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.

Summer Mountain Leader Training work

Last week I was working for Stuart Johnson and ClimbMTS on a Summer Mountain Leader Training Course for Outdoor Education/Environmental Science students from Stirling University.

A week of mixed weather gave plenty of opportunities to flex adaptability throughout the week!

Emergency procedures all wrapped up.

Stu delivering the theory and dry runs for river crossings in the sun.

River crossing towards the Guinness foam.

The group of nine did very well to absorb the vast amount of information conveyed on this course (which does not reflect every shred of information in the syllabus; we'd be there for weeks!).

You talking to me?!

Practising an abseil.

I am working an ML refresher this week before heading down south mid week for some really exciting work; watch this space!

Ready to go on day two of the expedition.

On top of Beinn Ghlas with Ben Lawers hiding in the cloud.