For the last two days I have been out on the hill working alongside MMU degree students, taking them through a couple of days of there Summer Mountain Leader Training. Tuesday was the ropework day, and today the mountain day.
I was working for Andy Newton who does a lot of provision for both ML and Single Pitch Award courses in North Wales and beyond. Andy is great to work with, as we often share stories from both his and my glory days on the Slate. Andy was around and about during the first Slate boom, and I have over the years climbed many of the test pieces both he and others at the time put up.
Today I went up and over Dinas Mot and down through Cwm Glas, finding some steep steps on the way to cover security and route finding on steep ground, as well as covering environmental and conservation aspects of the syllabus. The days are so short now though, I had to cut short the idea of cutting over Crib Y Drysgyl, as we only just made it down before the rapid onset of darkness.
Anyway off the wall again tonight, I was there on Monday and attempted a few of the new problems Gaz Parry had set. I manage a couple but they are proper hard, and really good to get you teeth into over the coming weeks. I was so knackered I resorted to routes because the problems were so hard.
Anyway, psyche for some crimping now!