbing holiday for the first week of July. We had a brilliant time: the highlight was probably an ascent of the world-class "Fiesta de Los biceps" at Riglos, but other great memories included on-sight leads of nearly a dozen routes at grade 7a and above plus several other excellent pitches. Every evening was a dinner party with some of the nicest people you could ever hope to see. And the scenery is beautiful, the deep heart of Spain. 

Comes the Dervish

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Originally uploaded by SteveMLT

The unseasonally mild conditions have given a dry day at last. After a morning spent mending the garden greenhouse and shed, we set off for Tremadog but were diverted by the sight of the Dervish slab glistening in the winter sun. This wonderful pitch is one of the truly great slab routes: a perfect crack line splitting the great slab above Llanberis. Apart from the rather serious start the route is well-protected with an assortment of wires and cams.

Via Flickr:
Comes the Dervish: classic slate climbing on a sunny winter afternoon

Coaching Developments Update

The two advisory groups supporting Mountain Leader Training in developing a coaching system met earlier this week. The climbing coaching system is being developed by Mountain Leader Training (MLT) under the direction of their Technical Officer Steve Long. The two advisory groups supporting Steve in his work are a Coaching Management Group and a Coaching Technical Group.
The Management Group is made up of MLT Board members, and comprises John Cousins (MLT Executive Officer), Steve Long (MLT Technical Officer), Nick Colton (BMC Deputy CEO), Mike Pinder (BMC MLT Board Member) and Rosie Goolden (MCofS MLT Board Member). This group is concerned with the strategic and practical delivery of a sustainable and self-funding infrastructure for coaching qualifications.

The Technical Group comprises Steve Long, Jon Garside (BMC/MLTE Training Officer), Ian Dunn, (British Team Manager), Neil Gresham (Climbing Coach), Graeme Morrison (Chair, Mountain Leader Training Scotland), Angela Carlin (Mountaineering Ireland Coaching Development and Talent ID Officer), Dave Binney (Sport Scientist) and Martin Chester (Plas y Brenin Director of Training). Being comprised of coaches and coach trainers, this group's job is to design scheme syllabi & course materials and the methodology for training, assessment, accrediting prior learning and continued coach development.

A lot of research and development has taken place over the last 5 years. A National Source Group was established in late 2006 to investigate the possibilities of a coaching scheme, with their report published in autumn 2008.  Subsequently, the BMC sourced funding from Sport England for 2009 - 2013 to develop a coaching system.
Other sports and outside agencies such as Sports Coach UK have been consulted, and Steve Long attended the recent round of National Indoor Climbing Achievement Scheme workshops to gauge the needs of climbing walls.
The BMC Coaching Symposium demonstrated the very strong grass roots support for a coaching system; the  FUNdamentals of Climbing Workshops have played a part in identifying the demand for a particualar aspect of coach education (see also Scotland and Ireland) and  Plas y Brenin has been delivereing a Coaching Processes for Climbers workshop for a number of years. A central theme of that training is that coaches don't coach climbing, they coach people. Developing coaching behaviours will be an important theme of MLT's coaching system.
However, a wholly new set of national coaching awards cannot be developed without consulting widely and taking into account the views of the many different stakeholders, all of which takes time. The sometimes differing views of the three Mountaineering Councils can lead to a pause in progress whilst issues are explored.
At their recent meetings, the Management and Technical groups discussed progress to date, and reviewed MLT's strategic plan. The short term goal is finalising syllabi for assistant coach and coach qualifications by mid-September. Steve Long presented the first drafts of these syllabi to the Technical Group who thought them a very good first draft.
MLT are working to a tight deadline. Alongside finalising syllabi, their immediate task is reviewing the coaching system operational plan covering the period from now to March 2013.

A great day's climbing at Llandulas Cave

Llandulas Cave is becoming a great little venue for climbing, as the local community has cleaned up a lot of rubbish and loose rock. There are some excellent climbs now ranging from Grade 5 through to 7c, though the rock still demands some respect in places. Today Rocio Siemens and I worked our say through a couple of old classics at the righthand end of the crag, including the classic Ralarwdins (6b+) before moving along to a newly developed crag tucked away in the trees. Unfortunately I can't tell you where this is or we would have to shoot you. But suffice it to say that there are some really worthwhile new routes of about 20 metres in length - standout lines being a 6c groove near the righthand side - an outstanding pitch, and at the far left another nice route but it felt very strenuous and sustained for the grade, maybe I had got the wrong beta!

Nant Gwynant climbing

Nant Gwynant climbing, a set on Flickr.

A sunny day today, but with a cold breeze. I figured that Nant Gwynant, normally too still and therefore prone to midge attacks in summer, would be ideal, and so it proved. Facing southeast, the crags were warm and sheltered. We linked the start of Easy Riser to its neighbour, the popular Sunrise, to give a longer and more sustained pitch, taking in the best moves of both routes. Eloquence (E3) and the surprisingly fierce and sustained "Taylor-Made" (E1) provided good sport to follow.

Rock climbing season approaches

Andy Boorman leading Plumbine (E3 5c)

Although winter has returned to the summits, along the coast road spring is definitely in the air. On Sunday 13th a keen group of "golden oldies" met up at Pen Trwyn for some climbing while the sun was on the crag. We arrived well-wrapped but soon had to strip of some layers - away from the breeze it was surprisingly warm. We led a few classic "trad" lines like Plumbline and Klondyke and top-roped a few harder lines while we were at it. MLTW Board member Andy Boorman was on good form and also led the recently reinstated classic Quicksilver (7a).  Chris Parkin brought along a bucketful of metalware to dish out to various volunteers from the North Wales bolt fund team. Once the crag lost the sun it was a different story as the rock chilled instantly
Arriving home, I found that the clothes on the washing line had dried as well. Some days you can just pick and choose your season; this was one of them.

Chris Parkin leading Klondyke (E3 6a)

Lovely day for a walk

John Cousins (MLT Executive Officer) and myself had a day off while in Scotland so we went for a walk over to the Shelter Stone. We took a small rack and rope in case conditions the temperature dropped, but it was clear that the snow wasn't frozen as we strolled over the Cairngorm plateau, although crampons were desirable in places on the approach.

We soloed the first couple of pitches of Route Major up the snowy ramp, but at the step rightward onto a steeper ramp we found bare rock and grass. It was clearly climbable in these conditions and not very difficult but we decided that we would cause too much damage to the turf and therefore climbed carefully back down the ramp. So we continued up the gully, enjoying the rock architecture and then made good use of the good visibility to enjoy the walk back over the plateau, passing the usual cluster of snow holes in Coire Domhain.

John Cousins apporaching the summit of the Shelterstone crag

NICAS seminar at Manchester Climbing Centre

We had an excellent turnout for the latest NICAS seminar - 41 active providers. Photos from the day at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46624718@N03/sets/72157625493023174/