7 Stanes Mountain Biking

With Laura having a week off for half term it was too good an opportunity to escape to miss, but what to do during a time of year that is traditionally wet, windy and cold! Simple go mountain biking, so we hired a cottage down in Galloway sorted some biking friends and set off with the plan to cycle as much as possible in 5 days. It was a good plan until I came off my bike at speed on the 1st trail of the week, this was followed by a trip to the minor injuries unit at Newton Stewart to have my lower leg glued back together. I was told I had healthy skin though by the nurse!!

Thankfully I only had to sit one day out and after that was back on the bike. During the week we cycled at Dalbeattie, Ae and Kirroughtree. The trails are excellent, well maintained and something for everyone. We were though a little disappointed by the support infrastructure at the centres with the cafes closing early or being no existent in the first palace! Still and awesome week and a recommend it to anyone into mountain biking more info at http://www.7stanesmountainbiking.com/Home

Summer Mountain Leader Training

I was working across on the West coast the week before half term with Bill Strachan, we were running a Summer Mountain Leader Training course based out of West Highland College. It was a full course with 12 keen clients, which was good as the weather was not the nicest! During our 6 days we visited a number of different locations and looked at the main skills that are required to be a Summer Mountain Leader. If you are interested in training to become a mountain leader then have a look at the following page http://www.sandypaterson.co.uk/index.php?page=summer-mountain-leader-training dates for next year will be online very soon.

Hot Rock - Toulon

At the beginning of October I flew out to France to spend a week climbing with my friend Luke who is based in the Engadina teaching. With winter approaching in the Alps he was keen for a last fix of sun and I was keen for a first taste of sun from the summer! We decided to use the new rock fax guide to the Cote d' Azure and headed for the Toulon area (home to the French Navy!) although Toulon is not the most attractive city the surrounding area is lovely, lots of limestone which on the whole is well bolted and very few other people. We spent 5 days climbing at a different venue each day and generally enjoying the sun, at times it was a little too warm with the daytime temperature never really dropping below 25 degrees and one day it reaching 32 degrees, hot for a Ginger Scotsman.

There is loads to go at in the area for all standards of climbers and after a flick through the local guide books there is much more to see than what the rock fax have in. A word of warning though the grades are tough! The locals laughed when we mentioned this as suggested that the rest of the world was wrong and they were right, however they did agree!

An awesome holiday and great to catch up with Luke and Anne before Baby Boon is born.

Concerning court ruling

I have just been sent the following link by Jagged Globe and it makes for some concerning reading.

http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/1024-three-months-suspended-sentence-for-forgetting-avalanche-beacon/

Feel free to add some comments on the Piste Hors website.

ABS Rucksack Test

Our new ABS rucksacks arrived a few days ago and Laura and I got around to testing them today, they come with a spare gas canister to have a practice with!

I have been thinking about getting either an ABS rucksack or a SnowPulse one for a while and have taken the plunge, they are not cheep but the stats are very impressive. I decided to go with the ABS Vario system and have got a small 15L bag for day skiing and a 40L for hut to hutting, They also do a 25L that looks very good as well.

If you are interested in them I got ours from www.snowsafe.co.uk and you can find out more info there or from the ABS website http://abs-airbag.com/home.php?chid=1&lang=uk&m=17 also feel free to drop me a line if you want to ask any questions.

Now Laura and I are hoping for lots if powder when we go skiing at Christmas!

Scratch, Scratch, Scratch!

We will soon be scratching!! Looks like it will melt quickly but winter is certainly just around the corner!

Scrambling Weekend

I have been at Glenmore Lodge this weekend running an Introduction to Scrambling course. On Saturday Rachel, David, Danny, Craig and myself headed into Coire an t Sneachda with the aim of looking at personal movement skills, risk assessment, route choice and protecting each other with out a rope. We also looked at some navigation on the way in as the visibility was poor and they were all keen to brush up on this as well. Half way into the the coire we headed up to the Twin Ribs area and picked a line up onto the ridge discussing various issues including what the various scrambling grades meant. We then headed along the ridge taking various detours off the ridge to find some more scrambling. Once on the pleatue we headed back around to 1141 and back to the van looking at some more navigation. A great day was had even if it was a little damp.

On Sunday we headed to the Chalamain Gap with the aim of looking at some unplanned use of the rope.We spent the first half of the day looking at anchor selection and practicing ropework in the horizontal so we knew it was working before we took it to the vertical. We then spent the second half of the day testing out the ropework, abseiling and looking at different types of anchor and belaying methods. Although it was a dry (ish) day the rock was still wet and very slippery all adding to the challenge.

A great weekend, thanks for your company team. I have a few days off before heading out to France for a weeks climbing with my good friends Luke and Anne so I am currently dreaming off shinny bolts, warm rock and good red wine, fingers crossed!

3 New Munro's!

I have been back across west for the last few days working with the 1st year students from West Highland College. The aim was for a 3 day back packing journey to look at camp craft, the environment, navigation and some emergency procedures. I love these trips for the college as there is no set location for the 3 days so I can go and explore a new area, and if I am lucky tick off some new Munro's. So after a quick chat with the students on Wednesday morning about equipment and our aims we had a look at areas on the map and found that none of us had been to the Munro's to the east of Loch Treig.

We parked at Fersit and headed along the track to the Strathossian House area were we set up camp next to the river and then headed up Beinn na Lap to see the sun setting. It was a great night as is shown by the photos above, it was then back to the tents for a good nights sleep. On Thursday we headed west up to Meall Dhearcaig and alone to Chno Dearg and then onto Stob Coire Sgriodain, this area was great for navigation as we were in thick cloud and rain from about 600m! We then headed south to a camp fairly low down and after a bite to eat headed out for 2 hours night nav. Finally today we spent the morning in and around camp talking about equipment, the mountain leader award, emergency procedures and river crossings before heading back to the college.

A great few days with a fit keen group. Now time to quickly change rucksacks and wash some cloths and off to Glenmore Lodge for the weekend for an Intro Scrambling course.

Getting drier!

It has been a busy few days for me. Last Wednesday and Thursday I was across in a wet Fort William working for West Highland College. Wednesday was a day with the 2nd years looking at some navigation and personal hill skills as they get ready for an assessment in November. My group and I spent the day in some heavy rain in the Torcastle area looking at micro nav skills. On Thursday I was out with a group of 1st years again looking at navigation and having a general warm up before an expedition this coming week, it was again wet!!

I then drove down to Alyth in Perthshire to meet up with a Gold Duke of Edinburgh group from St Aloysius College from Glasgow. We spent 4 days doing a loop from Alyth as they prepare for their Gold Assessment in Iceland, we looked at the the usual Duke of Edinburgh things like navigation, campcarft, teamwork, emergency procedures. Thankfully the weather was much nicer as can be seen in the photo above.

Home for a day now before heading back across for 3 days with the West Highland College 1st years on a back packing trip and then a weekend at Glenmore Lodge. Looks like the weather is on the up for the end of September which will be nice.

Catch Up - But no Photos!

I have been a bit slow to update the blog over the last week or so due to being busy and still not having a working camera, sorry!

Since climbing Castle Ridge with Mike I have met up with Wyn who was up from Wales on holiday and looking to progress his scrambling skills. We sent the first day on a very wet Zig Zag's in Glen Coe sheltering from the wind. During our ascent and descent we looked at rope work, placing gear, abseiling and other little tricks. Wyn then had a day off and I spent the day working for West Highland College running some Mountain Bike sessions on their induction week, it was great to meet all the new students and we had a lovely dry day! Meeting up with Wyn the next day it was again windy and wet so we headed east to try and escape the worst of the wet. We headed to the Cairngorms and up through the twin ribs area and along Ficaill Ridge taking in all the hardest bits, with Wyn doing his fair share of the leading putting in to practice what we had covered 2 days before.

After a few days off and a spot of Mountain Biking around Strathpefer it was back across to the west in what must have been some of the wettest weather so far this summer to work on a Summer Mountain Leader Training with Bill Strachan. Although the weather was truly awful the team did really well to keep focused and learn lots.

Next stop was a days biking with Jules Fincham around the Aviemore area, looking at some skills and riding top tips for the MBL Award, another glorious day in the sun. Strange how the good weather seems to fall on my biking days, one of the reasons I started biking was it was a good wet weather option!!

It was then onto Glenmore Lodge to run a Crevasse Rescue course for a group who are heading out to Austria in a few weeks for some glacier trecking.

Now back home for a few days with Laura and time to start updating the website ready for winter. Winter dates and courses will be released soon! Of back to Fort William tomorrow for 2 days with the College and then down to Perthshire to work on a Gold D of E, who said September was quiet!!

Summer Mountain Leader Training - New Course

New date for a Summer Mountain Leader Training course.

I will be running a Summer ML Training with Bill Strachan on 16th - 21st October 2011, based in Fort William. The course is being run out of West Highland College but is open to all as long as they have registered with MLTB.

More information can be found at the link below, or please feel free to contact me at info@sandypaterson.co.uk

http://www.sandypaterson.co.uk/index.php?page=summer-mountain-leader-training

A weekend on the West

Mike and I headed over to the West Coast for the weekend just gone. With a wet morning on Saturday we did not leave to early with the hope that the worst of the rain would have passed when we got there, not the case! Biking was the order of the day on Saturday so we headed for 10 Under The Ben at Nevis Range, I had done the World Champs course there a while back which was really good so I had high hopes for this. Unfortunately it was not so good, well rubbish really, it is graded red but 90% if on forest track and non technical single track with a few hundred meters of good downhill and a section of black that does not fit in with the rest of the course at all. It had rained solidly and so after a quick coffee we sent sometime at the little skills area before heading for a warm shower!

Thankfully the weather on Sunday was better and we headed up Castle Ridge on Ben Nevis, this was great and on the whole dry with the ridge coming in and out of the cloud. There are no route finding difficulties as you just follow the crampon scratches from winter and the clean rock. We then came down via ledge route and back to the car. A great dry day out and another the classic Ben Nevis ridges done.

Just the one photo this time as my camera is broken so am using my phone!

The busy and the quiet

I have taken the last 2 weeks off to settle into our new house and help Laura with the start of a new job, running a boarding house for 75 teenage girls is a full on job! I have though managed to get a few days cragging in with Monty, a very busy day at Cummingston with all sorts of groups there and a very quiet day at Redhythe with no one there! I am across west this weekend for a little more play with Mike before it is back to work next week.

ML Assessment - Tour of the Tops!

I have been at Glenmore Lodge this week working on a Summer Mountain Leader Assessment. The weather has been a mix of showers and sun with the odd swarm of midges to eat us, but on the whole it has been a good week. Monday and Tuesday saw us in and around Sneachda looking at emergency situations, river crossings, party management, steep ground and unplanned use of the rope. We then spent 3 days out on expeditions starting from Rothiemurchus Lodge and headed up onto the Braeriach area were we spent the night. On day two we headed along the tops in poor visability and dropped down to Corrour Bothy before heading back up to Ben Macdui. Night two was spent just north of Ben Macdui and we did some night navigation around this area as well. This morning we walked out to the Ski Car Park.

Sorry no photos this week, I work on the basis that on assessment people are already stressed enough without me sticking a camera in their face!

A week in a Freezer

The last 10 days have been busy with weddings and visiting friends, however I have managed to squeeze in a 5 day ski instructors course (BASI Level 1) at the Tamworth Snowdome. The 5 days look at both your own personal performance as well as how to teach beginners and intermediates to ski. The 5 days covered both training and assessment which I am glad to say I passed.

I now have a few days off before working on a Summer ML Assessment at Glenmore Lodge next week. Fingers crossed the weather improves.