This is the lovely area to the south of the Zwolferhorn summit near Salzburg. I was lucky enough to run some staff training events in perfect winter conditions. It was so good that I decided to start blogging again! We spent a day doing avalanche hazard evalution and then a couple of days on site-specific accreditation for some very experienced staff with excellent skiing skills.
The diary of a Mountain Guide and climbing coach
Friday, 18 January 2013
Monday, 27 August 2012
Ogwen Valley during an MIA course
I helped out on an MIA course earlier this week; a great opportunity to meet candidates and also work alongside some old friends. Later in the week I also delivered an AMI Trainees workshop. I do feel that its important for the technical staff to stay current with the qualifications; it certainly makes it easier for me to justify my position within Quality Assurance.
This year has been unbelievably busy for me, which is why I haven't been updating the blog regularly. I will probably just cancel my efforts to run one for Mountain Training and just maintain a personal blog in the future. Its so easy to output pictures from Flickr into this blog, so as this is not regarded as a useful part of the MT social networking policy I will just continue to use it for myself. Not sure if anybody reads it anyway!
This year has been unbelievably busy for me, which is why I haven't been updating the blog regularly. I will probably just cancel my efforts to run one for Mountain Training and just maintain a personal blog in the future. Its so easy to output pictures from Flickr into this blog, so as this is not regarded as a useful part of the MT social networking policy I will just continue to use it for myself. Not sure if anybody reads it anyway!
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Paddling at Holme Pierrepoint
The BCU kindly invited me to observe a pilot coach tutor training course at their headquarters in Holme Pierrepoint. It was a long overdue first visit to the whitewater course for me, though I was not tempted to get into a boat and sample it at closer quarters. The course gave a really useful insight into the priorities for coach training identified by the BCU, one of our closest cousins in the adventure sports qualifications world.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Eraserhead, Gogarth
This has been an excellent week for climbing as long as you picked sun or shade according to the temperature. Pete Johnson and I headed over to Gogarth on Wednesday 29th May with the Main Cliff as our objective, with low tide at 11.00. We arrived to find low water but our intended route, Dinosaur was still in the shade and looking decidedly damp. So we decided to tackle Eraserhead, a route that I previously climbed about 15 years ago. At that time it had been graded at E6 so it had seemed like a big challenge at the time. Nowadys the consensus is that E5 is a more fitting grade, albeit "distinctly uphill" throughout. And so it proved; we enjoyed a fantastic climb bathed in sunshine and reached the top in time to attend the BMC Cymru area meeting kindly hosted by the RSPB cafe at South Stack.
Saturday, 19 May 2012
British Mountain Guides open day
SteveMLT's photostream on Flickr.
This year's open day was attended by 6 prospective future Guides. I joined them for the afternoon's cragging (after a morning of tree felleing at home!) The weather was decidedly suspect so we drove over to Wales's "rain shadow" where sure enough the rock was dry and almost warm! My partner Rich and I swung leads on the classic E1, "Last Slip" a Joe Brown classic that was previously a real "sandbag" at HVS.
Friday, 18 May 2012
Mr Softy Wen Zawn
A panoramic shot giving a hint of the spectacular position of this modern classic "rock" climb - the clue is in the name! I've been wanting to climb this adventurous route since watching a team climb it during the BMC International Climbing Meet several years ago. Yet another amazing day out at Gogarth, interspersed between days in the office and dodgy showers inland. This particular route was the most enjoyable outing, though earlier battles included "Barbarossa" (E6+) and The Cruise (E5).
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
UIAA Mountaineering Commission meeting
The UIAA Mountaineering Commission met in Novi Sad, April 20-21st, hosted by the Serbian Mountaineering Federation. We made good prgress on several issues, notably the regulations for the Training Label, which takes the successful Training Standards to its logical format and introduces a pricing structure for a sustainable operation worldwide.
Another interesting development was clear support worldwide for protecting areas for adventure climbing, i.e.without bolt protection.
The traditional values working party is chaired by the celbrated mountaineer Doug Scott, and there are clear implications for training since the skills of leader placed protection can be taught, thereby empowering climbers to manage their own protection on climbs.
The possibility of setting up a "nut fund" to complement bolt funds was also discussed, as in some countries leader-placed equipment is hard to obtain.
Another interesting development was clear support worldwide for protecting areas for adventure climbing, i.e.without bolt protection.
The traditional values working party is chaired by the celbrated mountaineer Doug Scott, and there are clear implications for training since the skills of leader placed protection can be taught, thereby empowering climbers to manage their own protection on climbs.
The possibility of setting up a "nut fund" to complement bolt funds was also discussed, as in some countries leader-placed equipment is hard to obtain.
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