News

It was a glorious day on the hills today with just enough of a breeze to keep the temperature manageable but Barti just couldn't turn down a nice cool mud bath on the summit of Moel Cynghorion. As usual the route I took this morning is on Endomondo  .  

I was assessing the remainder of the centre staff for abseiling this morning before braving the traffic to head back home before the rush hour. Job done. Thanks to Kevin for the warm welcome and all the staff for putting up with my good/bad jokes and the stress of being assessed. The photo is of a nest inside the activity tower. Isn't nature wonderful. 

It was in house climbing and abseiling assessments today with another almost successful day with only one candidate not reaching the required standard. A big well done to all the others that passed the day today with another warm sunny day although it was a bit of a slow start as we didn't see the sun until just before lunch because of the low cloud. Kerry and Robbie Benice and Kevin

I was running some low ropes course and climbing wall site specific assessments in Coventry again today. Everyone passed and the day was again a scorcher. Nice one :-)

I'm over in Coventry at the moment fulfilling my role as a technical advisor and assessed Kevin, Dave and Kerry for their annual ropes course validation. I'm glad to say there were no problems and all three passed with ease. The activity base is a little oasis of peace and tranquillity on the outskirts of Coventry and was a bit of a sun trap today. Well done guys. More people and more assessments to come over the next 3 days. 

I was down in Shropshire again over the last three days running some rope assessments for PGL staff. The first day was top roping activities such as climbing walls, Jacobs ladder and trapeze. The second day was a very damp and drizzly zip wire but thankfully it dried out for the abseil assessments in the afternoon. Day three was abseiling all day with some sun coming out by the afternoon. Well done to all those who passed.

I was busy the last couple of days with some management and activity inspections for the Licensing Service. I was over on Anglesey on Tuesday and during the inspection process watched some sailing on the Menai Straits. I had a bit of a tour yesterday starting out on a canal near Oswestry to watch a kayaking activity and then carried out a management inspection at the providers centre in the hills above Llangollen. Both inspections went well and without any hitches.

I've started to look a bit more at using Facebook as a marketing tool for my work so with that in mind I've created a Facebook Page dedicated solely to my hillwalking, mountaineering and rock climbing work. Please feel free to take a look and if you like the content please click the LIKE button - here's the link to my page - Berwyn Evans Mountaineering Page

Its been a long 3 days over the weekend with over 500 miles covered between assessment bases. I managed to avoid the Bank Holiday traffic mayhem more with luck than judgement I think. Well done to all those who passed and thanks to all concerned for the warm welcome.  

I was on the Milestone Buttress today with AMI trainee members Mike, Ed and Tony. The plan was to look at the skills involved with teaching leading and the use of parallel ropes. We ticked all the boxes but had quite a cold and breezy day. We were joined by a shrew on the 1st stance of Rowan Route and we enjoyed its company for quite some time. For more photos of the last two days click here  which will take you to my Flickr page.

I was coordinating an Association of Mountaineering Instructors workshop today looking at improvised rescue skills and techniques. With an indifferent forecast we decided to go to Tremadog to hang around on ropes for the day. We had a very productive day and had 'epics' on Yogi and Xmas Curry. Thanks to Rob and Mike for making it such an enjoyable day. Rob leading the first pitch of Yogi HS 4b with Mike belaying.

Got back to Plas y Brenin for about 11.10 p.m. after the navigation test. All pasted. Well done Daniel, Chris and Sundeep.

I was working on the Diploma in Mountain Medicine today based out of Plas y Brenin. The aim of this morning was to take doctors out into rocky terrain and look at short roping and scrambling techniques. We went into Cwm Idwal and  used the area to the right of the Idwal Slabs to put some of the skills into practice. It was all made easy by the group being so keen and the brilliant weather. I'll be out again with the courses again tonight on a night navigation exercise which should be pretty straightforward considering the weather but will be a test for these guys so they'll have to make sure they don't make any silly mistakes.

I was over in the Mountain Training office in Capel Curig this morning with my good friend Baggy to visit Bryn Williams (National Development Officer). We were there to have a chat about the new Client Management System which will be going live in the next few weeks. This new system will streamline the whole process of managing NGB courses and will allow course providers to advertise, manage and book clients on courses. Clients will also be able to manage their accounts and profile pages online as well which will make the whole process a lot easier to manage. Even though the weather has been rubbish recently Spring has finally arrived as you can see from this photo from Llanberis this afternoon.