Steep Ground workshop, Langdale

Thank you for all the kind and appreciative comments on yesterdays 'informative' blip.
Some of you might want to check the date.....

What a stunning day to get intothehills today has been! I've been running a steep ground workshop for the Mountain Training Association - as ever a lovely bunch of people, but it (again) made me think that the Mountain Leader Award has been dumbed down too far - too many candidates tell me they are unfamiliar with, or even scared of, using a rope. 50% of today's group (all of whom are due to be assessed at some point in the next 12 months) told me they hadn't used a rope since their training course, just not good enough.
At this level the rope is considered a 'first aid' measure - it only comes out of the rucksack in an emergency - planned use of the rope is forbidden. But this is an award for taking groups into the mountains - an environment where things go wrong fast and of all the tools you might have to get out of a sticky spot - well a rope and the knowledge and confidence to use it are vital.

We had a great time - making our way up White Ghyll with increasingly difficuly scenarios and then abseiling or confidence roping our way back down. Feedback at the debrief was very positive - i was stunned to hear that people had travelled from Bedford, Goole and Edinburgh to attend - i was super pleased to hear they all left feeling a lot more confident.

And in other news....
....first ice cream of the year. Is it summer now?