Organised for some of the retail stockists we work with the aim of this week is to promote a greater understanding of our products; what they are suitable for, how and why they are designed the way they are etc as well as providing a chance for retail staff to wear and experience our products in some of the conditions they were designed for. At the same time they of course get first class training and instruction in a whole variety of personal mountain skills.
These events take a lot of organising but for us they are really important. Not only do they give retail staff a fantastic opportunity to brush up on their own personal mountain skills, they get to learn a huge amount about our products in exactly the environment they were designed to work in. Easily the best form of training in my book.
12 staff from 6 stores from across the north of england and Scotland joined us (including The Climbers Shop, Cotswold Outdoor, Craigdon Mountain Sports, Cairngorm Mountain Sports, Cave & Crag and Ultimate Outdoors) for the 3 day course which in addition to loads of produc training featured tuition in ice axe arrest, using crampons, building snow shelters and avalanche awareness and safe travel.
Conditions were simply awesome, there was and is plenty of snow in the Scottish Highlands at the moment. This makes life so much easier, it is great when you can let conditions do the talking for you - spindrift blowing around in your face is the perfect tool for teaching folks about good hood design.
Day One was fairly grim (or great depending on your point of view!) - overcast, deep snow amd strong winds high up gave it 7/10 I would say for a typically epic scottish winters day.
Day Two was stunning. We were blessed with unbeliebably good weather for an ascent of Buachaille Etive Mor. I doubt anyone will forget that day, the views over to the Mamores and the Aonach Eagach Ridge were simply stunning.
Day Three and the Atlantic returned. Heavy snow soon settled in for our day on Aonach Mor. Luckily everyone got to work building some seriously impressive snow shelters for us to hide away in for a few hours.
