Technical & Committee Blog Category

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Association of Mountaineering Instructors AGM and CPD weekend

Each year at the AMI’s AGM there is a chance to update our knowledge, share experiences and have a good catch up with friends and likeminded professionals. The workshops included; Transceiver use and Companion Rescue, MIC Trainee, GPS, Avalanche & Snow Safety, MLT provider Workshop, Dry Tooling, Short Roping, BMC FUNdamentals, MWIS weather forecasting, MIC Refresher, Winter ML update/trainee workshop, BMC Learn to Train, Technical Advisor Workshop, Business & Tax Advice and Climbing With Stu McAleese ( IFAGM/MIC) and Andy Turner (MIC) both with the support from DMM and Mountain Equipment, our main sponsors.
A Talk by top UK climber Nick Bullock (supported by DMM) followed dinner.
The weekend was well attended.

BMC Technical Committee Meeting

This committee meets 4 times a year on a monday evening at the BMC offices in Manchester.

The widely recognized BMC belay device poster is due for a fresh look and re print. This is a request to have a look at the poster and report back if you have any ideas on anything you think needs to be added or changed.

Neville McMillan has now stepped down from the UIAA Safety Commission and has handed over to Rob Foster. Neville has been helping devise standards on climbing and mountaineering equipment for over 17 years. A huge thanks needs to go out to him for his commitment and dedication to improving standards and safety within climbing.

Neville’s final efforts have been in the area of rope diameter the new rope standards will state that the diameter will have to be marked and must be within + or – 0.3mm of what is stated at point of sale. This change will help ensure users have the ability to match their belay device with their rope.

Crampon standards will be published in May this year now they have finished debating the co efficient of friction with relative angles that the points can be used at on UIAA standard ice.

Energy absorption standards for via ferrata equipment is to be revised so that the strength of the stitching will withstand a user error and will not blow if pulled in the wrong direction. Also the use of these fall arrest devices with regards to the use for children and small adults. Part of this research is to look into the issues by minors taking dynamic falls in a harness and what internal damage can be created.

The BMC‘s Technical Committee is an accumulation of experts from the climbing world. Members consist of Metallurgists, Engineers, Manufacturers, and the likes. I stand on the committee as a technical expert from an instructional / user point of view. The committee is a vital part of testing faulty equipment and creating and enhancing the UIAA and EN standards on equipment for climbing.

This gathering of experts also use their knowledge for the various BMC technical publications, and provide independent advice on equipment.

I have voluntary represented the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) on this committee for the past 4 years.

BMC Bolt Lower off Video

The BMC‘s Technical Committee is an accumulation of experts from the climbing world. Members consist of Metallurgists, Engineers, Manufacturers, and the likes. I stand on the committee as a technical expert from an instructional / user point of view. The committee is a vital part of testing faulty equipment and creating and enhancing the UIAA and EN standards on equipment for climbing.

This gathering of experts also use their knowledge for the various BMC technical publications, and provide independent advice on equipment.

I have voluntary represented the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) on this committee for the past 4 years.

As part of the work of this committee we produced this helpful video.

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Thanks

Dan Robinson

A selection of adventures from 2010

The Following Video is a selection of our 2010 Adventures.

GCSE Y11 PE – Climbing

I am the Technical Advisor for a large secondary school in Manchester.
The School use Real Adventure to…

• undertake structural surveys and repairs of their climbing wall
• clean and reset the holds
• create the risk management and working procedures policy
• train staff in the operation of the wall
• site specific assessments of the staff
• continual monitoring and staff development
• Climbing Wall Award trainings and assessments
• GCSE PE for climbing

Each week through Dec, Jan and Feb we are delivering the GCSE PE Climbing Syllabus.

Sally Ozanne, Rich Maywhort and I are running the training for the young people. Yesterday I was down at the school wall delivering session 1 for the red team.

The Staff we trained back in september are assisting us deliver the syllabus enabling them to gain group experience before their assessment.

Raven Crag Gully

Going by the knowledge of Friday’s outing at Low Water and a little word of mouth that someone had got up Raven Crag Gully. Paul and I got an early start to beet the crowds.

Driving conditions were great, am temp in Kendal at 0600 was – 3 Thirlemere Valley – 6.5

We met 2 lads in the car park who were dedicated to the cause, 8 hour drive to get to the Lakes for just one day’s climbing then back home tonight!

At the foot of the route we could hear a team in front which turned out to be a pal, Steve Stout when we caught them up.

Gearing up happened in lightning speed, the keen team were kind enough to let us past which was handy as at the top of the first pitch we counted 12 people!!!

Conditions were thin, not all the route had formed and this pushed us out onto the left rib for pitch 3 rather than sticking to the direct line. Paul from King Kong CLimbing Walls and his pall scratched up it and reported from below that is was a little like dry tooling up a damp water fall rather than ice climbing!

The top pitch was there and in fine fettle, plenty of ribbing back to Steve for they had decided to scratch their way left rather than pear back into the ghyll to spy the top pitch.

Stunning views and a pleasant walk back down in time for a stop into Needle Sports.

Chatting to others that were out today…

Sour Milk Ghyll was in, but thin, a lad had fallen up to his waist in a pool.

Others had reported lots of ice up Honister and clear roads to the top due to the slate quarry keeping it open.

ERCA Int. Ropes Course Conference

This week I have been down in Liddington, attending the ERCA International Ropes Course Conference.

Standards, legislation, practices and technology in the ropes course industry have changed dramatically in the last two years and the purpose of the conference was to bring technical advisors, like myself, up to date with these developments. We had the opportunity to see the role that ERCA has played in these developments and how its training and inspection schemes are leading the way in the United Kingdom.  There where leading specialists who presented on a variety of different topics. Here is a link the information on the Key Note Speakers.

The event went well and enabled us, the technical advisors to ensure we are giving current up to date knowledge to those that we advise in.

If you are looking for a technical advisor please get in touch.

Shelters Removed

The shelters located on Carn Dearg (Ref: NN 158 718) and in Coire Leis (Ref: NN 174 714) have been removed.
Read more…

Zip Line Inspection

Today I headed over to inspect a Zip Line before we use it with one of our larger courses this year.

I was pleased to see that they had removed a suspect tree from the system…

Last year we did not use it due to concerns I had, its great to see recommendations taken forward and acted upon.

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