Last December I completed the ITC (Immediate Temporary Care) first aid trainers course. After that prospective trainers must observe and assist on a number of courses run by experienced trainers before being ’signed off’ to deliver their own. I left the course after 4 inspiring days planning to complete the process in order to start offering courses in the spring. I unfortunately hadn’t accounted for the year being Peak Mountaineerings busiest so far and its only 10 months later that I’ve got around to do any more about it.
Today I joined training guru Andy and his 24 student course in Sheffield. I really enjoyed the day observing and assisting as Andy calmly guided the first aiders through the vital protocols but I must admit my brain was rather frazzled by the time we packed up at 5.30pm. I’m a great believer in doing things properly and this is just the first of 6 courses I will be attending and assisting on before Christmas. Fingers crossed that by early 2010 Peak Mountaineering will have added first aid courses to the course calendar.
My day in the classroom coincided with a beautiful Peak District day and after all the Resusi Annies were loaded and bandages folded I raced back to Castleton to meet up with Jan, Marco and Bailey who had just finished attending the first of 2 days guided climbing with Ian. The team were buzzing after a productive day at Burbage and Stanage and we celebrated with some fine food (thanks for treating me guys) in the Castle before I finally headed home to do a bit more revision on CPR and shock. It is certainly going to be a busy few weeks!
I’ve spent the last few days running an expedition training course for a team that are heading out to Rajasthan next summer. We’ve been based in the beautiful town of Pitlochry and its been a great weekend in fantastic weather. The team training has included lots of information that will be vital for the team as well as a full on mountain day to give them a taste of the type of terrain they may cover on their trek. I’m now lay in my tent writing this on the Blackberry with the door open and the sky packed with stars. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening!
I love every day that I work. Being in the wonderful outdoors, the brilliant people I meet and all those great adventures - why isn’t everyone a mountaineering instructor?! Its also the variety of the work that means I never get bored. One day I’ll be in the winter mountains, one day training expedition members for amazing adventures abroad and another I’ll be cragging with school children. Then occasionally, something completely different like working on a Hollywood movie will come along…………………….
Over the last few days I’ve been working with film director Rachel and her talented team on their remake of Sherlock Holmes. The film has some scenes where Dr Watson has to scramble down to a shipwreck and Rachel had asked if we could find a suitable dramatic location, manage the safety of the team and act as a double for Watson as he scrambles down to the wreck. That’s the type of variety we never turn down!
I knew that the jagged Anglesey sea cliffs of Gogarth would be the perfect spot for them and so on Friday I met with Rachel and cameramen Adam and Simon to show them what I had in mind. We drove across the island and into the South Stack car park and Rachel confided that she had hoped for something more dramatic. “Hold that thought,” I said and we walked down to the viewpoints over the Red and Yellow walls - “Will this do?!” Needless to say they were blown away by the steepness of the faces, the beautiful rock and the amazing coastline. “Meet us here at 7am tomorrow,” were her final words as she got back in their car.
The next day was full on. Adrian and I rigged some safety lines for the camera crew, rigged some lines to descend, briefed the crew on safety issues and managed the safety of the actors operating at the top of the cliffs. I also spent the morning climbing up and down Yellow Wall dressed in period costume pretending to be Dr Watson descending to the ship. It was a long day, it was great fun and it was a real privilege to work with such a dedicated and talented team.
As the sun was setting the team decided it was ‘a wrap’ and we travelled home tired but happy that the team had better footage than they had dared hope for. The next stage was to return on Monday to rig some ropes for Gareth David-Lloyd (the actor playing Dr Watson) so the camera team could get close up shots of him in action to mix with the Yellow Wall footage. We found some great options in the Llanberis Pass and Gareth did a great job scrambling up and down, calling to his companions, searching for ships and even simulating a number of falls - all no more than 10 metres off the ground!
Look out for the film when it comes out in a couple of months and remember that dot in a silly suit on the vastness of Yellow Wall is actually just a mountaineering instructor enjoying a bit of variety in his work!
A big thanks to Rachel and her team and to Adrian for being as professional as ever.
Over the last week I’ve been helping to run a residential visit in the Peak District for a local school. This is an annual event for their year 6 pupils and, although it’s a full on week, its always great fun. This year things ran really smoothly and we were helped by great weather and brilliant assistance from school staff and parents.
This is a classic example of the value of learning outside the classroom as the children explored local villages, found information about the history of the people and learned a lot about the changing landscape through walks and nature study. The pupils will use a lot of the information they gained in their future studies and I hope to get chance to work on some of their projects in school with them over the next few months.
This weekend has been beautiful Indian summer weather (my second Indian Summer of the year!) and its been a real privilege to be out and about.
On Saturday I attended a leader trainer workshop with the CTC team down at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. A chance to share ideas, look at the skills needed to train effective leaders and to renew old acquaintances (and meet some new ones). Thanks to Dan and the CTC boys for inviting me down and I was enthused by your professionalism and drive.
While I was enjoying chunky sandwiches and carrot cake down there Ian was running a Learn to Lead Course in the Peak with returning clients Sally and Jim. The last time 3 times I’ve climbed with Sally and Jim the sun has always shone and it happened again this weekend - I’m thinking of inviting them on every course! They are both long term scramblers who attended one of our ‘Scrambler to Climber’ courses last year and now they are fully into their climbing (and I never hear them so much as mention scrambling any more!). Over the weekend they covered the full range of skills needed to be confident, safe and efficient leaders and Ian’s description summed it up…….”It was a top weekend youth” (not sure what he meant by youth though!).
Yesterday I ran an Introductory Climbing Course at Stanage for members of York Alpine Club. They had successfully bid for funding from the BMC’s newly introduced 4 year ‘cash for clubs’ initiative which offers training (and other) grants to clubs to welcome new novice members and then provide them with the skills to climb safely. This is an exciting initiative funded by the BMC’s successful bid to Sport England and Peak Mountaineering is delighted to be involved with the training of a few of the successful clubs.
Adrian and I were joined for the day by Roy, Simon, Nigel, Tom and Luke and we had a great day looking at protection, belay building, abseiling and we even managed to throw in a few scrambling techniques along the way. The guys soaked up the information and I had to deep into my toolbox to ensure they went back to York with lots of tricks to amaze their friends - I even resorted to the Black diamond nut key that works as a beer bottle opener demo (with an imaginary beer bottle!) before Roy pointed out that hardcore climbers just open them with their teeth! They are tough up there in York!! Thanks as always to Adrian for his assistance and thanks to all the ‘Yorkies’ for their good humour and enthusiasm.
At the end of the training day I left the team looking for coffee and cake in Hathersage and whizzed over to Windgather for a family climb and picnic. Windgather is a fantastic venue on a late summers evening and it doesn’t come much better than it was last night. As I drove up the hill out of Kettleshulme I was blown away by the rich redness of the light on the crag and surrounding countryside and it felt like a magical place to be. We had a great picnic and climbed until dusk and it all felt very special and a great end to the weekend.
Oh yes, the quote at the top comes from another person in a special place. Jean Afanassieff was the first Frenchman to summit Everest and these were his words when the rest of his party reached him on the top. They found him relaxing in the sun with a cigarette in his hand and admiring the view. The words he actually spoke had a rather strong adjective in the middle of the sentence but we’re a family firm so better leave that one for you to work out yourselves!
I hope you all had a great weekend too.
Cheers,
Paul
Many instructors are familiar with the concept of ‘buying time’. If you can save 5 minutes here, use a shortcut to gain 15 there and cut time on that section you will soon have 30 minutes that can then be used to cover some more skills or help if you get delayed later in the day. I use the technique a lot and it is a great way to get as much content into instructing days as possible.
Well, my mind drifted off on a long journey yesterday and I wondered how different life would be if you could really buy time. 24 hours never seems enough for me to do everything I need to do but a couple of extra hours I’d fit in that extra bike ride, get our accounts to the accountant on time (for once!), call that long lost friend or just get the recommended amount of sleep!
Then I wondered how much I would be willing to pay for those precious hours and how useful it would be if you could just buy pay-as-you-go credits to use as needed. You are stuck in traffic and going to be late so use an hours credit and you are there on time. Going to bed late and got to get up really early - a couple of credits and you’ve had your full 8 hours. Then my phone rang and I was snapped out of my crazy daydreams…….but I bet it’s got you thinking hasn’t it!
I could do with buying a few days right now. Things are supposed to quieten down in September but as I look at the diary there really isn’t any sign of that happening anytime soon and the last couple of weeks has been a crazy, exciting rollercoaster.
Last week I was in Yorkshire for a 3 peaks challenge with a group of executives from Nestle (this was assisting my friend Richard who runs corporate development specialists Breathing Space - thanks for a top day Richard). The team had all the weather the UK summer could throw at them but great team work ensured they all completed the challenge (and all in under 12 hours) and managed to raise a massive £5000 for Marie Curie too. A great effort and thanks for a fun day guys.
We also had a learn to lead course on the go with Debbie and Sam, an introductory climbing day with a group from Astra Zeneca and I then spent the weekend back in Yorkshire for some excellent mountain biking. In between I was at the University of Derby to talk to the Public Services team, had a meeting with the BBC about some exciting developments that may bear fruit in the near future and trying to fit in as much time with the boys before they headed back to school.
Yesterday I spent the day in Birmingham interviewing candidates for the Institute of Outdoor Learning. The interviewees have been working through the Accredited Practitioner (APIOL) scheme and their final important interview draws together a years hard work and reflection to decide if they meet the criteria at this stage in their careers. I’m pleased to say that yesterday all 3 candidates were successful and many congratulations to them.
For the rest of this week I have managed to find office time to sort out loads of vital admin that has been waiting far too long for attention - new course dates, newsletter, accounts, a variety of articles. Throw in a few trips to the climbing wall, some bike training and an AMI committee meeting and suddenly 3 days is nowhere near enough. Anyone got any time for sale?!
