Peak Mountaineering
The climbing blog of Paul Lewis
Archive for April, 2010
April 26, 2010 at 9:31 am · Filed under peak mountaineering
Peak Mountaineering has been busier than ever with expedition training this week.
Firstly, Stef went to Wales with regular client Caroline to bag some summits in preparation for her upcoming expedition to Bolivia. Over four mileage intensive days they enjoyed time on the Snowdon horseshoe, the Glyders and the Carneddau. The weather was glorious and the reports from both have them have been that they had a ball. Caroline is continuing her training regime with Stuart in the Lakes later this week – she should be well prepared for anything Bolivia throws at her!
While Stef and Caroline were away I have been assessing some potential expedition leaders with Richard and Mark. The candidates are all experienced outdoor professionals aiming to lead groups in destinations as diverse as Nepal and Namibia. The assessment looks at their ability to manage all aspects of safety as well as looking at how well they could interact with an expedition team. We were tramping the Peak District moors and again the weather was fantastic and the company was great. Good luck to them all in their wide-ranging adventures over the coming expedition season…..and beyond.
Of course if all this talk of exciting adventure is getting you interested in your own challenge we have our autumn Ladakh trip as the perfect option. We now have a confirmed team but there are still some spaces available if you want to get involved. The mountain is 6150 metre high Stok Kangri in the Indian Himalayas – a perfect objective for a first trip to the Himalayas (see the photo on our homepage for inspiration!). We have an info sheet available for anyone that is interested. Please just email or call and we’ll get one straight to you.
April 23, 2010 at 11:58 pm · Filed under peak mountaineering
Over the last few days I have been out with returning clients Louise and Sue for some quality climbing around the Peak. Sue and Louise aren’t regular climbers but it would be hard to tell when you see them in action! They seem happy to tackle anything that’s thrown at them. We visited Froggatt, Burbage South and Lawrencefield over our gritstone-tastic time together and ticked a host of classics graded from Difficult to Hard Very Severe (yes….that really is Hard VS after 2 previous days climbing!). Of course, some beautiful sunny weather would have also helped……and we got that too!
Sue and Louise have already booked some more days next year and it’s rumoured they are going to be regular visitors to their local climbing wall in between – who knows what grades we’ll be climbing next year then?! Thanks to you both for a great few days.
April 19, 2010 at 9:10 am · Filed under peak mountaineering
I’m in the office today so time to reflect on another really interesting few days for Peak Mountaineering…………
I spent last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday running some more interview sessions for the Departmant for International Development. The interviews are for potential expedition candidates hoping to go on trips to Peru, Nepal, India, South Africa or Ghana later in the year. The best part of my job is always meeting new and interesting people and these interviews were brilliant - more like a stimulating conversation about travel and adventure than a formal selection process. For the first 2 days I was based in a rather swish hotel in Leeds which was great fun. I really enjoy visiting Leeds and had plenty of chance to explore the city and catch up with some old friends between interview sessions. It was also great to be staying somewhere nice and I lay on my king size bed one evening reflecting on how the weekend before had been spent slumming it in my tiny tent! On Friday I got chance to interview in another great city (Manchester of course!) and again had a great day meeting some brilliant candidates.
While I was away Alan was out for a couple of days mountain bike guiding with Sam, Jay, Mark and Charlotte. They enjoyed great weather and fine cycling around the Peak Park and I must admit that, stimulating as the interviews were, I was a little jealous of Al’s regular text updates……..’just blasted down Jaggers Clough’, ‘refuelling in the Woodbine cafe’, ‘the team are loving Jacob’s Ladder’……….Thanks Al! I’ll be seeing Jay and Sam later in the year for a coast to coast MTB traverse and there is still places if you want to join us.
On Saturday Steve and I headed to the Lakes to meet Alyson and her friends. Alyson celebrated her 40th birthday recently and her party bash consisted of a guided Lakeland walk followed by a meal in a quality Windermere restaurant. Peak Mountaineering isn’t too good on high quality cuisine but we do a grand job of guiding, so our part in the day was to lead the 12 strong team safely over Helvellyn and back via Grizedale Tarn. The group was brilliant fun, the weather was perfect and the walk was great. Even better was the surprise champagne lunch on the summit! Thanks to Steve for your hard work and a big thanks to Alyson and the girls - I hope your evening was as much fun as the day!
Again my day in the Lakes wasn’t the only Peak Mountaineering activity on the agenda. Caroline and Steve were also busy on Saturday running an orienteering event for parents and children from several Stockport schools. The teams worked through some basic navigation and team building tasks before completing a star orienteering course to put their skills to the test. The feedback from the event has been fantastic and the feedback from Caroline and Steve suggests we have some amazing future orienteering talent in the local area. Well done to all.
Yesterday I met up with Andy, Paul, Adrian and Chris to run a rescue skills for climbers course in the Peak District. Over the course of a busy day we ascended ropes, descended ropes, hoisted people, lowered people and dealt with a host of other likely climbing related problems. The forecast for the day had been rather gloomy but, as we’ve come to expect recently, it stayed fine and dry with a fair dash of sunshine. Thanks to the team for a great day and, even though I hope you never need to put your new skills to the test, it’s good to know they are there if you need them!
I’m now snatching a rare day in the office before another busy week on the crags…….so I better go and do some work! I hope everyone had a great weekend and fingers crossed for some more sunny weather in the coming weeks.
April 12, 2010 at 6:58 pm · Filed under peak mountaineering
I finished my week with the ATC Adventure Training Course with a great day on Raven’s Crag. This peachy route takes a line of moderate difficulty with a number of interesting steps and slabs. Once at the top you can descend via a variety of paths at the side of the crag (restrictions are currently in place on some descents to the right of the route due to nesting Peregrines) or wander over the top and follow a variety of interesting descent paths at the back instead. The team really enjoyed the day and it was a great end to my time with them.
On Wednesday and Thursday Steve was also out with returning client Caroline in other parts of the Lakes. Caroline is an extremely enthusiastic mountaineer and later in the year she is heading to Bolivia to tackle some high mountains. Her plan for these two days was simple….plenty of mileage and plenty of ascent. Steve reported a brilliant couple of days which had included the highest peak in England and some quality ridge lines too - infact they walked so far there isn’t much of the Lakes they didn’t visit!. Caroline is back for more training next month but on that visit it will be Stuart’s turn to suffer!
After saying goodbye to the RAF team I dashed home and briefly touched base with the family before a quick repack on Friday morning and another dash to meet a group of potential expedition leaders hoping to lead overseas trips later in the year. The team of five were all experienced and qualified instructors with a wealth of personal travel experience so the weekend focussed on specific expedition skills, risk management and interpersonal skills. In the end the assessment was very easy as the group bonded superbly, the weather was amazing and the participants were super enthusiastic and great fun. All the candidates were successful and they are now hoping to be allocated an interesting destination for the expedition season. Good luck to you all.
Today has been a chance to again catch up with the family before the boys return to school tomorrow. This morning they were bribed to tidy their bedroom with some Easter egg, this afternoon they were bribed with a McDonald’s to visit Brabyn’s Park so I could blast around the permanent orienteering course in preparation for an event on Saturday. Tonight they are being bribed with an episode of the Penguins of Madagascar to sleep at a friends house while we have a meal with them. There’s no doubt the children of today will make the greatest of negotiators in the future - I certainly wish I had their skills!
April 7, 2010 at 9:25 pm · Filed under peak mountaineering
This week I’ve been working at the RAF training centre in Ambleside on an Air Training Corps adventure training course. The week includes a range of development activities combined with various fun outdoor adventures.
On Sunday the group were gorge scrambling and raft building on Lake Coniston. This was a lovely day and the guys worked as teams to construct various rafts that they then raced around marker buoys. Some of the rafts were great - the others I won’t go into too much detail about, although it’s fair to say they got a good taste for how cold the water is at this time of year! The gorge scrambling continued the wet and cold theme…..I was just happy to have a drysuit.
On Monday we had a day of mountain biking in Grizedale Forest. The morning started with torrential rain before brightening steadily as the day continued. The forest is well set with colour coded routes of varying difficulties so we blasted a bit of black, a chunk of red and a splash of green to complete a great day out.
Gale force winds marked the start of an NNAS bronze level navigation course and a mountain skills day. The navigators worked their way around the lower level terrain below the Old Man of Coniston and the mountaineers weaved an intricate line up the front of the Bell. It was a great day and we only got caught by the rain in the last hour.
Today was a truly beautiful Lakes day and we continued the navigation course on great terrain near the top of Wrynose Pass. The team performed really well and we worked our way increasingly confidently between interesting contour features, rocky outcrops and small pools. Tonight I whizzed across to Raven Crag to check the route in preparation for tomorrows mountain assault. It was a beautiful evening and before I knew it I had wandered up the scramble and was enjoying fabulous views across Coniston and the surrounding peaks.
Another great forecast for tomorrow………perfect.
April 2, 2010 at 11:43 pm · Filed under peak mountaineering
Today dawned bright and clear in Lochaber so we raced to get to the first Nevis Range Gondola. Even better, it turned out to be far better than the forecast – a really really really perfect Scottish skiing day. The weather, visibility and snow were all fantastic and the slopes were surprisingly quiet.
It’s been a long season for the Scottish resorts and I hope it’s been a profitable one because you can have as good a day on the slopes here as you can anywhere (well I suppose heli-skiing in Canada comes close!). We didn’t waste a minute and had a great time blasting the pisted runs, snowpark and in the off piste powder. We polished off the day with a good meal in the Stronlossit Hotel and a few single malts………I love Scotland!
April 1, 2010 at 10:59 pm · Filed under peak mountaineering
I’m having a few days in Scotland with the family this week. We are based in my usual Peak Mountaineering west coast base of Roy Bridge - but this time we have a nice cosy cottage rather than the usual communal climbers base I use. We came armed for an uncertain forecast with kit for skiing, climbing, mountain biking and a range of other possibilities………but in reality the weather has been kind to us.
On Tuesday we had a days mountain biking as the Nevis Range ski area uplift was closed due to high winds. The Leanachan forest is brilliantly set up for biking and there are trails to suit all abilities on the Witches Trails. The boys loved testing their skills at the trials park before we did a loop of the moderate blue circuit which has entertaining boarding, ramps, singletrack and bridges. After this the little MTB ninja’s were then keen to finish the day back on the drops and ramps of the trials park so I sneaked off and made a loop of the red circuit before we wrapped up the day with hot chocolates all round in the Nevis Range café.
We awoke to falling snow on Wednesday but after a few games of snowy tennis (our cottage has an attached tennis court!) we hit the slopes and enjoyed some great skiing at Nevis Range. The skiing has the usual Scottish ‘survival skiing’ feel about it but we found some great runs. I did manage an unexpected 12-foot (I’m using imperial measurements because it sounds so much better than 4 metres!) drop off an unmarked ramp but somehow kept on my feet and even, dare I say, made it look almost planned (which it most certainly wasn’t!). Unfortunately the guy that did the same sometime later wasn’t so lucky and ended up carrying a broken ski back to the gondola.
Today we headed back to Aonach Mor and we’ve had another great day despite a few hail storms along the way. The slopes have been really quiet but maybe the crowds will arrive tomorrow (not that I’m missing them you understand). The forecast is pretty good for tomorrow so it looks like the bikes will stay in the shed for another day on the piste (and off it).
Have a great Easter weekend no matter where your mountain adventures take you.
