Winter returns!

Snowdonia has returned to its more usual weather; snow and colder temperatures.

On Monday through till Wednesday I was teaching Geography for Sixth Form Geographers from Bablake School. On Monday we looked at a case study of Flooding in Llanrwst in the Conwy Valley investigating both the causes and the responses to the floods. On Tuesday we headed up to near the source of the Afon Conwy and studied Rivers and then on Wednesday came the day that the students will never forget; a Glaciation day in Cwm Idwal and the Ogwen Valley in full-on winter conditions. The students learnt not only about glacial landforms and processes but I was also able to throw in a few simple Winter skills as well.
     For me the irony was that last week when I should have been doing my Winter Mountain Leader Assessment, the course was cancelled due to lack of snow!

Meanwhile, Steve was taking our early April REC Level 2 course which was held at the Heights Hotel in Llanberis.

Next week we have a full complement for our Summer Mountain Leader Assessment. Good luck to all the participants.

A brief summer interlude!

The weather has been absolutely glorious in Snowdonia. Unseasonally hot temperatures have sent Nature crazy with many plants flowering before their time.

For me the warm conditions saw my Winter Mountain Leader Assessment which should have been this week being cancelled. Instead I spent the weekend assessing the Mountain Rescue Search dogs and lying around in a T shirt and summer trousers; a state I have never been able to assess in before (usually I am buried in around 7 layers of clothing desperately trying to keep warm!).

What were lovely conditions for the Assessors were not appreciated by the dogs and handlers up for assessment as they prefer windy, wet and cold which is better for the dogs' scenting abilities.

Both the Saturday and the Sunday's assessing were followed by Mountain Rescue callouts for climbers who had fallen, or in one case, who had his hand jammed in what must be the most secure hand jam ever. Several buckets of ice later and some handy work with a hammer, he was freed!

We ran a REC Level 2 Emergency First Aid course this week, and we are running one next week in Llanberis. Another 2 weeks and we have our Summer Mountain Leader Assessment which is now full.

I enjoyed the last of the sun yesterday with a beautiful walk over the Nantlle Ridge. The weather had certainly changed though, the wind was bitter.

A busy winter

Steve and I have kept busy with both work, Mountain Rescue callouts and days out.
In February winter conditions in Snowdonia were fantastic (although I'm not sure I would call a wade in waist and thigh deep snow up Banana Gully on Y Garn 'fantastic conditions'!

However Hourglass Gully on Pen y Ole Wen and Easy Gully in Cwm Cneifion were definitely on better snow!

I headed up to Scotland at the beginning of March to observe a friend (Rob Johnson MIC) teaching a winter skills course. Snow conditions were variable changing dramatically from day to day but as I returned to Wales it really does feel like Spring has arrived. Yesterday saw the most amazing cloud inversion and brocken spectres in the Glyders.

Dog training in Scotland

While Steve has been working hard back in Wales, Cluanie and I had a week's training in Scotland followed by two days walking.

SARDA Wales were based at the Kings House in Glen Coe and each day we watched the snowline rise or fall on the Buchaille!

Day 1 was Winter Skills. At that point the snow was high but hard; fantastic neve, so we caught the Gondola up on to Nevis Range and walked round to Aonach Nid where we were definitely not the only group out!!

Rob Johnson who is a member of the Llanberis Team and an MIC was the instructor for the day either refreshing our winterskills or introducing skills and techniques to one or two novices.

Day 2: We walked into the back of Buchaille Etive Beag where we found enough snow in a high corrie to practice snow burials. Fortunately someone had made our work a lot easier as there were some ready made snow-holes which looked like they had been used by a Winter ML group.

Cluanie emerging from snowhole

Double Trouble: Cluanie and Einch waiting for their search areas

Roly and Joy watching the mountain area

DAY 3 was spent on Search training on areas on open mountain side or in woods. We were joined by Joy and Einich from SARDA Lakes who was staying up in Ballachulish. Einich is Cluanie's sister from the same litter. 

Cluanie all dressed for helicopters and ready to go.

Cluanie and I after our helicopter ride



Cluanie finds Rob and Skye's body and lets us all know!

DAY 4 topped the week off with a ride on an HMS Gannet Navy Gannet Seaking into the mountains and then followed by a Search Exercise. Roly had set up 3 search areas. Unfortunately for the others, the way the wind was working meant that Cluanie grabbed Rob's body, Mal and was also homing in on Ray in Andy and Max's area as well as finding both of her own bodies. That's the trouble with a dog who ranges!
It was an excellent week's training and many thanks to Rob for organising it all. I then stayed on for two more days mountain-climbing.

A success for Cluanie and SARDA Wales

SARDA Wales held one of its two assessments for the year in November. We hold one in March and one in November. Any dogs and handlers considered ready for the Callout List are assessed over the course of three days.

This time we had Richard with Scout, and Rob with Skye going for Lowland Novice assessmend, Cazz and Tess at Full Lowland Assessment. Jim and Fly passed at Novice Mountain level. Cluanie and I were assessed at Full Mountain Search Dog level and passed with flying colours. A great achievement as Cluanie is my third Mountain Rescue Search dog and there are not may people to have graded three Search dogs. Very proud of Cluanie. She was a little star. she put so much effort in I had to quadruple her food (and she was on high energy dog food!)

The night we passed we were up at 4 am to search Cadair Idris for a missing walker. We were exhausted to say the least after that weekend.

The successful attendees on the front row with Assessors and Bodies from the weekend. Cluanie and I, and Antony and Moss are missing as we were making our way home from Cadair Idris at this point.



A big thanks to all the bodies who hid out on the montainsides for us to find, and the Assessors who watched patiently while we searched the areas.

Seeing as we missed the official photographs I thought I would include this photo of us in action!

Steve and I attended the Mountain Rescue Medical Conference in Ambleside the weekend before to find out about the latest teaching and findings in Mountain Rescue Medicine and Casualty Care.

We have just finished 3 days of First Aid training and at this weekend are running a REC Level 2 course for the BMC Club Hut Committee in North Wales.

Wet and windy REC course!

With winds forecast at 100mph even down to low levels we we running our October REC Level 2 course in Capel Curig. We managed to get outside and enjoy the very fresh air several times.

Here are Simon and Mark on one of the scenarios! They had an unresponsive, non-breathing casualty and a casualty with possible spinal injuries to take care of.

Just before the hand dropped off! Serious bleed time!

read about us in the Cotswold blog

Richard, one of the staff from the Royal Oak Cotswold Outdoors in Betws-y-Coed has written about us in their blog, Richard attended our July course at Ben's Bunkhouse in Nant Peris. I have attached a link to his blog so you can read all about it.

http://community.cotswoldoutdoor.com/users/Rosemary-Thane/blogs/index.cfm/2011/10/1/first-aid-course