Monthly Archives: March 2010

Church Beck User Group Meeting

Church Beck is a fantastic Ghyll in the Lake District Nr Coniston.

Tonight was a meeting of all users for the ghyll to talk about access and run through ideas for reducing erosion.

I am beginning the process of collating information of other venues throughout the Lakes that have been closed over the years and looking at way we can re-open these for use with groups and individuals.

If anyone has any information of ghylls we may not have thought about or access history that may be useful please drop me an e-mail.

The Outdoor Show

The AMI are invited by DMM to run the Ice Climbing wall at the Outdoor Show each year.

This year I went down to help out on the stand.

The wall is made from a high density foam and offered a great opportunity for people to have a go at using ice axes and crampons.

Thanks DMM for the invite and to all the people who I saw and coached during the day.

Grip ‘a’ bility

At this years BMC’s Technical Conference at PYB in November I will be running a workshop on Grip’a'bility. Designed to increase peoples knowledge of the ability to grip different diameters of rope by hand, attendees will be able to test and experience the load that their hand can hold on different ropes.

Today I went along to Lyon Equipment’s facilities to run some preliminary tests and to finalise the practical for the conference.

BMC Technical Committee Meeting

I stand on the BMC’s Technical Committee representing the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI).

This is a group of highly knowledgeable people ranging from metallurgists, engineers, manufactures, textile experts who are all climbers. The Aim of the group is to issue safety advice and investigate incidents of failed equipment.

Biannually the committee holds a conference at Plas y Brennin this year the theme is friction. There will be practical sessions in the morning and lectures + theory session in the afternoon with a speaker in the evening. Sportiva will be there demonstrating the friction of boots and Vibram rubber. Jim Titt from Bolt Products will be running a workshop on belay devices and rope friction through them and I have been invited to run a workshop on gip ‘a’ bility.

We all meet in Manchester at the BMC’s offices around 5 time per year.

Weekend Road Trip

Each year Robin and Jenny come to Scotland for a weekends play in the cold stuff.

This year we stayed in Torlundy, Robin and I headed to the ice and Jenny Skied on the Saturday, Sunday we all headed to Glencoe then home after a meal in the Drovers Inn on the way home.

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