Gwilym's Adventure Blog

  The last 2 days I have been on an Association of Mountaineering Instructors CPD weekend. On the Saturday I was on a Avalanche workshop where we looked at some snow science and what to teach to what skill level On Sunday I was out looking at Short Roping skills and developing some other techniques to broaden the options available.

On the second day of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors AGM  weekend we stayed low and looked at dry tooling and rope systems using the Glenmore Lodge grounds. As always, really useful to practice some technical stuff without being battered by wind or rain.

Today I was on an Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) workshop at the AGM being held at Glenmore Lodge . Although there is very little snow at the moment, it was possible to find a continuous ribbon of snow for 3 of us to practice short roping techniques under the guidance of an experienced assessor

Today on a glorious sunny day with the main road through the gorge closed, 5 AMI members descended (literally as we had to park at the top) on the limestone crags of Avon Gorge. Stu, Mark, Mark, Jay and I wanted to climb routes through as many of the grades as we could. I planned to cover the Diff to mid Extreme range but we missed a VS and HVS. Between us we managed (in grade order) Original Route -Diff The Arete - V Diff 4a Dawn Walk - S 4a Direct Route - S 4a Dexter - HS 4a Central Butress - E1 5a (2 ascents by different parties) New Horizons II - E2 5c Priceless - E2 6a Them - E3 6a Arms Race - E4 5c Unfortunately one of the others who was due to come was unable to make it due to illness so we will blame him for the missing routes. All in all a great day out and perfect end to a weekend of celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors .

This weekend I am organising The Association of Mountaineering Instructors CPD weekend to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Today we were at Redpoint Bristol where Jack (the manager) ran workshops on Teaching Leading Indoors and Tech Advising to a Climbing Wall. We then had some cake made by Fi's Fancies and I ran a bouldering comp which was won by Jay Jackson with Stu Lade a close second. All in all a good day with plenty of time to chat and socialise as well as up skill ourselves

As part of my ongoing CPD, I attended an Avalanche Training Day arranged by the Chris Walker Trust on Aonach Mor. The idea of the day was to bring mountain professionals up to speed with current thinking and forecasting. Graham Moss one of the SAIS forecasters was our expert for the day and it was a mix of classroom time and a tour of Aonach Mor trying to look at every aspect to see what was happening on the ground. Please note the digging was merely a way of looking at layers. It did not form any part of our decision making process. Read here about Being Avalanche Aware .

This weekend was the AMI , MTA and BAIML South West CPD weekend held at Rock and Rapid in South Molton. Workshops included; Climbing for All, FUNdamentals, Teaching Leading, Coaching Strategies, Tech Advisor and NICAS, Moorland Environment, Ropework Rescues and on Saturday night I ran a Night Nav workshop. Thanks to all the workshop providers and those who attended.