Gwilym's Adventure Blog

 A weekend of two halves working on Dartmoor with Plymouth College students on a Silver DofE training expedition.  Yesterday was wet and windy with the Devonport leat fuller than I have seen it for some time. Today was a drier and less windy day that even produced some significant sunshine for the groups to enjoy.

 A great weekend on The Isle of Wight assessing 4 candidates for the Lowland Leader Award . With a mix of hilly bits, forests, coast paths and farmers fields we covered the full range of terrain. Big thanks to Natalie who was out observing as she works towards becoming a trainer and assessor of the scheme.  Well done all.

 What a wet two days! This weekend I have been directing a Lowland Leader Training course on The Quantock Hills (yesterday) and Steart Marshes (today). With Storm Alex passing through, staying dry was not an option so staying warm was the order of the day. We looked at all things navigation, some leadership and lots of environmental chat. It has been a very busy week of back to back Mountain Training courses.

After the group had an inside day with Mark yesterday, I was back with them at Chudleigh for the final day of a Rock Climbing Instructor Training course. The them was going down with both personal and group abseils looked at before revisiting some skills from day 1 to check their memories.  

Today, I was back at a very sunny (and less windy) Hound Tor for the first day of a Rock Climbing Instructor Training course with 4 candidates It was all about going up today with top ropes, bottom ropes and lead climbing. They will all be in the climbing wall tomorrow with Mark and then it looks like we will be having a going down day on Thurs!  

 Today for the second day of the Mountain Training Rock Climbing Instructor Assessment we were at a sunny but chilly Hound Tor for lots of different group sets up for both climbing and abseiling as well as a few more routes.

I was at The Quay Climbing Centre and the Chudleigh Rocks today directing the first day of a Mountain Training Rock Climbing Instructor Assessment. Chudleigh lived up to its reputation as an afternoon sun trap making it a very pleasant place to hang out and watch the candidates climb.