British Mountain Guides Summer Test

Back in June the end of September and the first assessment on my guides training seemed ages away, loads of time I thought... As expected it all came around a bit too fast but in the end I got a good chunk of time out in the hills, not as much as I’d have liked but come the start of the assessment I felt I’d put as much effort into getting ready for it as I could have. Even though it rained for 90% of the time and we didn’t get any proper cragging in we had some really good days out just covering lots of easy ground and climbing lots of the classic routes in the mountains.

A rare respite from the rain on the top of Glyder Fach

The six days of assessment was hard, both physically and mentally. The last time I was properly assessed on anything was for my HGV driving tests and that was bad enough having someone watching your every move for 50 minutes, this was going to be six days of someone constantly look over your shoulder! The first two days of personal climbing and the problem/improvised rescue went really well with a couple of days in the sun at Gogarth and Tremadog.

Paul enjoying the sun at Gogarth on the personal climbing day

Unfortunately the Welsh monsoon returned for Wednesday and the start of the two day expedition part of the assessment. Over these two days you cover lots of mountaineering ground using all the different guiding techniques, show you can climb up to VS in big boots with all your bivi kit on your back and lots of night navigation thrown into the mix. The first day eventually ended coming down the Parsons Nose at about 2.00am (after a failed attempt to find the start of Reade’s Route on Crib Goch... opps!) and a final few night navigation legs brought us back down to the Climbers Club hut soaked to the skin at 4.00am. Finding ourselves locked out of the hut with all our sleeping bags inside (the decision not to bivi due to the weather had been made at the start of the day) we got the best result and drove back home for a few hours sleep. We finished off the final day of the expedition on and around the Idwal slabs and Sub Cneifon Rib in, surprise surprise, the rain again.

For the final two days we each had a proper client and an assessor to look after with the first day being a pure guiding day getting as much climbing done as possible and the second a teaching day. My client, Sky, was a super psyched Australian and luckily having lived in the UK for a few years had got used to the rain. We headed over to the Moelwyn’s and up to Clogwyn yr Oen for the first day where the really rough rock gives good positive and enjoyable climbing in the rain. We got ten pitches of climbing in, had the whole place to ourselves and even managed to take the waterproofs off by the end of the day. Chatting about the teaching day on the way back Sky was pretty keen to start looking at gear placements and belay building so with the sun forecast we made a plan to head to Tremadog the next day.

I’ve never done any teaching in my life so to say I was a bit apprehensive going into the final day of the assessment was an understatement. Although I didn’t feel confident by how the day went, I could tell my teaching skills were lacking that little bit of something, by the end of the day Sky had gone from never having seconded VS to cleanly following me up three routes of that grade and building her own bomber belays, but more importantly for me she enjoyed the two days (I think!).

So to the results... well I was really pleased to get a provisional pass, just being asked to observe a couple of days teaching to help give me a better idea on that side of things before I got an official pass. I was fortunate enough to be able to join Chris Ensoll (www.chris-ensoll.com) in the Lakes this weekend to get the required days done and my summer assessment signed off.

Mark Walker: The life of an Aspirant Guide.1

Just returned from a Mountain Leader Assessment with a couple of nights in the Welsh mountains. Directing these courses is such a dream when the candidates are good! It was stunning out there with dry days and perfect sunsets.

Photo: Mark Walker

Space is always of a premium on these mini breaks and to move around checking these guys out, my kit has to be light as well! I was using a Xero 350 sleeping bag. The conditions were pretty warm at night but the bag performed well and i wasn't bathed in sweat.

The full length zip was a bonus. Superlight and compact and just enough space for me in side. Im off tonight to work in the Alps for my first season as an Aspirant Guide. Its still pretty cold high up. I wonder how the bag will perform. I'll keep you posted!

Mark Walker is an Aspirant Mountain Guide as well as being a holder of the Mountain Instructor Certificate qualification. He is a member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) and lives near Llanberis in North Wales.

Baffin Big walls 2010 - Arctic Monkeys

the summit

Congratulations again to Mike 'Twid' Turner, Stuart McAleese and Mark Thomas on establishing their new route Arctic Monkeys (VI A4 V+ 1400m) on Sail Peaks, in Stewart Valley, Baffin Island.

base of the new route

The trio reached the base of the mountain at the start of May as you'll have read here at the blog and spent the past three weeks forging a line which Turner had spotted during a previous expedition back in 1999.

Mark climbing through the storm

Climbing capsule style, they spent 18 consecutive nights in portaledges on the wall and encountered difficulties up to A4 on the 1400m line. Furthermore, they were severely put to the test by poor weather and cold conditions (down to -20°C)

Despite running out of food the trio persevered and topped out at 16.00hrs on the 24th May in perfect conditions, before abseiling off rapidly and returning to civilization to escape the thawing fjord.

Stu takes a break in the portaledge

We'll have more information and photos from the guys over the next week but you can check out a full interview with Twid over at Planet Mountain here

Baffin Big walls 2010 - Success!

We are proud to annouce that Stuart McAleese, Mike ‘Twid’ Turner and Mark Thomas have successfully completed their objective of making a first ascent of a major Big Wall at Sail Peaks, Baffin Island.

In a telephone call from Stu, he explained:

“We reached the summit at 1600 hours yesterday (24th May 2010) and were down at the base of the pillar again by 0400 hours this morning.

We ran out of food and fuel while we were near the top but decided to keep on going. We’re currently trying to get the skidoo to pick us up tomorrow.

This is the most difficult, but rewarding climb any of us have ever done, and my word, are we looking forward to a few beers!”

Congratulations guys. More details and pictures will follow

Baffin Big Walls 2010 - Message from Stu

We've just had this message in from Stu.............


"The weather’s turned again, snowing hard. We’ve spent all day in the portaledges.

We’ve been making good progress still though, everyone’s happy and having a good time.

So far we’ve spent a total of 12 nights sleeping in the portaledge.

We’re not sure, due to the weather, but we don’t think we can be that far off the top now."

Guides summer training part 1

I was in the Lake District last week for the first part of my guides summer training. We started the week off up at Raven Crag in Langdale for a day of multi pitch guided climbing. The aim was to look at all the skills for getting the maximum climbing out of a day with 2 clients. We covered all the various options, one rope, two ropes, climbing in series and parallel. As well as the going up we also looked at and put into practice various way to safely and efficiently get the clients down.

On Tuesday we headed up to Dow crag above Coniston for a day of short roping. This is a skill that is completely new to me, when climbing with mates you either have the rope on, off or you’re moving together with varying amounts of rope out and gear between you. Short roping is used to safe guard clients when going up and down on easy ground. My first round of guiding Andy up and down the side of Dow crag was a complete shambles, there’s just so much to think about all at the same time. Slowly as the day progressed things started to click, I started to get my systems sorted and the whole thing seemed to run a lot smoother. It’s definitely one of the more difficult skills to learn and as a guide is one of the times you are most exposed to risk and danger. Anyway I finished the day having learnt a lot in a short space of time but knowing I’m going to have to put a lot of time in over the summer to get it dialled.

For the final day we drove up to Borrowdale and had a split day between Shephards crag and Black crag. Andy and I headed off with Tim Neil to spend a day looking at coaching techniques for multi pitch climbing. Unlike the first day which was looking at pure guiding techniques to get as much climbing in as possible the final day was aimed at clients who want to gain the skills necessary to go multi-pitch climbing themselves. The emphasis was about building a good teaching progression into the day and getting the clients involved in everything; building their own anchor once they arrive at the stance, belaying the second client up and just generally chatting through everything.

I spent all last week wearing the new Orion softshell, I’ve found this jacket a great choice for cragging in the UK when you’re not too sure what the weathers going to do as you set off up a multi-pitch route. Its over to North Wales next week for the second part of the summer training and hopefully a few days climbing after.

Kongur MRT at Work

Our Kongur MRT Jacket has now been at work for the past 8 months with Rescue teams from the UK to as far as New Zealand. Below is a slideshow of shots from just a few of the teams who we have worked with and supplied Kongur MRT Jackets too

For more information on the Kongur MRT head to the site here

also checkout and support your local team below

Mountain Rescue England & Wales

Mountain Rescue Scotland

Mountain Rescue Ireland

Baffin Big Walls 2010 - 3 days to go!

Stu, Mark and Twid are in the final few hectic hours of packing and checking before heading out to Baffin on Monday.

photo - Stewart Valley Baffin Island

Make sure you head over to the "Baffin Big walls 2010" site where you can find all the latest, plus live blog feeds via Satalite phone from the expedition as the guys attempt to make the first ascent of an unclimbed wall and peak in the Stewart Valley, on the North East Coast of Baffin Island.

Checkout the site here - http://baffinbigwalls.com/

Piolets d'Or 2010

Over the last few years the Piolets D’Or event has come under quite a bit of fire. So when Nick and myself found out a couple of months ago that our ascent of Chang Himal had been nominated I think my initial feelings were firstly very surprised, pretty chuffed but also maybe a small bit sceptical. Looking back at the week now I can safely say there was no need for any scepticism, it genuinely was a really good week, interesting, fun and very enjoyable.

It was also quite a surreal week as the whole event gets quite a bit of media interest over here so from drinking champagne on top of the Helbronner lift to cragging in the Aosta valley there were cameras everywhere. Something I’m glad I won’t have to get used to, but I’d be more than happy to get used to the amount of good food and wine that was consumed over the week! The best part of the whole event for me was meeting a lot of people who share the same passion and interest for the mountains as you do and sharing stories and future plans over a few drinks.

This year they gave out two awards, the first went to the American/Scottish team for their awesome ascent of the North Face of Xuelian West (6422m) in China. This was definitely my pick of the five nominees and I was really psyched that these guys got it, their whole trip was very inspiring, as well as Xuelian West they also made a number of other first ascent in the area during the month they spent there. The second award went to the Kazakh team and their very committing high altitude route on the South Face of Cho Oyu (8201m) in Nepal.

It’s far from the reason Nick and I both go climbing but at the same time having our ascent of Chang Himal chosen for nomination by such an experienced and respected jury, as was this years, was for me a big achievement and something I was quite proud about. I’ve read elsewhere that the Piolets d’Or is ‘struggling for identity’, OK it maybe needs a few tweaks here and there but from how I saw it as a get together and celebration of alpinism it seems just fine.

I didn’t get any pictures from the week but there’s a load of photos here http://www.pioletsdor.org/index.php?lang=en and you can see all 5 narrated films of the nominees here http://www.tvmountain.com/index.php/piolets-or