Why does it seem that whenever I run a multi day rock climbing course, the weather plays havoc with the week’s program?! However, at the end of the day there aren’t many people that get to enjoy working outdoors in such stunning places.
I’ve spent this week working for CCAT (Cadet Centre for Adventurous Training) out of Capel Curig Training Camp in North Wales. As well as the rock climbing course that I was running, their were also cadets and adults doing courses in hill walking, canoeing, kayaking and sea kayaking. The great thing about the courses run through CCAT is the time available to develop skills and knowledge over the course of a whole week rather than trying to cram material into as short a time frame as possible.
There were due to be four students on the rock climbing course but, for various reasons, only one turned up on the day which left us with the dilemma of whether or not it was feasible to go ahead. However, we decided to go for it, giving Connor the opportunity to take advantage of one to one tuition for the week.
On Monday, we headed for World’s End near Llangollen where we had the pleasure of finding sunshine and blue skies – result! With lots of trees at the top of the crag, it made setting up climbs relatively quick, giving Connor the chance to simply get on the rock and start climbing as much as possible. By taking a variety of lines up the same overall climb, he managed something in the order of 8 different routes in the day which is pretty good going. It soon became apparent that Connor is a climber that likes a challenge as he looked for the difficult lines and experimented with a number of techniques.
One of the fundamental skills involved with climbing, is the ability to belay (keep another climber safe on the rope). Normally this is demonstrated and then supervised very closely by the instructor as members of the group belay for each other. However, with Connor being the only group member, the only person he could belay for was me, meaning that I wouldn’t be able to be next to him on the ground supervising. We managed to find a way around it, by getting him to belay my rucksack effectively before tying me onto the end of the rope!
The weather forecast for the week was far from encouraging but, based on the fact that Tuesday looked like it was going to be the worst, we headed to the indoor wall at Indefatigable on Anglesey. Climbing on an indoor wall can be extremely tiring. Due to the absence of the need to set climbs up, it is easy to do too much in too short a space of time, and completely wear yourself out – particularly fingers and forearms. Consequently, we broke the day up into bite sized chunks and alternating between actual climbing and looking at other skills and topics. We started by having a look at the different types of climbing that were going on and discussing the safety issues that are specifically associated with climbing walls. We then had a good blast in the bouldering area looking at a few warm up exercises and challenges as well as actually bouldering. The rest of the day was spent jumping between bottom rope climbing and looking at different types of rope, rope care and some basic principles of setting up bottom rope systems for outdoor crags.
We spent Wednesday at Clogwyn y Cyrau, on a great little crag overlooking the small town of Betws y Coed. The main purpose of the day was to practice setting up climbs, using the principles touched on at the indoor wall the previous day. After a couple of ‘pretend’ set ups, I gave Connor the chance to identify a climb he’d actually like to have a go at so that he could go through the whole process for real. This then introduced the concept of personal safety, as he would now have to make sure that he was always attached to something solid to keep him safe whilst setting up the climb. During the day, he set up both a bottom rope and a top rope and found the confidence to commit his weight to systems that he had created. These set ups were certainly not fast or efficient, but it always takes practice to learn what works for you as an individual and to figure out what to do with all that rope!
Thursday was more of the same, although this time we went to London Crag in the Ogwen Valley, where Connor would have to look harder for gear placements rather than rely on slings around trees and boulders. Again, he set up both a bottom and top rope system during the day but, unfortunately, the weather was far from encouraging and the heavy rain forced us to retreat by about 2.30pm. However, up to this point, the course had been full on and we’d been able to make the most of every opportunity, so I didn’t mind too much introducing Connor to the climbing tradition of visiting a cafe for a hot chocolate and a slice of Bakewell Tart!
By Friday, we just had some abseiling to do, so we headed back to Clogwyn y Cyrau to finish off the course. We started off by discussing the various reasons for abseiling, the different ways of doing it as well as their pros and cons, before looking at how to set up a typical group abseil. Most of the principles are duplicated, so Connor didn’t have too much more information to take in, but an additional knot or two kept him on his toes. Once we’d set up our anchor system, I got him to try a number of different types of abseil. We started off with a standard group type abseil with me operating a safety rope asa back up. We then introduced the concept of the abseiler providing his own safety by the use of a prusik knot, but still used the safety rope on the first descent before Connor felt happy to go for it without. Lastly, he had a go at abseiling off a double rope which, theoretically, could then be pulled down from the bottom.
Only having one student on the course certainly made it a different week from what I had anticipated, but we were able to cover things in more depth and everything could be tailored to where Connor was coming from at all times which made it a fantastic opportunity for him, and he took advantage of it. A great week!
