Eton College

Working for A to Z Expeditions last week I was in Snowdonia as Eton College turned up for their Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award Expeditions. I was working with Steve, Ken, Simon and David. We spent a day settling into camp, and going through the required training - eventually we were ready for the next day setting off on the practice Silver exped.

My home from home...

The weather was perfect for training - in other words it had everything, midges by the million on 23rd, plenty of rain on the 24th, hill fog and poor vis on the 25th, finally sun and heat on the 26th.

The Eton boys had only just finished their GCSE's on the 22nd June, so this exped week was their 'WIND DOWN' after exams!!! Their food was army rations for almost the entire 9 days. Luckily these are actually very good and contain about 3000 calories a day.

Steve Ironside from A to Z looking over the 3 groups about to come up the hillside towards the next challenge - Moel Siabod with a rocky finish.

The last run up to the summit of Moel Siabod.

Most of the boys managed to get through the practice phase. Only 1 bad ankle caused 1 drop out. The Practice expedition was tough especially with the very poor weather, but the Qualifying exped was planned to be a romp over all the main hills of Snowdonia - Carneddau, Glyderau, and Snowdon.

So, on the 27th June we re-stocked our food, re-packed our sacks and the groups went through their planning exercise for the following 3 days of their Qualifying Silver Expedition....