The time had come… in August
2011 I attended my Single Pitch Award training with Phill George Mountaineering
in Llanberis. The course was very, very good. This was my second outdoor
training course that year after completing my Mountain Leader Training two
months earlier. It had been particularly difficult getting the climbs in. My
logbook has about 120 different routes in it, but unfortunately about 95-100
where sport… It took some doing to get the climbs in with all the bad weather
and lack of free weekends but I got there in the end. Barely…
The assessment got off to a
good start. We drove to Holyhead Mountain and our personal climbing skills were
put under the microscope. The weather was glorious and we began with belay construction
and top roping, all bread and butter so we all enjoyed our turn to climb in the
sun. After lunch we moved onto lead climbing and gear placements. This one
caught me out a little. The route, New
Pants and Booties S 4a, proved a little tricky toward the top and my leg
did begin to party like it was 1999 but after a little bit of precision
footwork I topped out onto the easiest belay construction of the day.
Later we moved further down
the crag for the group abseil assessment. The practice here really paid off.
Good position found, anchors solid (even if the assessor stared a little too
much at one piece of my gear, which turned out to be ok… They’re always
testing!). Then along came the dreaded problem. Fortunately it was relatively
straight forward, so I spring into action, take in slack tie off belay plate
and… snag the skin around my nail on the rope which resulted in excessive
bleeding in the heat… Wiping the blood aside I persevered and in no time was
done.
Day two saw us stay closer to
Llanberis for the group management and technical skills phase. We began with a
teaching session, taking an element of climbing and teaching it to the rest of
the group who were rather skilfully acting like the 5 year olds at this point…
it went ok, mine was a little too wordy. I kind of expected that as I do tend
to waffle.
Later we each setup bottom
rope systems and belayed away waiting for the inevitable… Unlike the previous
day I had a problem I did not expect, and all I could I could manage in
response was a single swearword… I got there in the end... After demonstrating
a quick rescue abseil we were on the way to the wall for the final part of the
course. After a Q&A on wall safety and etiquette we demonstrated different
methods of belaying with newbies, a few games and then it was over. We were
each watched leading a few indoor climbs before packing up and heading back for
a debrief.
Thirty nervous minutes later,
CONGRATULATIONS!!! You’ve passed the course! Lots of Win!! It was a pretty big
relief, SPA down just ML to go!!
I would like to say a very big
thank you to Phill George and to Paul for the training course and Sam for the
assessment.
SPA Training & Assessment
undertaken at
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