Month: February 2013

So having spent a bit of a late night slamming more code, I almost got the iCoach Climbing Offline Logging App functioning. I then got back up and made further progress with web based SQL and JQuery. If you don’t know what that is, I would keep it that way as it is not the easiest thing to get your head around.

The weather had been forecast to be warm and sunny, although there was a bit of cool breeze. So I teamed up again with Si Lake and headed up to Vivian Quarry again. We ran into Andy Scott and Grimer repeating the route we did the lite version of yesterday. Unfortunately that meant they were on Comes the Dervish, so we headed over to the Conscience Slab.

I really wanted to do Never as Good as the First Time, but it was a little damp so instead did another route I regularly throw laps on Is It a Crime? All the routes were first ascended by Mike Raine who all those years ago felt very strongly against bolts but managed to overcome his conscience to make several very good routes on this great slab.

Having both climbing that we headed back to The Dervish for lap one of 2013. This is such a great route and I don’t know whether it is easier than a few of the pitches I have done in the last week that are E2, or its just I know every runner and foot hold intimately. I alway joke the polish is in part down to the number of times I have run up after work.

I think the best thing about Vivian this time of year is that it gets the sun in the afternoon and is sheltered from the winds going up or down the pass. You also get the most amazing view of Llanberis and Llyn Padarn.

Over the years I have probably climbed this combination of routes many different times and with many different combinations of routes. Today after a morning spent hacking code together I met up with Lakey for a quick hit. He had asked if we had left it too late in the day.

However with the days drawing, some sun in the sky and Vivian quarry a little more than a stones through away what had we got to lose. I suggested the East Face link up aka Sunchaser Wall. It was a link I dreamt up a few years ago and even added a bolt to help two route blend together better.

Si lead Mental Lentils and then I headed up the awkward and thin Monster Kitten. Followed by simon running up Too Bald to Be Bold, proving at least he wasn’t. I then ran up Last Tnago to finish. Four stella pitches climbed and 5 E points. It took us around two hours so we aren’t moving that slow after a few weeks hanging on axes.

As we bounced down the stairs back to the base and our bags I couldn’t help reflecting that despite having climbed the route many times, it is one route I simply never tire of. Whilst for many even the first pitch of mental lentils is there first adventure into the mixed trad/bolted lines of slate and a route many covet an ascent of.

The last pitch we climbed that day Last Tango in Paris is a classic of the slate, although everytime I climb it I can’t help thinking that it is not long for this world as the arete is slow edging towards the base of the quarry some 60+metres below. I just hope I am not below it or on it when it goes the distance!

This route is on the hallowed ground of the Dervish Slab, and as such it makes it onto so many climbers wish list. Yet to me it is my local crag and one of the few routes I have climbed hundreds of times. Like today a short hit either between work, after work or if I am lucky for work.

The sun looks set to shine for a few days and the rock will hopefully dry, if however you are still in winter mode then there are some high gullies that are still in conditions.

A massive thank you to the weather for stopping raining for a few days.

With it starting to feel like spring then you can always get psych for this route as it features in the free lite version of the North Wales Rock Android and iOS app. Avaialble via the app store or google play. You can also find link to the full app on these pages or via the send.

If you’d like to be guided up this monumentous route then have a look at Snowdonia Mountain Guides Guiding pages.

Later this year the Mountain Training UK are launching a new coaching qualification in climbing. It has been a long road to get there for them and I was a part of that process when I helped author the report into ‘Coaching in Mountaineering’ for the BMC and MT, having spent 2 years on the national source group on coaching. This document lead to these new awards that are due to release soon.

Seeing the future I went back to school to study Applied Sports Science with effective coaching, sport’s psychology and performance physiology at Masters level. I managed to pass this high level degree and ever since I have been waiting for these new awards hoping that I get the opportunity to be provider.

I have also taken the time to distill what is generally seen as skill acquisition and behaviours of an effective coach into a eBook format for iPad at the moment (I am looking into ways to retain the formatting in kindle but I am not sure it is going to be possible). I am also still developing online tools for coaches over at iCoach Climbing.

Anyway the book was released last week and then I headed down south for a spot of climbing before head back to explain the book in more detail. The book starts with an overview of what makes a coach looking at what we might consider the four core parts:

• Biomechanical Skills – Movement
• Cogntive Skills – Tactics and mental skills
• Physiologocal Skills – fitness, stamina and strength
• Social Skills – Fostering good interpersonal relationships
• Coaching Process – Skill acquisition

This book focus’ on the last two generic skills of a coach with the main emphasis on how we learn and how we can teach. I start with how we learn, as if we as coaches and instructors can understand learn then it is short step to reverse engineer it to teaching.

Having explained learning I then do something that I have not seen in any other text and link learning to anxiety models. I did this because it is my experience as a climbing coach that anxiety does disrupt learn and I use existing models to suggest ways that this happens. Whilst only short I think this chapter really makes the book stand out specifically for climbing coaches and how we can deal with anxiety issues.

I then go onto teaching and use many different models from some I have used in the United States on WEA coach/Instructor educations courses and other more standard skill acquisition models like ideas and edict. I then however go onto explain that these models are just that and instead focus more on what they contain:

• Introductions
• Demonstration
• Explanations
• Effective Practice
• Observation, Analysis and feedback
• Correction (more effective practice)
• Conclusion

The next chapter after this is about more advanced coaching and I look at communication skills like questioning techniques to find out exactly whats wrong so you can be more effective at finding the right solution. I then look at leadership using a simple model before utilising transformational leadership as a way to improve not only your leadership but your groups performance. I then move this onto team development strategies by look at collective confidence and group cohesion. The chapter ends by looking at legal and moral dilemmas facing climbing coaches today and child protection issues.

The last chapter focus on reflective practice for coaches and uses several models to help give you a framework to start reflecting on all your coaching sessions.

The whole book is aimed at raising your awareness and giving you ways to improve your coaching. As to me that is one of the key things to being a great coach, you need a chance to develop and constantly evolve, this book will help you do just that.

It is available in the iBookstore either search for effective coaching or you can find Effective Coaching: The Coaching Process for Climbing Instructors via this link. The learning chapter is available as a free sample.

I have spoken to Mountain Training about this book and at present they haven’t commissioned an official handbook on coaching. So it may transpire that this might be the only book available on the subject for a while. I am planning on putting together a mental skills for climbing instructors next, as I feel that my first book ‘How to Climb Harder’ covers the cognitive, movement and training aspects of coaching. Whilst How to Climb Harder does cover mental skills, I felt it would be possible to make a much more detailed book on the subject.

Anyway if you do purchase the book then I really appreciate any feedback here or by leaving a review on iBooks.

I returned from the Culm last night, it was a rather epic drive back after a great two days climbing. Why so short, well with the wonders of the met office we realised our weather window was up. Llion had to be back for thursday and it looked like rain all day today. So we popped the roof of his camper back down and headed North.

Our time down there was far from perfect, damp rock due to the conditions was beyond our control but having climbing several classics it seemed like a productive trip compared to the wintery scenes in North Wales where some of my friends have been out climbing with tools.

Sharpnose for the uninitiated is probably not your typical crag. It is tidal, requires a scramble or abseil approach and has long and demanding routes that are pumpier than first appearance. Yet to me they somehow felt nice and to all extents and purposes a cragging venue. Yet I’d imagine that if you are not used to exploring deep forgotten zawns on remote sea cliffs then you’d be out of your depth pretty quickly.

It strikes me as a great summer venue as there are southerly and northerly aspects to each fin. Which are by all accounts pretty unique formations to climb on. Whilst there is a HVS down there in the main you need to be climbing E1+ to get the best out of this venue and you probably want a nice breeze and some sun to dry the rock.

For us the base of all the routes were very damp, as there was a 6ft+ swell and little in the way of sun or breeze to dry the rock. As such the starts felt like taking your life in your hands until you reached drier rock above. The climbing is wild and unrelenting in places but superb. I can’t wait to head back down to climb Fay the classic E4 on the middle fin in better conditions.

 

 

Today headed over to Lower sharpnose to visit a crag I have really wanted to visit for ages. We were rewarded with a small amount of sun.

Llion did the smile and I did an e2 to the left. Llion had to rest as he and the crag were out if shape. I had to rest on the e2 as I was bamboozalled by the routes crux.

Great day, I wish it was nicer and I was fitter as I now have to return to climb Fay, one of the most amazing looking lines I have ever seen.

I get some pics up and ful trip report later as typing in a van driving up the m5 on the old iPhone is not the best way to do this.

I love the culm though!

I am current in Devon on a very last minute dot com trip to try and find some dry rock. It has involved an awful lot of driving. We started at 10am and pretty much drive through rain all the way to the Culm coast, named after the slate type rock that abounds.

After a shower last night and waiting for the tide to drop this morning I grew very impatient and climbed the rut arête of the classic black church rock. A nice VS in hideous condition. I nearly slipped off the biggest ledge ever such was they dampness.

We then played a waiting game and eventually I gave up and racked up and went for Sacre Coeur one of the best lines in the south west. E2 going on E3 in today’s conditions. As if I wasn’t setting myself up for a fall anyway the bottom was soaking wet to the crux where the rock was merely damp. I also forgot my chalk bag although I doubt chalk would have helped. As such I had to place lots of gear and ran out by the top.

So I was face with the dilemma try and place gear and not extending or if in don’t run it out. I took option b which I don’t recommend. I was looking at a 10m plus lob as I lined up for an all out slap for the top. I prayed that it be a jug otherwise it was going to be the shortest dynamic upward movement followed by one of the longest downwards I would have taken in a while.

The jug delivered I topped out, although technically I did fall on the route after a foot popped but fortunately my bomber finger lock on my broken/bruised fingers from winter climbing stayed put not without a lot of pain!

A lovely place and seeing that it is half term the place is empty, so I recommend a visit down here based on this one route, if you like slate you’ll love culm.

It was a friends birthday last night and I went round the house he is lodging in for a quick dose of mojito’s which turned into a rather intensive consumption. Anyway his landlord had a fish tank and I looked into it and saw nothing of interest just a few mosses and such like.

Later in the pub I sat down next to him and had to ask ‘What’s in the fish tank?’, something he is obviously asked a lot as he offered a short and a long answer I initially choose the short. However as the conversation progressed I guessed he switched to the long answer. Where to me the fish tank on first appearances seems to be a mossaraiurm (is there such a thing, it probably has a posh scientific name).

Anyway it appears that in that tiny fish tank is one of only two mosses that are being cultivated in the world. It is a rare filmy fern moss from the rainforest of Chile. There is only a few small sites in that rain forest where that species grow. Snowdonia has a few sites where a distant cousin grows the Wilson’s Filmy Fern Moss and I regularly take groups up the gorge where this species literally hangs onto its existence.

The geek and the instructor in me was interested in finding out more from this guy. Who described himself as a paleobotanist only interested in species that are still alive today. I had walked into his garden at night, however during the day it is apparently an interesting site to behold. The entire garden, save for the occasional weed is made up of plants that first appeared over 60 million years ago. Like a living museum for rare plants that have somehow avoided becoming part of the fossil record by doing what nature does best and surviving.

He even has a Snowdon Lily growing on his garage roof. I can’t wait for may when it flowers, as to this day I have never seen one, come to think of it I just can’t wait to pop in to see my mate and view his Garden which apparently will be part of the National Open Gardens week later this year.

He then went onto to tell me that as well as the better known species of alpine flowering plants in Snowdonia, many of them that have hung around for millennia, that there are some lesser known extremely rare plants. Plants where the only known surviving example occupy a single small patch of land the size of a dining table or less in some cases. There is potentially a new species of saxifrage just off a path that I know extremely well, that he is waiting for the plant to flower to see if indeed it is a new species.

An utterly amazing guy who I think helps sum up what its like to live in Llanberis, as it attracts people with a passion for anything from climbing through to mountain biking and kayaking through to paleobotanists. Everyday is a school day as they say.

If you’d like to find out more about rare plants then I recommend Mike Raine’s book The Nature of Snowdonia, who ironically used to live next door to the guy who has a prehistoric garden.

Well I have had a busy day for me. This morning I was teaching at the indoor wall at the Conway Centre with my good friend Llion. It seems ages since we last worked together and its always good fun, the group were amazing in many ways, first there enthusiasm and behaviour made it an easy session. Although that could be because there was another instructor as well.

There was also one girl in the group who had a condition that had far to many syllables to remember but essentially she was in a wheelchair, so I nipped into the wall early to rig the hoist I often use in these situations and we then got the class to warm up and I had a quick chat with the teachers and the girl about what she thought she could do.

Given that the teachers said she could stand if assisted, I decided to for go the hoist and just get her climbing. She took her time and had to really work hard to place her feet on the holds, but as well as a bit of easy traversing which was quite hard as she had less lateral movement than upward movement, she also manage to make it up two roped routes. After which she was quite justifiable knackered. I tried to get her to search for the Fran Brown video for a bit of inspiration. Who knows maybe she’ll get into climbing as she lives around Kendal.

After that I came home and went to collect the Climber’s Against Cancer T-shirts I had ordered. So I can now get some cash of those who ordered them and hand out the love. Seeing as the Post Office depot is next to the wall, I did a quick session, although I went out to quick and got thoroughly pumped on a long traverse, silly me.

I then came home and did some research on browser cache, local storage and a few other bits and bobs with an eye for making a offline web interface for the logbook section of iCoach Climbing. So I will probably be busy next week.

Finally I uploaded to iBooks the next book I am publishing Effective Coaching: A Climbers Guide to the Coaching Process. There are plans for it to be a Kindle book soon, I just need to decide how I am going to do that as the ePub format means I’ll loose all the great formatting and I am not sure how protected PDF’s are? It cost £7.99 and is 35000 words on learning, teaching and other skills for existing and developing climbing coaches.  I will do a full post on the book tomorrow.

 

This mornign I had a text off a friend who I am sad to say is quite right, said I sounded like the second guy in this video. I have to say even I heard the similarities, but have to confess that I have not been up to the Norries recently, or indeed ever been on the route.

I must apologise for posting this vid as it has done the rounds of FB and no UKC.

If like me you use the awesome news reader Flipboard on your smart phone or tablet, you are probably disapointed that there is not a climbing category for you to view. I felt like that as well and decided to have my own hackathon today. I took some generic JQuery flipboard styling that someone had put together and then linked it to the climbing news page I had on iCoach and produced Vertical Life Magazine.

I had a few gliches on the way and I have to wait to see if my code takes the the images from the blogs. However is looks really good and if the code behind it stands up then it should work really well too.

As a blogger, I do hate people essentially stealling my blog post or images, if people don’t link back to the source. As such I have limited the words we get from the original sources to 100 and only take one image that is not displayed full size. We also only keep the details for 24 hours at the moment although I might increase it to 48, as the idea is that it is more like  newpapers highlighting the news of the day.

The only problem is you need to view the page in safari, chrome or iPad. Without it you can’t get the effects. Believe it is a small price to pay to see it. I will list all the blogs it links too, but in the mean time if you have a blog you’d like to see included then message me here and I’ll add the RSS feed to the database.