We've enjoyed 4 days in and around the Aviemore area of the Scottish Highlands. It's been a great trip with the group getting to experience a wide range of winter mountain experiences, and developing some useful skills along the way. We generally like to finish the six days off with an expedition of some sort. It's often 3 days accessing a remote peak but, when … Read More »
All posts by Martin Digby
A Winter Mountain Day in the Monadhliath
After a physically undemanding day yesterday, we decided to take the group on a full mountain day this time. As we'd driven across to Dalwhinnie yesterday, we'd noticed that the Monadhliath area was looking particularly white so, after a quick check of the avalanche forecaste, it didn't take long to choose our destination. Driving up a lane heading north from Newtonmore wasn't as straight forward as I … Read More »
A Wintery Navigation Day
Over ther last couple of days, we've had a day of winter skills and a full on winter mountain day to put things into practice. With extremely high winds forecast for today, we opted to head into a lower, more protected, area just north of Dalwhinnie for a navigation day. Starting on the track that follows the Allt an t-Sluic, we took the opportunity to practice … Read More »
Winter Mountain Day on Cairngorm
After introducing the group to some basic skills yesterday, we took the opportunity to get in a full winter mountain day in some perfect conditions. Once again, we took advantage of being able to drive up to the snow line by using the Coire Cas car park and headed off past Coire an t-Sneachda into Coire an Lochain. Stopping short of the lochans, we spent some … Read More »
Introduction to Winter Skills
Having travelled up to the Cairngorms yesterday for a week of winter walking, today was a perfect day to provide an introduction to winter skills. After a much needed thorough kit check before our first day out, we took advantage of the Cairgorm Mountain road and made use of the Coire Cas car park for quick access into Coire an t-Sneachda. While most where heading into … Read More »
Winter Mountain Experience
I love introducing people to the winter mountain experience. Winter mountains are probably my favourite environment to work in - the snow transforms the landscape into something with the potential for such incredible beauty and yet the ever present threat of harsh and threatening conditions. I'd had a couple of folk interested in this year's trip up to Scotland which went to the Cairngorms. Unfortunately, there … Read More »
Mountain Walking – Adventure Education
I've been involved with Oswestry School's Adventure Education weekends for several years now. More recently, I've found myself working with paddling groups, so it was a pleasant change to be asked to run a mountain walking group. Tryfan - Scrambling We opted for an ascent of Tryfan, via the north ridge, on Saturday. It soon became clear that this was a popular choice as the mountain was … Read More »
Rock Climbing Course
I get to deliver a wide range of activities and courses to a diverse mix of people. However, my favourite type of work tends to be working with the same small group of people for a while, seeking to develop skills, knowledge and understanding. So I was pretty thrilled to be running a Basic Rock Climbing course over 5 days this week. The course was being run … Read More »
Concord College DofE Practice Expedition
This was the first chance I've had to get involved with the Concord College DofE programme. I've been asked for several years now, but always been committed to other work, so I was pleased to see a gap in my diary when they asked me again this year. I met the staff and students at the college first thing this morning to check kit and agree … Read More »
Adventure Rope Course – Priory School
It's been a busy few days at the Adventure Rope Course this week. I quite often find myself working with small groups as the only instructor, so it makes a nice change when we have large groups. This time we had 7 groups of 10-12 students from Priory School in Shrewsbury come to the Rope Course on Wednesday, and another 6 groups on Thursday. Fairly … Read More »
