FUNdas, Assessments and Training oh my!

After a blustery flight to Kirkwall on Thursday morning I have been busy with work in the Islands two main climbing walls.

Some PPE inspections and meetings at the Kirkwall Grammar School followed by Route setter assessments, Fundamentals of Climbing 1 on Friday and Climbing Wall Award Assessment with a CWA Abseil module Assessment on Sunday.


Thanks to everyone involved on the FUNdas for contributing so much!

Shark attack!

Centre of gravity and weight transfer.

The CWA and Abseil assessments went well too with 100% pass rate!  Just what we like.  So now Kirkwall has six new CWA holders ready for action!

CWA group work.

Back home now for a quieter week with some Climbing Wall inspections and plenty of office work to keep me out of mischief!

Rigging at floor level for the abseil.

Al Halewood adopting an 'alternative' pose.

Coaching tips after the assessment.

MCofS Student Safety Seminar

 Last weekend I was up at Glenmore Lodge volunteering on the Safety Seminar for University students.  The weekend comprises of a number of talks and discussions for general university mountaineering club related topics including; liability, hazards, scrambling, club equipment maintenance.

On Saturday I led a discussion on Scrambling and Hazard Management as well as teaching navigation skills. Sunday saw the studets split into two groups; one for navigation on the hill and the other at various crags looking at different aspects of outdoor climbing.  My group were looking at stance setup, leading using parallel ropes and personal abseiling; whilst others covered topics from an introduction to outdoor climbing to problem solving and rescue techniques.

Placing runners.

Heather self lining next to a student assisting with advice when required.

Abseiling from the crag.

Awaiting the arrival of the second.

Fundamentals of Climbing 3

Today I attended the first Fundamentals of climbing 3 which was run by Jon Jones and Alan Halewood. The workshop looked at a progression from the previous FUNdas 1 and 2 courses moving onto steeper terrain and advanced movement. 

A great laugh with lots of experienced people!

If you're interested in attending a FUNdas course to improve your climbing or help with improving others through a better understanding of climbing movement principles then check out the MCofS website. http://Mcofs.org.uk/fundas 

MCofS Student Safety & Good Practice Seminar: A weekend volunteering

This weekend I was up at Glenmore Lodge to help support the Mountaineering Council of Scotland and their Student Safety Seminar. 

The weekend is a great opportunity for students in clubs to gain new and build on existing skills to keep themselves and others safe. 

My main focus of the weekend was beginners and improves climbing. We were looking at everything from tidy knots, safer belaying, personal abseiling, problem solving/rope skills and stance building and management. 

There were a number of other groups working on hill, navigation and multi pitch climbing skills also.