5 Day Rock Climbing Course

I thoroughly enjoy running courses through CCAT (Cadet Centre for Adventurous Training), due to the skills progression and coaching that takes place over the duration of a 5 day course, and this weeks rock climbing course was no exception. It’s great to see people with a genuine interest in learning skills progress in such a concentrated timescale. The courses are open to members of the cadet forces (cadets and adult instructors) at a ridiculously low price. If you’re involved in the cadets, and have an interest in the outdoors, get yourself on a course.

Keeping a watchful eye whilst belaying
Keeping a watchful eye whilst belaying

This week I was working out of their centre at Halton Training Camp on the edge of Lancaster on a Basic Rock Climbing course. The amazing weather we’ve been enjoying in recent weeks seemed to encourage more people to sign up, and we ended up needing 3 instructors to cope with the high demand.

On Monday, after sorting the start of course admin, we headed to Hutton Roof as it tends to be quick drying (after an overnight downpour) and local. We had a look at bouldering and a few basic climbing techniques until arms started to loose all strength.

With more time available on Tuesday, we took a longer drive into the heart of the Lake District to Langdale and spent the day on Lower Scout Crag. We spent some time looking at the basic principles used when setting up bottom roped climbs, before enjoying being able to climb in the sunshine in such a beautiful location.

Delicate footwork at Lower Scout Crag
Delicate footwork at Lower Scout Crag

Wednesday saw us opting for the Yorkshire Dales, trying to avoid the rain forecast to be moving in from the west, and we made our way to Twistleton Scar. This was a chance to climb on Limestone, and to make good use of the guidebook. This is often much more difficult than it sounds. Finding a good climb in the book is a lot easier than finding it on the crag. It was also a great opportunity for the course to see other climbers leading various routes, and to talk through the implications of not securing a rope at the top of a climb before you leave the ground. We managed to get a good number of climbs in before the weather really threatened and, when it did, we ran away to the cafe for a hot chocolate and a chance to look at gear shops.

The course includes spending time on an indoor wall and, with Kendall Climbing Centre not far away, it would have been a shame to miss the opportunity of spending a day their, and Thursday was our day. The centre itself has all sorts of opportunities and is a real eye opener for those that haven’t yet ventured into the world of indoor climbing. We started on one of the bouldering walls before practicing specific climbing techniques on short climbs, before venturing onto the big walls.

CCAT courses wrap up after lunch on Friday so, with a shortened day to play with, we headed to Warton Quarry to run through the abseiling sections of the course. We started off with the standard group abseil set up with a safety rope, before venturing into slightly more adventurous ground with prussics, retrievable abseils and pairs abseiling in parallel.

As normal with CCAT courses, it’s been a great week with fantastic people in beautiful places – awesome.

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