Staff @ Play Blog Category
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With a thaw setting in for the weekend and a pile of work stacking up in the office an early morning was required.
Steve Stout and I headed up Red Screes for sun rise and climbed the water fall on the left of the cove before heading to a DofE Assessors Accreditation day.
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Stickle Ghyll & Pavey Ark
Well after an interview with Mike Parr from Radio Cumbria and a morning of office work I tour myself away from the computer and headed over to Langdale.
After popping into Langdale School to say hi and pick up my copy of the Langdale School Express and quick jog I was at the foot of Stickle Ghyll. The Ghyll is a popular scramble in the summer time with groups, click this link to see a video of Langdale School and Real Adventure taking the classroom outside on a sunny warm day.
Conditions in the ghyll were thin but climbable with care, Whorneyside may not be in condition yet.
After topping out at the tarn a line on the L side of Pavey Ark enticed me in. It is not in the guide book but is worth doing. There was a pleasant grade II ice fall to start with then onto a section of I then at the top 20m of really good quality ice of a good depth and well frozen with no water (one step of III which is avoidable and would therefor go at II).
Topping out by sun set and a stroll over to Harrison’s Stickle before descending via the path at the top of Dungeon Ghyll with a short chill to look at the stars and I was back to the van for 1730.
Blog, Pizza, Beer, Sleep.
Tomorrow ill head up Red Screes before of Duke of Edinburgh event at Patterdale Hall and then see if we can sneak in a cheeky ascent of something afterwards too.
You Tube is just processing the video, if it does not work pop back soon.
BBC Radio Cumbria
This morning at 0750 I was on BBC Radio Cumbria on Mike Parr’s Breakfast Show talking about ice climbing.
Mike had been going on about how this cold was only a negative.
After the Interview I did for the Cumbria Bolt Fund earlier this year, I was invited back to talk about the positives that this weather brings.
Thanks to Mike for introducing me as Dan Robinson, Mountain Instructor who runs the out door company Real Adventure, and for not grilling me too much on the radio!
Scroll down and have a look at the video clips of the last few days below if you have time.
Head to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00cgx3t/The_Mike_Parr_Breakfast_Show_08_12_2010/
use the listen again feature.
Scroll to 1h:25m on the time
Launchy Ghyll
Having to hold down a business and and take advantage of ice conditions is an even balance!
After a tip from a crew of palls from Manchester who were on it on Sunday, there was a burning need to not miss out.
Today I had a meeting with an Outdoor Ed group from Kendal College. We are taking them to the Cairngorms for a weeks winter skills course in January.
After all the slides and video’s of what we will be covering, outline of the week and all questions answered I ran out of the door and arrived at the car park with the token boater.
For those of you who followed last years “Winter Blog” there was a theme of taking a Real Adventure staff member with particular skills in falling down rivers in boats along to climb up the frozen water, comical…
Launchy is in good condition, a little thin in places and there is water running behind some of the ice. We chose our line with care and made an ascent, there was even enough ice to place a screw!
The top pitch required a quick approach to avoid getting too wet.
If any of you have been on anything over the past few week it would be great to here from you.
e-mail
dan@real-adventure.co.uk
Mining Trip
Well after a long day in the office with Simon Fenna working on the report-ability of m office database, John Riley of Fired Up Design working on the new RA website and myself working on the content of the new site and future programs we all got a little itchy and needed to go do something.
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Simon’s Mate is one of the local mining experts, she popped a black bag over our heads span us round in circles drove us to an unknown location and took the bag off only once we had walked 35 min up hill and got into the entrance.
Wow… now both simon and I have done allot of caving over the years, but nothing just compares tonight. Vast man made chambers, hanging floors, stunning blue flowstone, worrying deads (waste rock stacked precariously) long abseils, deep blue water, filled shafts, etc, etc.
This was not sport, nor was it adventure – this is adventure exploration… You do not get that feeling that you have done a great deal due to the sedate nature of your delicate movement through the passages, any heavy feeling and there is the chance of falling through on of the false floors. There is also that missing feeling that you get in a cave of the awareness of water conditions (cave are made by water not man and his dynamite) however it was replaced by the inevitable collapse of what ever lies above or below you.
Towards the end of the trip our resident mine nutter noticed a place that she had been standing just last week was now a gaping whole in the floor dropping down past the distance of a really powerful LED torch!
This level of mine exploration is not safe, it is not fun, it is not somewhere I would choose to take people and it is totally bazar to be walking in the mountains wearing caving kit. However it is really fascinating, learning about the history of what went on to extract a bit of metal out of the earth and learning about the methods and seeing the old workings is just formidable.
New Website & Blog
The Real Adventure web site is being re developed as I sit here typing this post. The Old site is now 5 years old and with new developments in web site design and back end usability it was time to move forwards.
Real Adventure has also developed as a company over the years and the range of what we can offer increased significantly. The company has been a great journey for me and I am really exited to be pushing it forwards once more with this rather large step.
So by the end of the week, if all goes to plan, you will notice that the old site will have been changed a touch.
If you notice a lack of content straight away – apologies, there will be a time laps from when it goes live to adding the copy bit by bit.
The Website address will stay the same however the Blog will change from being a Word Press Blog to a blog with its own rights stylised under the RA site.
Once this is sorted you may need to change the path if you have the original set up in your favourites.
Dan Robinson
Head of Real Adventure
River Kent
Just as I get in from work (1845) I get a little txt from Gareth “get yourself to the get in on the kent at Morrisons for 1845″
Straight back out the door for and to the get in to see no sign of any boaters, back to New Road and the crowds of onlookers gave a clue as to what was going on under the bridge, on went the dry suit for another little fix whilst the water is still here.
“There ain’t no such a thing as bad weather – just the wrong choice of toys”
River Leven
Back in the Lakes it had been raining too.
The kent was a little high so we headed over to the Leven to catch a cheeky run before work.
Kat Mclennan, Gareth Field and I ran it twice, it is such a short section at the moment as Backbarrow Falls has a large quantity of scaffolding acting like a mincing machine for any unaware kayakers whilst they repair the bridge after the Floods of November.
Gareth, Kat & I After the first run down the River Leven
Kayaking the Conwy
Well as it was raining lots and the rivers where up and Sally (one of RA’s staff) was in wales and we all had our boats it seamed a shame to go home without stealing a before breakfast run down the river.
We started at about 6 in the morning so we could all get to work on time.
The river goes at about 3+ and has a great little s shaped drop on it. It was a shame we did not have much time to play on each wave.
Sally Ozanne kitting up before the River Conwy 0615
Off back to the lakes for a 1030 start!
I need to get a waterproof camera – any suggestions?
MIA Trainee Workshop Day – Teaching Leading & Climbing in Parallel
The second day of the weekends workshop – Rain lots of.
Steve and I decided the best venue would be Milestone Buttress sue to the grades and angles of the crag allowing for climbing in the wet.
When people are at this stage in there knowledge it is possible to hypothesise various methods and perceived methods before trying them out on the crag, this allowed another cup of tea and postponed the inevitable soaking we where going to get that day.
We looked at and discussed; when it is appropriate to let students lead, choice of routes, issues associated with students on the sharp end, types of rope systems and managing the system, stuck worried weak leader, appropriate use of parallel rope systems, slick and efficient application of parallel systems and methods of skill checking clients before committing them to the risks of climbing above there gear and belaying a pier.
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