Technical Courses Blog Category
← Older postsThe Ben – Compression Crack
Back up to The Ben for another day with Paul, the weather looked like this was the last chance to get out this week, with 100mph winds forecast for the afternoon on Thursday and tropical and even faster winds for the Friday.
Paul was keen to try out his newly discovered leash less skills on some steep ice. Due to the immanent weather and high avalanche conditions we headed safely over to Compression Crack V,5.
A huge Avalanche released drown South Castle Gully, one of the biggest I have seen in a while, a healthy reminder to take extreme care when route planing.
Into the after noon with temperatures rising, visibility reducing and wind increasing we abseiled down the route teaching Paul how to create a Double Abalakov (v thread).
After crawling and navigating our way back to the CIC hut we had the privilege of access to a quick brew before packing up and heading out before to conditions got worse!
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Comb Gully – Ben Nevis
Today Paul and headed up to the Ben to see what was in condition and climbable. The temperature were a little high so we headed to the higher routes. Weaving our way carefully around the patches of wind slab from island of safety to island of safety we managed to reach the base of Comb Gully. Paul had not climbed on true “Nevis Neve” before, what a delight.
We navigated over to the top of No. 4 Gully and inspected it, on inspection we decided it was safe to descend.
Back to the CIC hut to drop kit and then back to the Van.
Paul and his mountaineering club where staying at the CIC hut for the week. I’ll be back out on the hill with Paul on Thursdays after running a Climbing Wall Award (CWA) course for Telford College in Edinburgh.
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Kendal College Winter Skills Course
This week Kendal College have been on a Real Adventure in the Cairngorms learning about snow and ice and winter mountaineering. Neil Mathews and Sally Ozanne, 2 of our instructors, ran the course out of Ardenbeg Bunk House. The week was catered for by Real Adventure, Ronnie Dunn a local chef cooked in the evenings and the team ate well.
The week’s weather couldn’t have provided a better selection of what the hills can throw at you from high winds and snow to still & clear to even a brocken spectre.
Enjoy the video….
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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Dan Robinson
A selection of adventures from 2010
The Following Video is a selection of our 2010 Adventures.
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
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.
Red Tarn Cove
After a enthusiastic phone call on thursday night to Paul the decision to come to the Lakes to learn more about winter climbing and crank up some routes in the Lakes was made with no hesitation, abbreviation or deviation, once run past with the Misses of course!
With the snow fall that came down last night I was pleased of the strategic & cunning phone call to Bob. Bob owns a beast of a 4×4 with really big snow chains. There was no stopping us getting to Greenside Mines.
Today we did Gully One, II to warm up then down Swirral Edge as the usual decent, the bowl to the right of Viking Buttress, was banked out and after inspection looked like it may trigger. A quick bite then we legged it over to V Corner III where we caught up 2 lads who had a really early start from Durham then saw Tom finishing the last pitch.
2 lads were on Rape and Pillage and made a perfect job of it.
After more flap jack on the summit we headed down Striding Edge and back home for tea and cakes.
The conditions where perfect, a fussy person would say a little warm but this warming will help consolidate the snow pack.
There is a base layer of old hard snow and we noticed 3 layers in places of fresh, some of these layers were releasing easily in the built up areas.
Low Water Beck
Perfect Conditions for Izzi’s first ice climb.
Low water is in great condition as you can see from the video.
The snow is not very consolidated, towards the end of the day it had warmed up and began to ball up on our crampons.
Hopefully a cold night tonight will make it better to climb on.
When we descended into the valley there was a considerable amount of snow fall compared to higher up the hill.
It seamed that it was too cold to snow on the high tops.
The East has had more snow for longer compared to the west.
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