West Ridge of Sgurr Connich

I've lived over 12 and a half years in Lochaber and its getting rarer for me to find enjoyable new spots to visit but today was a welcome exception. Steve and I were on day 2 of with our West Highland College students on the Rescue and Incident Management course and today we wanted to give them some simple rope work, route finding and general mountaineering tools. The forecast wasn't helpful but a flip through Noel Williams' Lochaber Scrambles reminded me of the routes down the side of Loch Shiel I'd always planned to do but never gotten around to. Its always a bit of a gamble going to a new venue on a teaching day but given how low lying the route was (ideal with fresh snow forecast to low levels) we decided to give it a try.
We had a grand scramble with an opportunity to play with the ropes on the approach (passing wood anemones and primroses in bloom) . The gneiss/pegmatite slabs are rough and either hold little vegetation or enough to provide reassuring ledges- very different from yesterday's lichenous mica schist. We were zapped with hail and heavy snow high on the route but its easy to zigzag and avoid the steps you don't want to do. The group coached each other through the slab sections and used the rope to protect the final steps up to a stunning sunny view as we made our way the short hop to the summit of Meall na h-Airigh (Rounded Hill of the Shieling) passing frogspawn laden pools and a large pellet of undigested bones, fur and insect exoskeleton from a raptor.
The sun was out and the views north to Glenfinnan were lovely with the viaduct clearly visible. A little further east the 2 tops of Gulvain stood out against the blue sky but it was the view along Loch Eil to Ben Nevis that we followed down the east ridge and back to the van parked at Callop.

 The West Ridge of Sgurr Connich

 A little navigation

 A little rope work

 Must be spring

 The gorge

 Onto the ridge

 Rough slabs

 Change in the weather

 Hail...

 ...and snow

 Round the corner

 The Loch below

 Loch Shiel

 Come on up

 Loch Shiel below

 Topping out

 Top team

 Time for a drink

 Aha! A pellet

 Fresh snow on Ben Nevis

 Glenfinnan below

Time to go!

Training for trouble

Today Steve and I were working with 7 West Highland College students on their 'Rescue and Incident Management' module. We headed up to Steall Meadows and around Meal Cumhain looking at prevention, leadership styles, contacting the emergency services, equipment and some scenarios varying from a blister to moving an injured party and the limitations of various types of carrys. A fine, cool day and the pictures show plenty of snow still in the coires of the Mamores although the ridges are beginning to strip back .Another blast of winter tomorrow though!

 Stunning first thing

 Through the gorge

 An Steall Ban

 Sunshine

 Across the meadow

 Well packaged!

 In shelter

 Snug as a big in a thermal wrap

 3 years in Lochaber and his first time over the bridge

 Lift

 How far can you carry over rough ground?

 Blister

 Where are we anyway?

 Through the bealach- its that mug again!

 Sgurr a Mhaim, Stob Ban and Mullach nan Coirean

Plenty snow left and more to come tomorrow

Developing the IDS at Glenmore Lodge

For the last 2 days I've been working at Glenmore Lodge with the new members of the Instructor Development Scheme. As part of my role as the Lodge's climbing wall Technical Advisor I did a day of site specific training to make sure they are happy supervising the wind variety of climbers that may visit the wall, ensuring they can deal with any problems that arise and that they are happy making simple, day to day inspection of equipment and the fabric of the wall. On the second day I was running an MCofS FUNdamentals 1 for them looking at theories of long term participant development, warm ups for different types of climbers, the concepts of balance, weight shift and centre of mass and how they impact on us on off vertical and vertical surfaces and the use of hand and footholds- a top fun day with a chatty team!

Figuring problems and solutions out for themselves

Peter on a funky chimney problem

FUNdas 1 What are the fundamentals of climbing? 

 Warmups- tic tac toe 

 Human knot- a classic

 Designing exercises in agility, balance and co-ordination

 Fail!

 How do you get that to stick there Becky?

 Simon says

 Touch a hold

 Toss a beanbag

 David enjoying Peter's facial expressions?

 Ring a sling

 Centre of Mass or Centre of Gravity?

 Balls in armpits?

 The pendule rule

 Accuracy and precision but how do you carry it forwards into a wall context?

Know your holds

Winter 15/16 Roundup

A quick video of images and clips from this winter season. A tough one with weather and illness conspiring to rob me of climbing time- more play less work next year methinks! Thanks to all who joined me on the hill, see you next time!
Winter 2015-16 from Alan Halewood on Vimeo.

Easter and back to work

I spent a few days on Eigg over the holidays with the family. I took my shoes and a chalk bag but it wasn't to be. The weather in Lochaber has reminded me of autumn, wet snow on the hills, drizzle and heavy cold showers lower down.
For the last 2 days I've been working for Glenmore Lodge with 4 staff from Kilbowie Outdoor Education Centre looking at aspects of running climbing sessions. The Centre sent the staff along for some CPD and to look at current issues and thinking relevant to some of the work they do. With a wet forecast yesterday we went to the Ice Factor to chat about peer belaying, various ways of attaching students to ropes, some rigging options prior to going outside today and who we can actually help people climb better. Today we went to Polldubh and rigged some setups similar to those they use at work, discussed pros and cons and worked through problem avoidance and solutions.
I'm always interested to work with a variety of other instructors and its great to be able to share ideas, bust some myths and point out that most ideas/systems have strengths and weaknesses. There are far more 'pros and cons' than 'rights and wrongs' in what we do. Whilst it is important not to overcomplicate things its also good to take opportunities it critically evaluate and understand what we do and why we do it that way.

Climbing time

 How many ways can you think of to attach someone to a rope?

 'Quiet feet' with consequences

The family turned up at the end of the day- No.1 son practising his clipping

 An accompanied abseil

 Group abseiling antics

Heavy showers

3 Wise Monkeys

Opening a new climbing wall is a big job (I remember working 80 days straight to get the Ice Factor open in 2003). The team at 3WM are nearly there and I've nothing but respect for all of the effort they've put into getting this close.
I spent the last 2 days doing some training for the staff at the wall (and, ahem, a little climbing too- got to keep the training contextual)- team psyche is high! The Management are keen to create a friendly wall for both existing climbers as well as those new to or just giving it a try so we spent a lot of time talking about how we expected the wall to be used and levels of different practise that are acceptable and how to approach customers when the staff aren't familiar or have questions about what they are doing.
Dream Walls have as usual made great use of the space. The wall is narrow but not excessively so and the fist batch of routes were great. The bouldering wall has been literally taking shape before our eyes no just bring on May when I can use it all the time!!

 Bouldering under construction

 Testing some routes

 Nathan on the orange in the flarey chimney of doom

 Climb

Evening on the hill