Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Monday and Tuesday, tooling and climbing

Shifting centre of gravity and using crampons
Tooling on the towers
 Bridgeing the corner
 Matt on top
 Mixing it up on the Ciste Crag
A solid corner with great hooks and gear!
 Joe following the corner
Yesterday's training pays off

Matt's turn
So this week I’m at Glenmore Lodge working an Introduction to Winter Climbing week with Matt and Joe. The weather yesterday was pretty horrific so we talked kit, refreshed some ropework in the wall and went on the towers. We looked at efficient use of the crampons on rocky mixed ground before introducing the tools to.
 
Yesterday paid off! Although the forecast today was grim again and we could only drive as far as the Ciste Car Park (and then after a bit of a wait) we managed to get some good climbing done. The weather didn’t turn out to be particularly bad in the Ciste Gully so we headed up to the crag on the left. This spot can be quite loose and most of the lines are a bit harder than they first appear but we managed 3 short pitches of III up the right side and the top corner (which was solid and well protected probably merited III,4- not bad for the guys first time out). The guys swapped positions in the rope system to practise building their own belay, bringing each other up and lead belaying.
We finished with a quick trip back down down to the base of the crag for Joe and I to squeeze one more pitch out of the day.
If you haven’t already seen it Lucy’s Blog gives a great insight into the mental pressures of a Winter ML Assessment- not just useful for candidates but also to those Assessing other people.
 

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