On the 15th to 17th January Andrew (the Modern Apprentice) was away on a subsidised Winter Skills course in the Cairngorms. The Course was run by Plas y Brenin on behalf of the Jonathan Conville Memorial Trust. The course offered him a great opportunity to develop his skills, to broaden his experience and to see another skilled practitioner working as an instructor.
The Jonathan Conville Memorial Trust was formed by the family of young British climber Jonathan Conville after his death on The Matterhorn. The aim of the Trust is to provide quality mountain training for young people aged 18 to 30, so they have the skills and knowledge to be safe when out on the mountains.
The course covered winter mountaineering skills such as avalanche awareness, ice axe arrests, using crampons, basic rope work and walking on the ice and snow.
The instructor was Richard Bentley. Richard is an experienced Mountaineering Instructor (MIC) in the Lochaber area providing training and assessment to eager mountaineers, he also comes out to the Islands and runs training courses for us.
On the first day he started the course with acclimatising to the new equipment and the conditions. The skills covered were how to use your boots as a tool and more than just footwear; kicking steps and making ledges. Progressing on to the basics of using an ice axe when walking; using it as a third point of contact to be more stable.
As the day went on there was discussions about how to pick a route across the snow, being aware of the dangers, behaviour of the snow and how to make a safe and sound decision whether that was the way you wanted to go or not.
After Lunch there was some small ice climbing and practising the skills learned earlier in the day on the ice down in Coire t-Sneachda
On the second day due to the conditions, it was too icy and the snow gate was closed, making it impossible to get up to the ski range at Cairngorm, so the day began in the lower car park.
The day started practising the skills already learnt and the group demonstrating this by leading legs for themselves. Leading to ice axe arrests, basic rope skills; building anchors for belaying, abseiling and looking at how to build a shelter in the snow.
When Andrew got back and was think about what he learned from the experience there were three main things: The importance of avalanche awareness (Scottish Avalanche Information Service, SAIS), how crucial good decision making is and not to step in a burn at the start of the day.
The outcome of the third was not only did he have a wet foot but also he was affectionately known as “Burnie” for the rest of the day.
