Peak Mountaineering
The climbing blog of Paul Lewis
Archive for April, 2009
April 27, 2009 at 10:44 pm · Filed under peak mountaineering
10 days of peachy weather ended abruptly as we awoke to torrential rain today. I sat smugly in the office with the knowledge that I had a few days ‘off the hill’ to complete admin tasks. Posting navigation certificates, contacting clients, sorting equipment orders, writing cheques and filing invoices - all vital stuff.
However, as tends to happen, by lunchtime the sun had started to shine and suddenly the inside of the office didn’t look half as inviting. Time to head out for a quick loop around Strines and Mellor. Coincidentally, this ride is going to be wriiten up for a upcoming ride guide so you can escape the office too!
Cheers,
Paul
April 25, 2009 at 8:20 pm · Filed under peak mountaineering
Need a 40th birthday idea? Hire a coach, drive 27 friends to the Lake District, enjoy a fine walk around the Old Man of Coniston, drive to a Lakes hotel for a session in the spa and a great meal. Sound good? Rachel thought so too and today was the day.
Peak Mountaineering’s part in the crazy adventure was to supply 2 instructors to safely guide the team on their walk. A tough job? Not really……Stuart and I had a ball! We walked up from the Quarry, lunched at Low Water, summited the Old Man, looped over Dow Crag and waved the team off for their evening of pampering and partying. Then for Stu and I all that was left to do was enjoy a celebratory beer in sunny Coniston.
Many thanks to Rachel and the girls for a fantastic day. I hope you had a fantastic evening to celebrate your achievements.
April 22, 2009 at 10:36 pm · Filed under peak mountaineering
For the last few days I’ve been training future instructors in Buxton. The team are working towards running high ropes and initiative activities and we’ve been busy covering everything from risk assessments to knot tieing and group management to belaying.
To help us on our way we’ve been enjoying beautiful spring weather. On a couple of evening I stopped off for a couple of hours bouldering in stunning evening sunshine. Lets hope its a taste of the long hot summer to come (maybe!).
April 19, 2009 at 11:57 am · Filed under peak mountaineering
This weekend we’ve been running more of our ever popular Essential Skills Courses.
On Saturday Dom, Debra, Lee, Andy, Peri and Andy joined Rik and I at Stanage for a busy day on our ‘Essential Climbing Skills Course’. Belay building, placing protection, belaying, route finding and setting up top and bottom rope systems were all introduced and practiced. We also managed to climb a bunch of quality routes and try a range of techniques like jamming and laybacking. The weather was great all day.
On Sunday Peri, Dom, Andy and Debra returned for more fun in the sun at Burbage North on our ‘Essential Rescue Skills Course’. Everyone hopes they will never be involved in a rescue situation but, if the worst happens, there is a lot of comfort in knowing how to get your partner and yourself to safety. In a very full day we looked at escaping the system, lowering, ascending ropes, accompanied abseils, abseiling past a knot and hoisting. No wonder everyones heads were buzzing with information as we made our way back to the car.
A great day with inspiring people. Many thanks to you all and a big thanks to Rik for all his hard work.
April 17, 2009 at 11:07 am · Filed under peak mountaineering
After saying goodbye to Sue and Louise Paul nipped home, packed the last remaining bits and pieces and we all whizzed down for a weeks skiing in the French Alps. We were staying in Les Arcs and, similar to the other resorts, it has had a brilliant season with great snow and great weather.
Although the afternoon temperatures were making the snow a little slushy at times we enjoyed more of the same for our week there….sun, sun, sun. The Euro exchange rate must be hitting the resorts so we also enjoyed fairly quiet pistes and the whole resort had a relaxed and ‘end of season’ feel to it.
The demon Lewis brothers are now whizzing down just about anything and I can see that soon we’ll be struggling to keep up with them! They also developed a taste for off piste skiikng this week so that should open up a whole new world of danger for them too! Roll on next season.
Cheers,
Cal
April 10, 2009 at 8:20 pm · Filed under peak mountaineering
Each year Peak Mountaineeriing tries to support a variety of charities (in addition to our annual donations to environmental causes). Last year one of our contributions was to provide vouchers for introductory climbing days that were auctioned off at The Lymphoma Society Fundraising Ball. This week Sue and Louise came to the Peak to cash in their vouchers.
On Thursday Stef took the team to Windgather Rocks and they had a full on afternoon with 7 routes climbed and a host of key skills covered. I met them this morning and we headed to Stanage for another great day in lovely weather. We climbed several routes up to hard severe, built some belays and abseiled a few times. By the time we wrapped up the day the ladies felt inspired enough to buy their own climbing shoes and were already discussing plans for a return visit to Peak grit. Two more addicts!
Many thanks Sue and Louise for taking the time to come up and climb with us. Thanks also for your generous donation to the vital work of The Lymphoma Society.
April 4, 2009 at 9:06 pm · Filed under peak mountaineering
Cal has summed up the last few weeks nicely - very very hectic! I’ve been getting home from one job, quicky washing clothes and repacking before moving on the next day. At the moment I’m writing this (by the power of Blackberry) from my tent camped on a site near Buxton as I’m out with an expedition training group for a few days. We’ve spent today traversing the High Peak in fantastic weather and brilliant visibilty - what a tough way to make a living! Only problem is the team have decided to get up at 6.30 in the morning which will be rather a shock to the system.
I’m around the Peak District next week so I should be easier to contact. If you have contacted us and we’ve not got back to you as promptly as we’d like please accept our sincere apologies. We will get back to you very soon.
Cheers,
Paul
April 1, 2009 at 9:54 am · Filed under peak mountaineering
Time goes by ……..so slowly? Yeah right! Madonna sang it but she has obviously never worked at Peak Mountaineering (and probably doesn’t want too either!). For everyone here it’s officially been our busiest March ever - and it’s felt like it too.
Since his last posting Paul has been busy running a navigation course in the Peak District, expedition training for a team heading overseas in the summer, mountain biking in the Lakes and climbing in Wales. He’s currently working for a week on Duke of Edinburgh activities over in Yorkshire then returns to run more expedition training, an instructor facilitation course and a Peak District climbing course next week.
He also joined other members of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) at the NEC on Saturday for the Outdoor Show. AMI had offered to run the ice climbing wall brought to the show by DMM (DMM is a major valued sponsor of AMI) and over the 3 days the show was on over 350 people climbed the wall and got a first taste of ice climbing. Judging by the 1000’s of freelance instructor booklets and magazines that AMI handed out we should be seeing plenty of those people getting involved with more climbing activities over the coming year.
Meanwhile, Alex has got our mountain biking activities off to a flying start with a course in the Peak District and various private guiding activities in the Peak and Wales. Next week he heads for some Easter sun and quality riding in Majorca with Sandra, Mike, Simon and Pat. I keep telling him there should be no need to fake tan those stumpy pins for the rest of the season after that but the boy is addicted to it! Anyone who’s ridden with him will know what I mean!
While all thats been going on I’ve been running a selection of problem solving and orienteering activities in local primary schools. The kids are real stars and its been a pleasure to see their skills, confidence and team work develop so much even over the course of just a morning or afternoon session. The finale of the sessions challenges the teams to get a ‘toxic bomb’ from the centre of a crocodile infested swamp using rope and elastic (and ideally lots of discussion and co-operation!). Little do they know when they start but the bomb contains prizes and certificates for all the team and the look on their face as they open the container is priceless! Work in local schools is a developing area of Peak operations - and one that sits really well among our core mountain training activities.
So, the summer season gets off to a rip roaring start and, with many courses and dates already full, its well worth calling us sooner than later if you want to organise something in the coming months.
Oh yes….I hope you are being able to make good use of this sunny weather too.
Best wishes.
Cal
