Archive for category: Adventure Sports News

Senior Instructor, Mike Ryder from Action Centres Whitemoor Lake assessed BTEC Adventure Sports Students for their Award in Assisting in Basic Expedition Leadership. Mike who did his BTEC in Adventure Sports used his experience of leading teams of Adventure Instructors to help the students develop their leadership skills.

Mike reckons that by coming to Reaseheath and grabbing all the extra courses on offer he had a huge head start in his career, getting to Senior Instructor at least five years earlier than his peers. The Award in Assisting in Basic Expedition Leadership is just one of 11 extra Adventure Sports Coaching courses that Reaseheath run. This week alone saw a Climbing Wall Award Assessment for 6 students, all of whom passed and a British Canoe Union Level 2 Coaching course.

 

Leo Hoare  from Getafix Coaching is working with Reaseheath Adventure Sports Students and members of the public to deliver the British Canoe Union Level 2 Coach training. Richard Hathway, Lecture in Adventure Sports and BCU tutor is working alongside Leo and says “It’s a real privilege to have a top coach like Leo running our courses, not only do our students get the BCU Level 2 at over 40% off, but they have one of the best trainers in the UK. Just to get on this course they have to have done their BCU 3 Star and Level 1 coaching course. Luckily for our students these are a standard part of our practical courses. Getting these opportunities for our students is what sets our Reaseheath Adventure Sports courses apart.”

Leo’s commitment to paddling and coaching runs through his life from competing at an Olympic level to instructing kayaking at the National Outdoor Centre, Plas Y Brenin he brings that passion to his courses.

Even the wild Welsh winter in his home by the River Dee didn’t stop him getting to Reaseheath “Yes, the road was closed due to snow drifts”, calmly explained Leo, “so I abandoned the trailer of kayaks in a drift, as I know Reaseheath has several fleets of boats. Lucky I was in a 4 x 4 and proper tyres so I could still get through to run these course.”

‘Multi-pitch’  is often viewed as one of the most technical aspects of climbing, involving complex rope work and route finding. Multi-pitch climbing routes can take all day, even several days in the Alps. So learning this skill is a real landmark for climbers. Stance management, hanging belays and just stopping the ropes getting jammed are all essential thing to master.

At Reaseheath students who have completed the other climbing courses get to train in multi-pitch climbing. Do they go to a vast Welsh crag with a two hour walk in? Or maybe the north face of Ben Nevis, which is Alpine in scale? At the very least the high mountain crags of the Lakes?

No they go to Windgather, in the Peak District!

At 9m metres high this seems an odd place to develop the skills destined for the brutal North Faces in the alps, or remote Norwegian Fjords. Chris Tym, Mountaineering instructor explains.

“We developed a training programme we call ‘Micro-Pitching ©’. The hardest part of multi-pitch climbing is sorting out the rope work and managing your belay stances, particularly when you are on a hanging belay. Students have already done an Introduction to Outdoor Climbing, or Developing Outdoor Climbing Skills courses, depending on what experience they already have. They may have even done our Mental Training for Climbers workshop. So we can focus on the core  multi-pitch skills.”

“On a small crag like Windgather we can have a number of pairs or three’s climbing, setting up stances and being easily coached by myself. We can create all the problems they might realistically meet and guide them through the solutions. They learn more than if we worked on a large multi-pitch crag, where coaching would be very difficult and most of the day taken up with long pitches of climbing. Today each climbing team has had the equivalent of huge day out, but with constant on hand help.”

Legends of an ancient ghost, -11 Centregrade and 60mph winds didn’t put Adventure Sports students off their Winter Skills trip to the Cairngorms, Scotland.

Mick Keeling, International Expedition leader, said “Students learnt how to use ice axes and crampons, the snow had refrozen to a solid form we call ‘neve’, meaning a slip on steep ground could be very serious. Ice and steep snow fields meant the really used their new skills. We also looked at winter climbing skills such as bucket seat belays and snow bollards. We even built survival shelters in the snow.”

In the evening the group attended lectures on avalanche detection and rescue at Glenmore Lodge, the National Outdoor Training Centre. They also looked a winter navigation and how to choose routes with reduced avalanche risk.

Chris Tym, Mountaineering Instructor, who led the weeklong trip, took a team to Ben Machdui, the UK’s second highest summit.

“The summit is meant to be home to a giant grey spectre, called Fearlas Mor in Gaelic or the Big Grey Man in English. Climbers report a feeling of dread and fear in his presence” whispered Chris.

Laughing Chris stated, “I’ve worked around these mountains for years and I have never seen or felt anything. It’s a tough and remote peak, possibly the wildest place in the UK, I guess that might play on climbers minds?”

See http://www.biggreyman.co.uk/legend.html for more information on the Fearlas Mor!