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 »
Category Archives: Navigation
NNAS Bronze Course
I started running the NNAS Bronze syllabus several years ago. It seems to be growing in popularity and, on occasion, I've had people travel several hundred miles to access the course. This time was a bit different. Having set up the dates for a couple of more local people, I found myself just working with one, that hadn't even been in the original group. However, we met … Read More »
National 3 Peaks Preparation
Several months ago I was approached for some advice about an attempt at the National 3 Peaks Challenge. This has become very popular for charity events over the last 10 years and involves walking to the top of the highest mountain peaks in Scotland (Ben Nevis), England (Scafell Pike) and Wales (Snowdon) within 24 hours. In this case, it was a local church group looking … Read More »
A Day Out With The Boys
My elder son, Alfie has been itching to get out in the hills for a couple of weeks. I think the attraction of the remoteness, and the chance to get away from the pressures of school have been a real pull for him. To be honest, I think he'd rather be able to go off on his own and enjoy some solitude, but very kindly … Read More »
NNAS Bronze Award – Navigation Course in the Shropshire Hills
For the last two days, I've been running a NNAS Bronze Award navigation course for three keen walkers from London, Kent and Hertforshire. Each of them have an involvement with the Ramblers and want to be able to lead groups in the countryside. Although they all had different levels of experience, they each wanted to develop their skills and confidence with map work to help … Read More »
Penally Camp with Ellesmere College CCF
After spending half of last week on exercise with Ellesmere College CCF, I've spent all of this week with them on their annual Summer Camp. Each year they take a group of cadets to an Army training camp for a week of military and adventurous training, and this year we headed to Penally on the South Wales coat near Tenby. Sunday was spent on a watermanship … Read More »
Summer Mountain Foundation with Welbeck DSFC
I was delighted to be approached by Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College back at the beginning of March about delivering an SMF (Summer Mountain Foundation) course for a group of their students. Welbeck actually brought the whole of their Lower Sixth form over to Capel Curig to spend a week in the mountains of Snowdonia. With so many students, there were a total of about … Read More »
NNAS Navigation Around Church Stretton
I was running a NNAS (National Navigation Award Scheme) Bronze Award course last week, but one of the participants had to pull out a few days before. A job interview understandably took priority, so we arranged to repeat the course a week later. Due to the short notice, there wasn't really any additional interest when I tried to advertise the new dates. So it has … Read More »
NNAS Bronze Award in Shropshire
I always enjoy working in the outdoors, but there is something a bit special about working on courses that are designed to develop skills and teach new techniques to those that really want to learn. It's a great privilege to be involved in people's development and watch them grow in confidence and understanding. I've spent that last 2 days with Sles and Julie whohave both been … Read More »
Abseiling and Orienteering with Concord College
In the last few weeks, I have had the pleasure of running several sessions for a group of pupils from Concord College. As part of their Mountain Sports club, we spent time rock climbing and canoeing before half term. Today we met at Nesscliffe Hill Country Park for an afternoon of abseiling and orienteering. Nesscliffe has a large abseil (about 40m) which attracts people from quite … Read More »
