Looking for work as a Mountain Leader !

Hi there folks, as you may be aware I recently qualified as a Mountain Leader after a long and demanding process and am hoping that this might be a life changing experience which might take my career in a new direction. I am currently now looking for work in this field and am open to suggestions and offers, so if anyone has any ideas or work on offer I'd really appreciate them dropping me a line! Many thanks.

Day and night navigation on Loughrigg and a wander up Caudale Moor

21.5.14
Walking with; Graham

  I've mentioned before that Loughrigg Fell is particularly well suited to practicing navigation on. It attains no great height, but it is easily accessible and covered in lumps, bumps, gullies, tarns, streams and wiggly contours of the most perplexing type. So ideal really as I make my last push towards ML readiness! The sun had bought out the masses and Ambleside (where I stayed at the excellent YHA) was heaving with people, but once I got out of the car and wandered down the back road to Under Loughrigg it wasn't long before the masses melted away and I found myself climbing up onto the fell in contemplative silence. I spent a couple of hours around Lanty Scar and Fox Hill. I was using the 1:50000 scale which I still find tricker for fine nav, but it was a reasonably successful outing enhanced by the bluebells, which I think have been better this year than in a long while. There were views to Grasmere, Rydal Water and Windermere and the cotton wool Cumulus drifted by as I sat drinking it all in. After a pleasant evening sitting in the sun outside the hostel, I wandered down to Rothay Park to meet Graham http://www.beardedmountainman.com/ who despite a full schedule of D of E work had been kind enough to spend a good few nights wandering round the fells with me in order to try and prepare me for assessment. It was a beautiful, clear night and another couple of hours passed as we navigated our way around the fell under a spectacularly starry sky.
   The next morning that spectacular sky had been buried under heavy, bruised clouds and as I chugged up "The Struggle"(which I still think is one of the best named roads in the world...."Where do you live?", "No 4 The Struggle....") the rain began to fall. Mine was the only car in the carpark opposite "The Kirkstone Pass Inn" and the inn itself soon disappeared in the clag below me as I ascended to Raven Crag. In the poor visibility I worked my way from point to point before reaching the Mark Atkinson monument. The monument remembers a landlord of the inn who died in 1930 and wished to be remembered in site of his life's work. His son is also remembered on a plaque. From there I attained the two tops named as Caudale Moor and Stony Cove Pike and then made my way down in deteriorating conditions back to the car. This was my last outing before my final ML assessment and the conditions were ideal for practicing navigation, now it is crunch time, but I feel as well prepared as I can be!

To view the full album please click on the link below;
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.891122890903666.1073741866.597048676977757&type=1 

Outdoor First Aid course

As part of my progress towards the Mountain Leader (Summer) qualification I am required to undertake a 16 hour First Aid course with a bias specifically towards the types of injuries and illnesses that may be encountered when exploring the mountains and moorlands of Britain.
I (along with 11 other friendly folk) did mine with Peak Mountaineering at The Hollowford Centre in Castleton over the Saturday and Sunday of last weekend. The course was very thorough, highly professional and used a good mixture of theory and practice. We covered a wide range of subjects including CPR, dealing with fractures and wounds, hypothermia, hyperthermia, stings and bites, protecting the casualty from the elements, improvised slings and splints and what a First Aid kit could/should contain. In order to cement our learning, we spent the last afternoon dealing with a variety of scenarios which required us to put into practice the skills we had been learning over the previous sessions.
First Aid is one of those rare skills where once you have learned it, you never ant to have to use it....none-the-less after this weekend of instruction I feel much better prepared should the occasion arise at some stage in the future!

Bremex Mountaineering Nav weekend

15/16.3.14
Walking with; Bremex Mountaineering Club

In 1963 Hugh Freeman set up the Brent Mountain Expedition training scheme with the purpose of providing low cost training for adventurous activities. The club ran continuously educating generations of outdoors folk until 1994 when it became an independent charity and began to run peer-to-peer skills sessions covering a variety of subject areas across a wide range of the mountainous areas of Britain http://www.bremex.org.uk/. Non-members can attend a weekend for a very reasonable £10 taster fee and it was on this basis that I'd decided to join the group for a weekend of navigation practice on and around the Kinder Plateau.
  The activities were all small group based and peer led and tried to cover as many different bases as possible. We used different scales, led legs in pairs and as individuals, worked on relocation strategies, navved "blind" trying to improve our "map memories" and micro-navved from insignificant boulder to barely existent stream junction. The facilitators were excellent and tried to ensure any specific areas of skills we were interested in were covered. As someone who spends much of time walking alone I was unsure how I would adjust to the "club" mentality but it was refreshing and stimulating to meet like minded people and speak to other ML trainees as well as benefiting from the experience of those already qualified or with much greater experience.
  I camped at Coopers campsite at the head of Edale and conveniently close to "Ye Olde Nag's Head". I should have known better, my early season camping expeditions haven't always been the most successful http://www.comewalkwithmeuk.co.uk/2013/04/a-wet-wild-and-windy-lakeland-trip.html and sure enough the wind did it's worst on Saturday night but my Wild Country Hoolie more than stood up to the test. So a weekend of sharing skills, swapping tall tales over pints and meeting like minded people, couldn't have asked for more and I shall be looking into joining the club as an associate member. I would highly recommend the set up and suggest people check out the website and see if the tasters are of interest to them!

To view the full album, please click on the link below;
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.847859525230003.1073741855.597048676977757&type=1 

A long walk, a short walk and a night walk in the Lakes

5/6.3.14
Walking with; Graham

I have a tee shirt somewhere that bears the motto "Better a rainy day on the hill than a sunny one in the office" and it is a philosophy that I have strongly adhered to over the last few years, taking everything Mother Nature can throw at me and still smiling! However, there are the odd few occasions when it can be a bit of a struggle to feel the love, even with the alternative being the suit and tie 9-5.....
Day one got off to a niggly start when United Utilities had the temerity to charge me £7 to park on the muddied patch of waste ground at Steel End, to be frank, it's a bloody cheek. None-the-less it was a decent day and as I followed the path along Wyth Burn away from the road I eased into the walk enjoying the steady climb toward the snow capped Greenup Edge. I was using a 1:50000 scale map as I am trying out the different scales as part of my ML training and the lack of fine detail was noticeable as I followed a deep ghyll up towards Ullscarf. On the map there were only two streams shown whereas on the ground it was more than twice that.....still I made the summit of Ullscarf and crunched through the untrodden snow along the ridge line. I descended across more untouched snow fields to Standing Crag and then followed the seemingly unending fence line that whilst not appearing on my map appeared to run parallel to the marked right of way. The path junction I'd identified as a tick feature never appeared and pretty soon I was scanning the featureless, bleak, boggy marsh for a fix on where I was, eventually I decided that rise ahead of me was High Tove and that the fence line had effectively become a path in it's own right, albeit one unmarked on the larger scale map. It was unpleasant underfoot, each step sinking deep into the mire and sapping the energy and as soon as I made the trig at High Seat I decided I had had enough. I headed off the top and across more unforgiving marsh before making the knee crunching descent down Middlesteads Gill to the Thirlmere shore path from where it was a good 40min stroll back to the car and then onto the Windermere YHA, confusingly not in Windermere, but warm, friendly and serving Jenning's ale.....
"Put Wednesday behind you and move on I told myself....." Thursday was grim, proper low cloud, relentless drizzle that soaked through everything and negligible visibility. I made my way up Wansfell Pike, played around with my rope, bit of abseiling, belaying my rucksack etc, before the greyness became too oppressive and I made my way back down to Ambleside for coffee and warmth. It wasn't over yet.......I'd arranged via Facebook to meet Graham ( who goes by the web name Bearded Mountain. Man http://www.beardedmountainman.com/) for a night nav. If I wasn't an aspiring ML there'd be no way on earth you'd have dragged me out of The Golden Rule or The Mortal Man on a night like this with little to see and clothes starting to smell like a damp Retriever....but there you are, Loughrigg it was. Three hours of splashing through bogs seeking out ring contours, stream junctions and tiny tarns and sharing experiences of ML training and assessment meant the drizzle and gusty winds went almost unnoticed. Social media has been a very useful tool as I pursue my goal of becoming an ML and generous people like Graham who are willing to share their time and experience represent all of what is good about the outdoors community!

To view the full album please click on the link below;
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.842344012448221.1073741853.597048676977757&type=1

Peak Mountaineering

Just a short note to say that I can wholeheartedly recommend Paul Lewis of Peak Mountaineering for anyone looking to improve their mountain skills. As I continue to edge towards my ML assessment I'd decided that a day out with an assessor would be a valuable way of measuring my progress. I booked a day with Paul and despite everything the weather could throw at us I came away with loads of valuable information, some new skills and strategies and an increased belief in my own ability. Onwards and upwards now, but the least I can do is offer a wholehearted endorsement!

A snowy Snowdonia walk

27.1.14
Walking with; Alex

My last day out in Snowdonia had come to a relatively swift end when my route along the Foel Gron ridge was interrupted by a lightning flash that seemed to be right on top of me. The weather for this walk in the shadows of the Carneddau was equally unforgiving, if a little less terrifying.
I had arranged to meet Alex via a Facebook forum for ML trainees and as I drove down increasingly narrow gated lanes to our meeting point I had to admit he'd picked a cracking spot for an afternoon of exploring and a night nav session. We set off on the path towards Cerrig Cochion before swinging West and following the Clogwyn Maldy track which eventually led us to the steep ramp between the twin reservoirs of Dulyn and Melynllyn. As the rain turned to sleet we stopped here to admire the views back down the valley, noting the well positioned bothy ( a possibility for the future) and spying a few decent looking camping spots. We located a decent crag or two and spent 40 minutes or so practicing rope work techniques and  forlornly hoping for a break in the weather!
We followed the ramp up onto the lower slopes of Foel Grach where the wind really hitting us whipping the wet snow across the plateau and it was with some relief that we located Ffynnon Llyfant, the highest lake in Wales sitting at an altitude of 815 metres. On the shores of the lake and scattered around the valley are the remains of an RAF aircraft that crashed in 1957 killing both crew members (see link for further information) http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/pages/wales/waleswk129.htm. It makes for a slightly eerie feel particularly with darkness falling and the snow creating a monochrome landscape. We left the lake as darkness fell and night navved a succession of legs broadly following the line of Afon Eigiau before we reached the remains of the old quarry buildings. From there it was a route march back along the valley floor on the track leading past the Llyn Eigiau reservoir until we reached our lonely cars thoroughly sodden but well satisfied with a testing afternoon on the hills.

To view the full album please click on the link below;
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.814503791898910.1073741847.597048676977757&type=1