Gwilym's Adventure Blog

This was my second and last week as Temporary, Acting, Part Time Head of Outdoor Education.  With Storm Brendan giving us some pretty serious weather, I have ended up inside at The Life Centre climbing wall every day this week with different groups of Plymouth College students. Quote of the week from one student to me was "Sir, when are the proper instructors coming back?"

This week has been a blast from the past for me. I am temporary, part time, acting Head of Outdoor Education at Plymouth College for two weeks paternity cover. A couple for indoor climbing sessions including coaching lead climbing, a few classroom lessons and a day at Haldon Hill on mountain bikes interspersed with some paperwork and other essential admin to keep the department running until everyone comes back to work. Today was so wet on the bikes, big effort from the students as we rode through deluge after deluge with mud and water flying everywhere.

Back at Plymouth Life Centre climbing wall today but this time with some older Plymouth College students for some bouldering and top roping. Much better being inside with the weather we have had this week

This week I am back in at Plymouth College cover some staff absence. I will be a fair bit over the next few months so I had to lean all the IT and other procedures again. The afternoon was spent down at The Life Centre Climbing Wall with a some year 7 to 10 on their afternoon activities.

This weekend I have been working for Wet and High Adventures Ltd running a Rock Skills - Introduction for 7 students from The Abbey School . Normally a one day course but we split it over the Saturday afternoon/evening and the Sunday morning to get the most form the weather. With some climbing at Haytor, bouldering at Bonehill and Abseiling at Chudleigh, the girls got a lot of variety in a short amount of time and have had the opportunity to learn loads. We even got back to the vehicles about 20min before the rain came down really hard

During the day I was out on Dartmoor working on a Hill and Moorland Leader Assessment course. It was very wet and windy in in no time at all, we were all a bit soggy. Somehow we all managed to be happy and cheerful. It was a great relief to get to the café at 4pm to review the home papers This evening I was at Dart Rock running an Indoor Climbing Assistant course and although it was not exactly warm in there, it was at least dry. Both courses on behalf of Wet and High Adventures Ltd www.wetandhigh.co.uk

On the second day of a Wet and High Adventures Ltd bespoke Winter Mountaineering/climbing course we avoided the wind and rain and headed to Newtyle Quarry for some Dry Tooling. Thanks to Stu for coming along aswell. After some coaching on footwork and axe placements on the beginners slab, both the clients, Stu and I all climbed Bonzai and Groovalicious and some really good techniques (including a adze torque) got used by all. Really nice to see in particular the improvement and car being taken in placing crampons carefully in slots and lips rather than windmilling in hope.

Today I have been down at Bridgwater YMCA climbing wall on behalf of Wet and High Adventures Ltd running a staff training session on fun games that can be used with their school groups and climbing clubs. After a few hours of training, I was pleased to sign another staff member off to run independent sessions after watching her deliver a safe and fun interactive session for some youngsters

What a lovely day at The Dewerstone with Steph and Justin for their first mulit-pitch climb. We looked at how to use a guidebook before climbing up Pinnacle Buttress with both of them building their own belays along the way. We also had time for some abseiling to get back down before reviewing some of the skills we had learnt over a coffee.

Out at Goblin Combe with Steph and Justin who wanted to have an introduction to climbing and setting up ropes. A damp day interspersed with Easyjet flights going over us but lots of ropework, belay building and getting comfortable with climbing calls covered so we can have some multi-pitch fun tomorrow.

For the last 2 days I have been in North Wales getting updated ready to run the new Mountain Training Rock Skills courses in 2019. As soon as the computer system gets updated, I will put some dates up on the Wet and High Adventures Ltd website

At a very chilly Hound Tor today running a Rock Climbing Instructor refresher for Wet and High Adventures Ltd. Looking at various problem avoidance and solving techniques. I took my gloves off for about 10 mins and touched the rock for a 6 metre climb, it was very cold so quickly decided that was enough of that and looked at things we could do with gloves on instead.

Out at Haytor today working with a group from Hamp Estate in Bridgwater. Unfortunately rain stopped play by midday and we ran to the shelter of Dart Rock where it was warmer and drier. All 5 young people managed to climb and belay and learnt to put on their own harnesses and tie themselves in. At the end of the session they even had a little trip through the Dart Rock cave system. Working with Robin and Ben for Wet and High Adventures Ltd

I have been out on a sunny but windy Dartmoor today for a bit of 1:1 coaching with a regular client of Wet and High Adventures. He led 3 routes at Greator and 1 at Houndtor before the wind chill got to us and we beat a retreat to the food van.