I have spent the last three days out on the hill on a Summer ML assessment for Plas Y Brenin, it was the first bit of assessing that I have done in this country, and I had a two hour talk through the process with the course director, about how to assess and what to look for. It was a great top up from the assessor workshop I had been on previously. I guess the best way I can describe the assessment process is through that of a detective, where through a process of eliminating all the skills we need to check through we can see whether or not someone is at the level of competence.
The real skill, and one I have to admit I am only starting to get a handle on is setting tasks or navigational legs to tease out those answers. As whilst the expedition is done over three days on the hills, the time is less than you think when you include ropework, navigation, emergency proceedures, group management and all the other skills that make up the syllabus.
It was a interesting few days, and I feel it went well from my perspective. As I came to some of the same conclusions as the assessor who had been with the group from earlier in the week. I guess that some group or another were bound to be my first. We also had a lovely few days on the hill, heading up over Lliwedd and into Cwm Tregallen to camp and night nav. It was colder that night than on my winter ML, getting down to about minus 5! After that we headed up the south ridge of snowdon to Blwch Main, before heading down towards Cwm Clogwyn, and then round into the cwm below cloggy. Another night of navigating before heading out down the Lechog ridge towards Llanberis, and the most well earnt fry up in Pete’s Eats.
I am glad to be off the hill and back home now, however I have got just about enough time to pack my bags and get ready to head out with Andy Newton on a ML training course with him tomorrow!