Sandy Paterson Mountaineering

This is a blog of my personal and work climbing along with all the other things I do in the outdoors. Please feel free to have a look at my main website.

Over winter I will try and blog at the end of each week, however I will aim to tweet each day so feel free to follow me @SandyPMIC



http://www.sandypaterson.co.uk/

Friday 25 May 2012

5 days of Sun..........on Skye!!!

















I am just home from an amazing week in Skye working for and with Rob Johnson of Expedition Guides based in North Wales. We spent the week scrambling some of the best bits of the Cullin under warm sun and blue skies. Over the week we visited a number of summits - Sgurr a'Mhadaidh, Sgurr a'Ghreadaidh, Sgurr na Banachdich, Innaccessible Pinnacle, Sgurr Mhich Choinnich, Clach Glas and Blaven. A great week and a real joy to be out in the mountains in such wonderful weather.

I have next week off so fingers crossed this warm weather stays so I can get out climbing!

Saturday 19 May 2012

Summer ML Training on the West

Teaching navigation in poor vis.



Looking for the summit cairn!

Heading home
I am just home from the west coast after another ML Training course for Scotch on the Rocks Guiding. The end of the course had us out on expedition down near Bridge of Orchy were we had some fairly wet weather although not as cold as forecast only snow to 700m not 500m! The team did really well on some challenging navigational terrain and have now been sent away to get lots of practise in before coming back for assessment when they think they are ready.

I have the weekend off before starting a weeks work on Skye with Rob Johnson. It is a weeks scrambling and it looks like the weather might just improve a little for us. Fingers Crossed!!!

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Snow, Rain and Sun - Summer ML Training




I am 3 days into a Summer Mountain Leader Training for Bill Strachan at Scotch on the Rocks, based out of Lochaber College. So far we have had constant rain, snow, sun and a bit of all the above mixed together! Over the 3 days we have been looking at navigation, ropework, party management, environmental input, leadership and weather. With 3 days to go we have a day in and around the college tomorrow looking at decision making and emergency procedure and then are out on expedition for the last 2 days.  

Sunday 13 May 2012

Summer Mountain Leader Training




I have just finished working on a Summer Mountain Leader Training course for Glenmore Lodge along with Bill Strachan. Over the week we had a mix of weather and due to the amount of snow we visited some new areas. Day 1 had us in and around the Burma Road area just north of Aviemore looking at some navigation and environmental information. Day 2 we headed into the Chalamain Gap to look at unplanned use of the road along with some more navigation and environmental information. Day 3 had us starting early as we headed down to Pitlochry, here we headed up Ben Vrakie. This was a new area for me but it turned out to be a great venue for looking at steep ground group managment. Day 4 was a centre day looking at emergency issues and planning for a expedition that took place over day 5 and 6. For the exped we headed to tghe hills south of Newtonmore, Druim nan Sac. It was a great week with a good mixture of people on the course and over all the weather was very kind to us.

Today I started another ML Training based in Fort William for Scotch on the Rocks Guiding the weather has been aweful today, however it looks like it is going to improve tomorrow. I will blog more info on this course later in the week.