I spent a rather changable day at Pen Y Pass, with a small team from Plas Y Brenin on a refresher course for people working towards there Summer Mountain Leader Award. We concentrated on, you guessed it the ropework that is required for the award.
Basically this means that we look at what is required by the syllabus and make people choose the right anchors, tie into them with a rope and then belay someone down safely before they have to retreat down themselves. Pen Y Pass is a great little venue for this and doesn’t require moving too far from the car park to find all the terrain that we need.
We also looked at the Thompson Knot, various abseil methods and confidence roping. All this is done with just one rope, and by the end of the day, it feels like your head is one big knot. I am back there tomorrow to do a Navigation Skills course.