Winter Climbing and CPD in Snowdonia
On Wednesday evening I packed up the van and headed up to Snowdonia to meet up with Choire and Nick to poke about some high Cwms around Ogwen. We stomped up to the base of Glyder Fawr Crag at around 800m hoping to find decent conditions. After climbing a route there, we dropped down into Cwm Cneifion to get a closer view of Clogwyn Du and Tower Rib - which were both looking well rimed and cold. Our second day's objective was chosen and we slogged back up to Cwm Cneifion and got onto Tower Rib and took a cool direct line up that via it's gully on the right. On Saturday it was the start of the AMI AGM, held at Plas y Brenin and it was good to get into the warm after a sub zero night in the van. It was also good to catch up with other mates I've not seen for some time over a couple of cups of tea. AGM involved CPD workshops covering various topics, and I had chosen Winter Short Roping for Saturday. This was being run by Steve Long and we headed off and up to Cwm Glas to practise for the day and share experiences, techniques and issues. Then it was back to the Brenin for the AGM and then a further catch up with those attending. The workshop I was on on Sunday was a Pre-MIC assessment talk in the morning and a practical session in the afternoon involving slick transitioning between short roping, into leading in series, into leading in parallel, and back into any of the above. This was run by MIC trainer/assessor Keith Ball and was excellently delivered. That evening it was back in the van and I got home in time to see Gethin before he went to bed. Great stuff.
