Climbing, Climbing and more Climbing!
We’ve had some pretty ace Spring weather here in Pembrokeshire, and some awesome conditions for climbing! It’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last blog, so here’s a whistle stop tour of what we’ve been up to!
I had Chris and Stan down for the weekend looking to develop their lead climbing, learn some new rope skills and get slick at multi-pitch climbing. We had a couple of amazing days weather and climbed heaps of classic routes, and saw both their lead grades and their confidence grow massively. A really nice weekend with a couple of super nice guys! And the weather was soooo good I got out each evening for some personal climbing too!
Lead climbing course in Pembrokeshire with Chris and Stan..
Multi-pitch Climbing Skills in Pembrokeshire
After a nice day in the sun climbing with Beth, I spent the next with the TYF instructors, delivering some training in the extra skills their rock climbing instructors need to safely work on small single pitch sea cliffs outside the remit of their qualification. A really nice bunch and we got loads done. Simple skills such as hoisting a stuck climber and getting themselves up a fixed rope were practised at Porth Clais and we explored some of the other areas they might use..
Cliff rescues training for TYF
Straight up to North Wales then for the Mountain Training Climbing award providers workshops, held at Plas y Brenin. With some changes to the syllabus in the new awards, we got together to discuss the changes and attend various CPD workshops… We provide the Rock Climbing Instructor award (formerly the SPA) here in Pembrokeshire, it’ll be great to get delivering the new courses! A busy couple of days plus an evening sport climbing on the Orme where I failed to get up a single route! I also met up with Sara who will be freelancing in Pembrokeshire again this summmer and delivered a coastal crag sign off for her.. At Tryfan Bach, so not quite Coastal but did the job!
Rock Climbing Instructor award providers conference workshop
Sara rescuing me on her Coastal Crag sign off..
I had a rare long weekend off over the Bank Holiday, and I’m trying to take more of those this year otherwise we end up working so much over the summer! And the weather was perfect! I had an awesome couple of days climbing with Christine, great fun and some awesome routes, though we failed to get to the base of St Nons apinnacle despite a bit of wading – just too deep despite the low tide! Next time! Then Sina and I headed to south Pembs where she led her first VS! Inspiring stuff to watch!
Christine seconding The Great Valerio at Barcud, lovely Bank Holiday weather in Pembrokeshire!
Sina questing off up her first VS lead!
I was attending a Route Setters Association level 2 Course after that, a great couple of days run by Nate from Climbing Wall Services. I’ve never done any setting before so I’m really looking forward to putting some fresh lines up at the Haverfordwest climbing wall! Each evening after the course I headed over to TYF to run the coastal crag sign off assessments for their staff, and they’d obviously been practising as they were all slick and efficient at the rescues…
Louis getting stuck in on the RSA level 2 Course
Rach rescuing Dec during the coastal crag sign offs for the Rock Climbing Instructors at TYF
To wrap up a mega couple of weeks of work and play, I had a day with Alun climbing at Barcud, where we did some routes I hadn’t done in a while, found some chossy rock, and got a little damp due to some bigger than anticipated waves! All in a days climbing in Pembrokeshire!
Alun seconding me up Ethos at Barcud