Peak Mountaineering: Introductory Climbing Course – A Review

Introduction

As mentioned in my previous post I wanted to look at participating in an introductory climbing course. The reason is to improve my basic rope skills and climbing skills to help aid in my mountaineering course next February and, going forward, hopefully in the Alps. I chose Peak Mountaineering due to online reviews.

I've booked a climbing course :-)

As preparation for my Winter Mountaineering course in February next year I have decided to sign up for an introductory climbing course with a company called Peak Mountaineering. To quote Peak Mountaineering their course is as follows:

“Peak Mountaineering's Introductory Rock Climbing Course is our most popular Peak District climbing course.  Two full days gives plenty of time to try this exciting sport as well as learning some of the essential skills.  We'll also use a variety of locations to give you a real taste of the countries first national park.

In the safe hands of Peak Mountaineering's highly experienced instructor team we'll help you gain the most from your time in a supportive and friendly environment.

Our Introductory Rock Climbing Course suits those new to climbing but it's also a very popular choice for indoor climbers who want to learn about climbing outside.  We'll provide the equipment.  We'll provide world class venues and we'll provide an expert to show you the ropes.  All you need is enthusiasm, lunch and a sense of adventure.  The only trouble is.....climb with us for two days and you'll be desperate for more!”

I really like the sound of the course and the people running it. I want to brush up on rope work and the other basics so that when I go for my course in February and hopefully on to the Alps in the future that I don't need any instruction in basic rope work. That would allow for more focus on tuition in more relevant techniques and skills. This was some advice given to me by Paul Warnock at Plas Y Brenin and I intend to follow it.

The course is £140 for two days with a maximum guide to client ratio of 1:8. My contact with Paul Lewis, the company founder, has been appropriate and quick. I've explained my aims from the course and my restriction, with which Paul was more than happy to work with me. Looking at online reviews the tuition seems to be of a high standard. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

The Peak Mountaineering web address: http://www.peakmountaineering.com/

Well I've gone and done it now....... Again!

I have signed up for another mountaineering trip, this time with Moran Mountaineering, in Scotland. The company was started up and is run by Martin Moran, mountain guide and Author. I read Martin's biography, Higher Ground, last year, which was very inspiring. His journey to becoming a mountain guide, highlighted in his biography, is very interesting with quite surprising origins. I can highly recommend reading Martin's biography with signed copies available from Martin himself on his website (www.moran-mountain.co.uk). You can also purchase his books; The 4000 Peaks of the Alps and The Munros in Winter.

Training will be beginning in vain now. Long walks with a weighted pack (off out early tomorrow morning), High Intensity Interval Training, weight training and trail runs to make sure I am fit enough for February 2017. I was not as fit as I would have liked when I went to Wales in February this year. I am fitter now than I was then, but want to turn up the wick and make sure I can enjoy myself and learn a great deal.

I will write a review after the trip. I have just had a break from the blog for a few months to concentrate on other things. But hopefully I can use writing on here to provide some motivation, along with having paid my deposit already.

www.moran-mountain.co.uk

Welsh Winter Mountaineering: A few photographs

Plas Y Brenin: Welsh Winter Mountaineering (A Course Review)

Introduction

 

Plas Y Brenin is an outdoor sports education facility with quit a reputation for excellence. Their main site is in the small village of Capel Curig in North Wales right in the Snowdonia National Park. As mentioned in December 2015, I had signed up for a Welsh Winter Mountaineering course with them. The only thing missing was the snow, but some did arrive, and we found more. I mention this separately from my review as this was the only part of the course with much to desire and out of the hands of the Plas Y Brenin team.

 

 

Time for change

 

Possibly not quite as dramatic as it may sound, but I have decided I am too sedentary and started on a road to improved fitness. Or, possibly more accurate, a trail to improved fitness. From 1991 for almost twenty years I studied and trained in the martial art of Taekwondo, including 3-4 workouts at the gym every week. I was as fit as the proverbial ‘butchers dog’. After the ‘almost twenty years’ I had to give it up due to other priorities having, by then, reached the grade of 5th Dan Master. Although I have done a fair amount of walking since my accident back in 2010, I haven’t been as fit as I had liked. I have found the hills harder work than I should have. So several months ago I began a plan to improve my hill fitness.

 

King Kong Climbing Centre: Loads of fun for all Apes

While having a conversation with an experienced climber in Needle Sports of Keswick a few weeks ago, particularly with respect to my right arms limitations (which are constantly improving, but may have a limit) I was advised to go to a climbing wall. This would allow for a safe environment where I could work with an instructor and find my current limitations. I’ve had some climbing experience, but things have changed considerably since then.

 

 

Wilderness Gully East: Grade 2 Scramble Number 2 in the bag.

It may only be around 250 feet from bottom to top, but Wilderness Gully East has the most fun packed into such a small space I have yet come across scrambling. If you look around on the Internet you will find it referred to as a classic, I have to totally agree. It is easily on par with Wildboar Clough, if considerably smaller.

 

 

Wildboar Clough: My First Grade 2 Scramble

Situated right along Torside Reservoir in the Peak District, Wildboar Clough is a popular Grade 2 scramble. I’ve heard it can be quite dangerous in the wet, so waited for an extended dry period before giving it a try. The descriptions I’m giving are of how tackled the crux sections, routes and techniques I chose to use. If you have limited experience I would advise going on a course. I’ve had some rock climbing experience and this comes in handy on tougher sections. Smart people walk away from something they don’t think they can do, especially when serious injury would be the result.

 

 

Crowden Clough, the best so far!

I own the Cicerone book 'Scramble in the Dark Peak' and have been looking at the picture on the front of the book on a regular basis. I eventually looked in the front covers of the book and found it was part of Crowden Clough. Not found in the Crowden area of Woodhead, but in fact sitting between Grindsbrook Clough and The Cloughs in Edale. The picture is of a particularly challenging section of Crowden Clough found near its top. And I knew I had to give it a crack. It seemed like an appropriate progressive step from Wilderness Gully West that I did last week. So last Saturday, after finishing a night shift at work, I went straight to Edale with my gear in the car.

Winter Has Gone, Spring 2015 is here.

It looks like we are well into Spring with the snow in the past....maybe. But we have fantastic walking weather at the moment. And typical, I have a bad cold that seems to be catching up with a lot of people. I'm off to the Lake District in three weeks, so as my cold is clearing I can get out for some exercise this week. But while I'm in the house, I've dug out my photographs from the winter and found some photographs of a crampon practise sessions I had on 4th February this year.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

A long, almost eternal wait, has come to an end.

I’ve grown up with Pink Floyd pretty much most of my life. From being put to sleep by Wish You Were Here as a small child, to the rebellion that is The Wall, to being, as a teenager, overcome with surprise when I found they had released Momentary Lapse of Reason while on holiday in the Cotswolds. Then along came Division Bell, its echo ringing for twenty one years before finally being brought to an end by an Endless River.

Many people make the statement that they believe that they were born too late. This album makes me feel like I was born 20 years too late. By the time I realised how much their music means to me, Pink Floyd were already imploding. By the time I really started to appreciate almost two decades of their work, they had already split up. And just as I began to appreciate those first steps, ‘Arnold Lane’, ‘See Emily Play’, and the rest..........they stopped.

 

 

 

 

Fast forward 21 years and they are back. There are snippets of their past in here. David Gilmour’s bluesy, almost mournful at times, guitar licks dotted throughout. There are continued experiments with new and creative musical landscapes. It wouldn’t be Pink Floyd without them. But if you are expecting David Gilmour’s distinctly raw vocals, you may be in for a bit of a disappointment. Apart from the one track, they really don’t make much of an appearance, my one and only disappointment about the album.

 

I should feel happy about this album’s long, long, long awaited release. And in most ways I am. But one thing spoils it for me, it’s pretty clear this is Pink Floyd’s swan song. And so the twenty years too late point comes up. I don’t know how much longer I will live, twenty, thirty more years, more or less. But one thing’s for sure, it’s sad knowing there may be no more releases like this. I will, at least, have their back catalogue to listen to. It just won’t be the same.

 

So I think it is important to appreciate now, enjoy what you have, it doesn’t last forever.

Name the boots!

Can anyone guess the make and maybe model of the boots in the photograph? I've had them quite a while and may come as a surprise to people. I may have mentioned them somewhere in my blog in the past.

When is a Wainwright or any Summit Truely Bagged?

I’m a little confused over what people consider bagging a Wainwright. For example, there exists in the Himalaya a ridge of summits called the Gasherbrum (translates to ‘Beautiful Mountain’ in Balti) massif. This massif is made of 7 peaks. If I climb the first peak Gasherbrum I and cross the connecting ridges between them all, summiting each peak, have I bagged them all? Or should I climb each peak individually. The worlds mountaineers seem to think so. Gasherbrum V and Gasherbrum VI remain unclimbed.

 

So transposing this to the bagging of Wainwrights, if I summit Green Gable and then walk across to Great Gable, how many Wainwrights have I bagged? I’ll be honest, I’m not out to bag all the Wainwrights, it’s a challenge I chose to ignore. I am happy to climb the interesting ones and look for nice views and meet nice people. I’m just interested in opinions on this as I find it intriguing. I certainly wont be judging peoples opinions. Please comment.

An Inspired Read

If you have read 'Touching the Void', you will know it is the grim recount of Joe Simpson's survival of an accident that almost killed him. Joe broke his leg on the descent from Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes and was initially helped down by his climbing partner Simon Yates. But as Simon lowered Joe, near the bottom of the mountain, Joe found himself suspended in fresh air after being lowered over a overhang. Unable to climb back up the rope, and with Simon in a poor belay position, Simon took the decision to cut Joe free.

A Neon Fly and a Magnum

Okay, maybe not a walking subject, but it was a brilliant start to my holiday. I've been listening to Magnum since my late teens, around 25 years. For quite a long time I've planned to go and see them at the Holmfirth Picturedrome for about 5 years. Unfortunately a little car accident got in the way. Finally, last week I went to see them.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

And

Season's Greetings

Marc

Rain can be a good thing sometimes!

While in the Lake District this week I have had a constant view of Skiddaw from the campsite on which I was staying. On Tuesday, it rained all day, what a surprise. But in the evening the rain clouds created a fantastic opportunity and I was able to take the following photograph.

So rain can be a good thing, sometimes anyway. Some walks and kit reviews to follow over the next week or so.

Sheep Not so Baaarmy, Sculptures Hewen From Rock

While I was on the wander around Langsett and The Porter River I spotted a strange scene. Looking down from a high path I saw what looked like a sheep admiring her handy work.