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MLTE Courses, WGL Assessment & SPA Training

11/11/2011 4:53 pm

Tim Blakemore

I've had a nice week away in the North East of England working on a couple of MLTE courses. The first was a Walking Group Leader (WGL) Assessment for the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle. This was the second 'wave' of candidates through and we have now had 5 teachers pass this award out of 11 trained. We use the College Valley (Cheviot Hills) and a secret location (!) which is absolutely superb. Jane cooks for us as well as booking the accommodation. We spent three days in the area looking at all aspects of navigation (walking into the night two days in a row) and emergency procedures. As part of the assessment Mark and Peter prepared a short presentation each, both of which were of a predicatably high standard. Mark's interpretaion of the question alone was impressive! After eating our fill for 3 days it was with a heavy stomach but happy heart to let all know they were successful.

I then travelled a bit further south to deliver a Single Pitch Award (SPA) training course. This is aimed at those who wish to take others rock climbing at single pitch venues in the UK, of which Northumberland abounds. We met at Kyloe Crag first and concentrated on personal climbing skills and abseiling. It was a bit grey and greasy so we avoided getting on the sharp end but had a full day anyway. The second day we based at Causey Quarry on Tyneside. This is a well established group crag but is absolutely death on a stick to work at in the damp - a good training venue then. We spent the day looking at more 'group based' rigging and abseiling as well as a few simple rescues. We finished the course at Sunderland Wall where it was nice to see a colleague (Richy) of maybe 5 years ago. Richy came with me to Spain as a student and has not stopped climbing since!

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