Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Back with my normal students this weekend supervising a 55mile Ten Tors Team on their final practice before the main event in 2 weeks time. After 5 days on the moor, I am almost relieved about the pending office day tomorrow before I am back out from Wednesday onwards

Still working with the Bridgwater College students, today we headed to the Dewerstone with the aim of learning how to set up top ropes and manage a session. During the day all the students had a goo at setting up, climbing, belaying and coiling ropes.

Today, the Bridgwater College students and I headed out into the mist for a day of Navigation training. The morning offered us less than 100m of visibility at time but this cleared to a sunny (if a little humid) afternoon.

Today I was out working with the FdSc Public Services students at Hound Tor. Warm sun and dry rock. We couldn't have asked for more.

Since Friday night I have been flitting back and forth between a Bronze group walking in south Devon and a Silver group paddling on the Exe. All did well and had great weather for it.

Back out with the FdSc students today for some navigation and team work on Exmoor. Amazing weather (and toasted teacakes) during the day.

Today I was working with Foundation Degree students from Bridgwater College at the Activity Centre in Cannington. The aim was to encourage team and leadership skills before we tackle some more adventurous activities over the next 5 weeks.

Even though I had promised the students that the weather would improve during the expedition (which it did in my eyes) it was not as sunny as they expected. However all 4 of the assessment team that started on Friday sucessfully completed the walk and arrived in Princetown for an Ice Cream. Well done all round.

Today the rain had eased but it was still windy. This was quite effective at drying out the students.

Day 2 of the D of E expedition was high wind, torrential rain and general misery. However, the groups carried on and with a few route alterations got through the day. Tomorrow will hopefully be better. The camera stayed in the bag today so sorry but no pics

Out on Dartmoor with Gold D of E groups today. One assessment and one practice group. Weather not too bad but forecast for tomorrow is pretty vile so lets see what happens. Managed to get 35km in today moving round the moor checking on groups.

The last two days have been spent on beaches in both North and South Cornwall assessing Beach Lifeguards. Considering the water temp was around 7 degrees they were all either mad or really needed the qualification.

Back out on the moor again today with Vicky and the weather had conveniently closed in so we could look at compass use, handrailing, attack points and other poor weather navigation stratagies.

Today was my first day with Vicky who is my new client on the long term instructor development course . We spent the day looking at basic navigational techniques and chatting about the history of Dartmoor. The weather was cold and windy but mainly dry.

Today Charlie and I headed down to Bosigran where we climbed Bosigran (aka Commando) Ridge VD in glorius sunshine on fantastic dry granite. In fact we were enjoying it so much we added the VS 4b finish just for fun.