The lodge facilities are excellent, swimming pool, climbing wall, gym and a comfortable bar for relaxing in after a day out on the hill. Any kit you need is provided by "Jim" the store man who will help you out in any way if he can ( his "hot knife" came in handy for shortening my crampon straps). And last but not least was the food, the day started with a large breakfast, cereals, cooked breakfast or as in our case, both. After breakfast you helped yourself to a packed lunch, which consisted of a choice of rolls with assorted fillings, a piece of fruitcake or flapjack, a chocolate biscuit and a piece of fruit, fill your flask with coffee or tea or whatever and then its off to the hills. On our return we had a cup of coffee or tea with a piece of cake and then back to the dining room at 7 o'clock for our evening meal, the food throughout the week was excellent, just as well we were walking off the calories the day after !. ( Well done the cooks, especially the new Mrs. Roberts ).
There are also talks given in the lecture room at night if you wish to attend, these varied from Winter Navigation, Avalanche Awareness and we attended one given by Nigel Williams ( Head of training) on Ski touring in Austria, this was very interesting (not to say that the others were not, far from it) . I have never had a pair of skis on in my life but after the talk where his enthusiasm for the sport shone through and the slide show that accompanied the lecture I would love to "have a go" and maybe thats a project for the future.
The course that we attended was the Introduction To Winter Skills, a five day course that combines the elements of winter navigation, ice-axe self arrest techniques, safe crossing of steep snow and ice with crampons and importantly Avalanche awareness. Twelve of us attended the course of which we were split into two teams of six, each team with its own instructor for the week. Our team had Shaun Roberts and the other team had Doug Cooper, never having been on a course like this before I had nothing to base their abilities on but at the end of the week I reckon that they are possibly the best instructors " in the whole wide world !". Seriously though the instructors were brilliant, fully professional in their approach and full of enthusiasm, if you had any questions on any aspect of the course they would take time out to explain and help you.
The navigation skills that we learned on the course, some we knew but honed to a finer level, and some we didn't know have prepared me better for navigating safely around the hills and crags in thick fog or white out conditions (clag) and I can safely say I will never ever get lost again ! ( Just kidding ). After navigating around the Cairn Gorm plateau in varying visibility conditions for a week using dog leg, boxing, pacing and timing techniques I feel that I have personally gained a better awareness of my surroundings and therefore will be safer whilst out and about in the hills and mountains.
The avalanche awareness aspect of the course makes you realise just how dangerous the snow pack can be, we have as a group many times ascended a snow slope in the Lake District without giving any thought to avalanches, but knowing what we know now you can bet we will give more consideration to this the next time we come across one, especially as they can occur on slopes with an aspect of only 30 degrees. Even a minor avalanche when triggered can be enough to cause personal injury. The course provides you with the knowledge of the causes of avalanches, signs to look out for when travelling across the snow pack and little tricks to help gauge the stability of the pack, i.e. walking above someone elses footsteps and watching for any slab movement or cracks appearing.
So all in all, if you want a good winter week in the Scottish Hills and also to enhance your personal skills a week at the Lodge is thoroughly recommended ( hurtling down the snow slope head first on your back practising self arrest techniques took all of us back to our childhoods, and everyone enjoyed themselves immensely).
Our group also played a minor role in helping to evacuate an injured climber on Friday the last day, which added to the sense of achievement, if the injured climber ever reads this I hope all went well for you and and that you are back on the crags.
If anyone on the course would like to keep in touch you can e-mail me at al@getyerbootson.com
Last but not least a personal message to Shaun and Doug, thanks for making the course so enjoyable and we hope to see you next year on the Mountaineering course.
