Mountaineering Instructor Award Assessment meltdowns and mentoring (how I prepared!)

July of this year I found myself abseiling into Gogarth with a great friend, and an experienced MIA who was mentoring her, about to commit to climbing my first route of the year and hardest in nine months.  Of course I didn’t tell them this!  (After all the route only got VS, I had climbed here many times before and what kind of person books their assessment and then only wanders around on easy routes for most of a year!)  Instead, I suggested that Vicky should have the first lead as I hadn’t done much climbing since returning from skiing and wouldn’t be that fast or slick.  (Oh S***!!!)

Trying to figure out where the top of Cneifion Arete is... so we could descend it

Please note I have used headings in this blog so you can skip to any relevant parts of interest.

Beginnings

In November 2011 I arrived at Plas Y Brenin for my Mountaineering Instructor Award (MIA) training course.  There was snow on the ground, 11 other course members (I knew no one else on the course, and they were all male and mostly based in the Lakes), and a plethora of staff ready to impart a gigantic volume of information to us.  It was both daunting and exciting.  Despite having spent the previous few years climbing, leading walking groups and mountaineering, I was still not sure I would be ready for the course.  I was the joint weakest climber in the group, had many other UK climbing venues I hadn’t been to, and felt more under pressure to prove myself having been a Centre Assistant at PYB previously.  However, youthful eagerness and ambition, along with an accepted logbook made me commit!

Having fun on the Scrambling workshop with Baggy in the pouring rain

Thankfully I finished the training course, having enjoyed it, and ready to start the consolidation period.  Hopefully I would do the assessment next year…

Using different maps for every navigation leg to add an extra challenge

Each year passed and despite practicing, I never felt ready, nor had the required logbook for assessment.  Finally, after several people asked me when I was doing my assessment, and with a great selection of friends and colleagues booking too, I decided to put down my deposit at the beginning of the year and committed myself.  (At least I could always postpone it until 2017 if I wasn’t ready I thought!)

Ski Mountaineering with Tom in the Swiss Alps (we left the skis at the bottom!)

2016 then turned into a carefully planned year of work, practice and organisation.  The only practice I could fit in between January and June was rescue practice, basic mountaineering rope work and two MIA workshops I got a last minute place on.  I knew that I would return from skiing at the end of May, climbing weak, but aerobically strong.  Thinking of the positives, at least I would be able to physically endure the five days!  June and July would be ‘money making’ work months with limited climbing, August and October were the main practice months, and September was mostly work and two weeks in Scotland on a non MIA related holiday!  The key was making a plan, organising people to go out with and booking them into my calendar just like work.

Scrambling off the top of Cwm Silyn in Snowdonia  Photo By Lou Beetlestone

Preparations until 2016

Most years included several days out scrambling with MIA trainees, friends and people who had their assessments imminently.  I focused on climbing easy routes slickly, writing notes about what clients the route would be suitable for, if any.  When rock climbing I actively encouraged climbing as a three to practice rope work and frequently climbed in parallel.  Every belay was a chance to organise the stance and consider what I would do if I was working.  The occasional day of rescue practice happened, every ski season several days of crevasse rescue scenarios would be trained.  And I also had the opportunity to shadow a number of MIAs teaching clients a multitude of skills from navigation to leading.  Most of my work was as a Mountain Leader in the hills.  Some basic mountaineering rope work would also be used each winter in the Alps.

Scrambling with Vicky and a mock student on Glyder Fach on probably the least protected scramble I have ever done!

What changed in 2016?

In a break from skiing I squeezed in several days scrambling and two MIA workshops, one on scrambling, one on teaching climbing.  This gave me a focus for when I would return from Canada at the end of May.  Then my good friend Vicky cajoled me into going climbing with her and Sam Leary as part of the trial mentoring scheme for female trainee MIAs.  Thankfully I thoroughly enjoyed the day, and realised that if I practiced enough I might be able to pass.  Sam then gave our navigation a shakedown and I ‘officially’ signed up to the mentoring scheme.

Personal Climbing: I just met the minimum logbook requirements and could climb at the level competently, not much time was spent climbing this year other than finishing my logbook off.

Rescue Practice amongst the gorse and heather

Rescue Practice: Over five days were spent outside dedicated to practice, several scenarios were practiced on climbing and scrambling days, several hours were spent indoors practicing too

Fully committed to some horrific scrambling on Tryfan Photo by Sally Lisle

Scrambling: Over ten dedicated scrambling days this year, including a classic routes in reverse day! (this was great fun but did seem to perplex a few people we met on the way)  Lots of my trail running included easy scrambles and Tryfan recess

That moment you take a good friend up one of your favourite routes that is actually a hideous sandbag, you know that there can be no rope drag and some gear to pull on for the hard move and you hope they'll forgive you afterwards!

Teaching Climbing: Lots of days working on Single Pitch Crags and Artificial Walls.  About six days outside with mock students on multi pitch routes.

Navigation practice on the slopes of Moel Siabod with Jim, who didn't make it easy for me.

Navigation: Multiple days of winter navigation ski touring, snowshoeing and running in the Alps over the winter, this was at a micro and macro level.  Over five days / half days specifically focussing in Snowdonia on micro navigation with 1:25 000, 1:40 000, 1:50 000 maps.  Tens of days navigating at work, on holiday in Scotland and trail running in new places around the UK.

Walking in to Cloggy

Meltdowns

I have now come to the conclusion that anyone who tells you they haven’t had some sort of meltdown before assessment is lying or mad.  Most weeks I was convinced I should cancel the whole thing.  In August I found out that my ski season for 2016/17 would be highly unlikely to go ahead which would leave me with no winter employment and no skiing.  My technical climbing ability was the lowest it had been since my training in 2011.  I pretty much ran away from two good friends at the crag at one stage when I’d had enough!  Then you have the constant worry of finances as you juggle work, practice time and paying for the course as a freelance instructor.  Overall, preparing for your MIA assessment will lead to meltdowns!

Tim kissing the last of the sun after passing on lots of MIA Scrambling knowledge to Tom and I

Mentoring Scheme

Finally I should add what the pilot mentoring scheme gave me this year.  I received an email from Libby Peter asking if I would like to be a part of it as a female trainee MIA.  At the time I was about to go away on a ski expedition and was trying not to think about the MIA.  In addition to this my initial feelings were that it would be unfair of me to accept the offer when only the women were being offered it.

Personal climbing with Vicky and Sam, first 'proper' climbing of the year   Photo by Sam Leary

It left my mind until I went out with Vicky and Sam.  The knowledge and confidence Sam Leary filled me with and the things Vicky had got from the scheme made me message Libby to say that I was interested.  How could I turn something like this down.

A week before my assessment I met Libby and Sabby (whose assessment was next week) and I went for a casual climb with them in the Llanberis Pass.  Until the day was over I was still convinced that I would be cancelling my assessment, but a huge thank you must go to Libby as she instilled confidence and reassurance in us that we would be fine, we were ready and we might even enjoy it.  And quite frankly when someone with that much experience and understanding tells you that, you can’t not believe them.

Torridon tops and NW Highland stops

Normal weather on holiday, rain and and a bit of sun

I’ve got a confession to make… I have never been further North of Fort William in the Scottish NW (excluding one visit as a kid that I don’t really remember).  A British Mountain Map of Knoydart has been in my possession for years, dreamt of but never used, I’ve never been to Skye, and have never seen the Torridon tops with my own eyes before.

The beginning of the walk up Ciste Dubh

True wildness in the UK seems difficult to come by, however on our recent annual Scottish holiday I think I might have found a bit of it.  Spurred on by the thought of visiting Inverewe Gardens (I know, we are so rock and roll), this year we drove past the Cairngorms and North of Fort William.  As usual, all of the maps and guidebooks we owned to do with Scotland were packed, including my Knoydart one.

The ridgeline of Ciste Dubh

Summit Selfie

On the way ‘up North’ we stopped to walk in Kintail, which was beautiful, if a little windy.  We eyed up the Forcan ridge and numerous other link ups and journeys to complete one day.  In the distance I even caught my first view of Skye.  We didn’t actually explore Knoydart, but the map was used on the hills around Cluanie.

Another cool castle beside the road

A few days later we continued our journey North to the gardens, passing the Torridon hills on our way.  They were incredible, towering piles of sandstone bands rising out of boggy valleys like the Lost World.  Maybe here we would find some wilderness.  I hoped the weather forecast would improve after our visit to Inverewe.

My Inverewe pictures are not on my laptop so here are some Scots Pines on the nature trails above Loch Maree

If you are ‘into’ gardens, Inverewe is quite amazing.  Perched on the edge of Loch Ewe it catches the Gulf Stream and every bit of weather hitting the coastline.  In addition to the views and wide variety of plants and trees there is quite an impressive vegetable and fruit garden.  If you’re not into gardens it’s quite a pleasant place to relax and get some good cake!

360 degree views from Slioch across Loch Maree

Soon we returned to Torridon, I couldn’t wait to explore the hills there and hoped we would be able to.  One afternoon I went on a trail run (ok, power walk/run really!) up Slioch, in the sun and steady 30mph winds.  From the top you have incredible views across to Fisherfield and the ancient tree covered islands on Loch Maree.

The view back to Slioch

On our last day there we took a bet on the forecast and headed up Beinn Eighe.  The weather was still supposed to be a consistent 30-40mph, chance of drizzle, fog, increasing to heavy rain and 60mph; but it had been like this all week - mostly acceptable during the day, and bad overnight.

Choosing to go straight up the hill we pounded 2km down the road for a warm up before heading straight up the mountainside to Spidean Coire nan Clach.  Not quite a vertical kilometre, but a fair way up a path decreasing in quality.  The final out and back to the summit was along a great quartz ridge of super quality and we will be back to ‘tick’ the North Ridge off.

The walk in to Beinn Eighe

An easy scramble to Spidean Nan Clach before the fog cleared

From here it is a lovely non technical ridge walk to the Western bulk of Beinn Eighe.  Another out and back takes you to the second Munro, Ruadh Stac Mor and the high point of the trip (1010m).  

The Triple Buttress of Beinn Eighe - the walk down is via the obvious scree gulley on the far left

What follows can only be described as a climber’s descent path straight into Corrie Mhic Fhearchair.  However upon reaching the Loch a well built path takes you all the way back to the car park.  Other than the path there are no signs of people, just endless wild mountains, mini lochs, bog and the sea beyond.  It looks like a cross between the Yukon and Venezuela!

The ridgeline linking the two munros of Beinn Eighe

Jim enjoying the Torridon views

And so I had my first taste of Torridon, I can safely say I will be back, in the summer, and hopefully in the winter too (maybe with my skis).  In fact, next autumn I think we’ll just drive straight past Fort William and head to the NW Highlands.

Enjoying the path down from Beinn Eighe

Logan Expedition Blog 4, The summit, elation to exhaustion

Skinning across the Plateau on summit day

Monday 23rd May - Prospector Col Shoulder Camp 4 - Plateau Camp 5

The four of us were ‘itching to go’.  I couldn’t wait to arrive on the plateau, even if we didn’t make it to the summit, to explore the plateau would be a milestone in itself.  We took 2 pulks between the four of us to ease the load, and today it was myself and David's turn to haul them up to the col.  It was hard work moving a heavy rucksack and pulk, my shoulders kept feeling out of place and tired, my neck ached and legs felt stiff.  This was overcome by the excitement of getting closer to the summit.

The summit team ready to leave for Prospector Col (L to R, David, Myself, Cathy, Matt) Photo from Cathy O'Dowd

After picking up the cache we skied a short way down to the main section of glacier on the other side before beginning a big traverse in to camp.  Crossing the plateau was awesome, it felt good to be there, finally, after all of the load carrying, weather worrying and team dynamics.  Before us lay a huge undulating expanse of glacier surrounded by skiable looking peaks (all huge, the ‘Logan effect’ working it’s magic again), and crazy seracs overhanging several thousand metres of vertical terrain to the ice fields below.

Traversing the huge Logan Plateau

In the distance we could see two campsites, near Russell Peak, one higher than the other.  This wasn't the spot most people camp in for a summit bid, so we could only presume there must be another reason.  (normally you continue on a high traverse for a few more kms)

The Logan Plateau, you camp just make out two small campsites in the distance (middle of photo and just right of middle)

No one was in the lower camp when we arrived.  After a team chat we opted to camp here and have a longer summit day but avoid hauling our loads further than we needed to.

This camp was the only camp where we didn’t build a snow wall (we were only there for two nights and the forecast was good).  It was cosy with 4 in the tent, but we had less kit and were more organised, although our ski boot shells did get brought into the tent to warm them up overnight (this made a huge difference the following day).  Finally Rich’s guided party arrived, they had got to the West Peak today and one of his client’s looked exhausted.    Their's were the tents beside ours.  We discussed plans, conditions and routes, and decided on an early start to our summit attempt tomorrow.

Sunrise at our Plateau camp

Tuesday 24th May - Summit Day

Our first ‘Alpine start’ of the trip, with alarms at 4am.  On most trips you find yourself a role within your team, and mine had become the breakfast lady.  Each morning I would be the first to get out of the tent, putting the stove on, while Cathy would then de-ice the inner tent, and Matt would slowly wake up (he did his share of stove tending in the afternoons!)  This morning it was cold, I even put my big down jacket on.  Anxious to see what the weather looked like I stuck my head out of the porch door, and for the first time saw the sunrise.  It was perfect, little wind, clear skies and stunning views.

During breakfast cooking I managed to get this shot by vaguely pointing the camera in the direction of the sunrise!

Our aim was to leave as soon as possible after waking up, however in the cold everything took longer.  We took around three hours to get ready.  Once outside we had a good warm up by skinning a gently rising traverse across to the ‘lunchtime ledge’ as we named it.  Here we negotiated a few huge crevasses and continued up and around to the RHS to the glacier below the main summit.  Route finding so far was relatively simple, and we continued straight along to pass above all of the big crevasses on the main glacier coming off the peak.  After skinning on sastrugi for a while we decided that crampons would work better, and be much more pleasant than skiing on the descent.  Caching the skis was a good idea, but in the solid snowpack we ended up tying them all to an icescrew instead.

The sastrugi skinning began

It was several hours more to get from here to the summit ridge.  As we ascended, the air got thinner, and for the first time on the trip I could really feel it.  Making progress slowly upwards was becoming challenging and a small gap began to appear between me and the other three.  This coincided with some small lenticular like clouds hovering above the west summit.  I began to wonder what my chances of summiting were.  As the gap grew, the wind increased and so did the clouds around us.  In my head I had decided that we should all keep going and if the others got to the summit before me, they should head down and I would join them on the descent.  Slightly pissed off at myself for being slow I tried harder to close the gap in vain.

Plodding up to the summit in the last rays of sunshine we had that day

On a brief group pause I asked the others what they were thinking of the weather… lets continue and if it gets worse we’ll turn around, if not, lets carry on.  Phew, at least we were all on the same page.  We weren’t going to see the view, but the winds weren’t dangerous and nor were they forecast to be, we knew it could reach 25mph today, but that is manageable.

Cathy and David making steady progress towards the summit

Further on we cached our rucksacks and continued with our clothes and an ice axe each.  These helped but upwards progress was still difficult.  Every ten double paces I would stop for a breather, never gasping, but out of breath.  I knew breathing in the cold air too deeply would hamper me later (my lungs hate cold air!)

Cathy, Matt and David on the summit of Mount Logan

Eventually we began to undulate along the ridge, every now and then catching glimpses of the famous mountaineering routes below us through the sparkling spindrift.  Finally at 13:30 we reached the summit, tired and relieved.  After sending an in reach message to our website and eating some food (the first I had really eaten since breakfast - another mistake) we began the long way home to camp.  This was, quite simply exhausting physically and mentally.

Matt tucking into the jelly babies on the summit (they had refrozen together!)

Crampon-ing back down the first section was easy enough, we found the ski cache, past the Australian team on their way up (having attempted the peak twice yesterday!), and had some more food.  Just clipping into my dynafit bindings with my overboots on took an age as I was cold and hadn’t cut the holes big enough in them.

Each section of the descent felt harder than the last.  Nothing prepares you to ski frozen sastrugi, in the fog, on a glacier, hungry, tired, with a rucksack on, in the middle of nowhere following a GPS track!

Dancing back down the summit ridge!

Eventually we skied as far down as we could, and we ended up a bit lower than we meant too.  The last section of skinning took around 1.5hrs to travel 2km and 200m upwards.  Normally this would be easy, but we were all pretty tired.  Initially I could skin for 20 double paces and take a breather, but this turned into 10 double paces.  Even upon seeing the tents in the distance I couldn't go faster.  Heavy legs, and having eaten almost no food during the day, I was running on empty.  With relief we all made it to camp and begun eating and sleeping.

Wednesday 25th May - Plateau Camp 5 - King Col Camp 2

Still tired but buzzing from yesterday's achievement we knew we still had a lot of work to do.  With the weather due to change we knew we had to at least get back over the col, and ideally through the icefall.  After packing up camp we made steady progress along the plateau.  The pull up over the col did not take too long, but it was difficult to go faster than 200 vertical metres an hour.  Pulling the sledges was hard work and I was enormously grateful to the others for their hauling today.  

Following the snowshoe track back over Prospector Col

Once over the Col we skied down via our previous two camps to dig out our caches and continued to the top of the icefall.  Along the way there was some great powder snow to be skied, but over a certain steepness my sledge begun to misbehave and control me rather than the other way around.  Progress through the icefall was hard work, it was rather like doing some insane gym workout after spending a week in the mountains.  My entire muscle core was worked to the limit Skiing between the huge slots and seracs with a big pack on and a heavy sledge (normally hanging below you and trying to pull you down the mountain). What had been an incredible steep ski a few days ago turned into a nightmare.  

Descending the icefall

The pulk controlled me and pulled me down the mountain like a sick ski technique exercise as you tried to turn around it.  It seemed to want me to ski diagonally right into the crevasse and I wanted to turn left and ski to camp.  Then things begun to fall out of it which left me there doing lunges with my rucksack on, desperately trying to pick them up and keep the pulk where it was.  Eventually I managed to turn back left and headed into camp.  

Atmospheric views from King Col Camp

Here we made the decision to continue down the mountain tomorrow.

Serac collapse on King Peak

Thursday 26th May - King Col Camp 2 - Basecamp

The decision to ski down today turned out to be a wise choice as the snowshoe / ski track down had turned into an fast icy descent with powder either side.  This meant we could go fast across the flat and have fun skiing too.

Following the smoothish snowshoe track down the mountain

Polling back to basecamp

However the best part about this day were my team who decided to rebuild my pulk for me so that it didn't run over my skis on every turn.  Initially I was a little bit sceptical as to whether this would solve my pulk skiing problem I soon gained much more control over it and began to enjoy the skiing.  This was amazing, the thigh burning descent was quite fun.

Looking back up Mount Logan towards the changing weather

Basecamp was busy with more teams, mostly on snowshoes.  It was sunny and we leisurely set up camp and cooked real food from our cache.  Fried eggs and cheese on muffins. It seemed as though the weather that was due to hit Logan was stuck between us and Kluane, so we would have to spend the night here. 

Chilling out at Logan Basecamp

Friday 27th May -  Basecamp - Kluane

We awoke to the sound of a plane approaching and landing at camp.  By 3pm our team were leaving camp in the plane.  This was the usual mix of excitement to head home but sadness to leave such a wild place and simple life.

Our last views of Logan on the flight out

Saturday 28th May - Kluane - Whitehorse

Ryan, another mountaineer we met on the mountain, very kindly offered us his house to stay in, and after spending some time in Whitehorse we all managed to reschedule our flights home.

Sunday 29th May - Whitehorse - London
Just a few plane journeys so below are two photos that sum up my personal experience on the ski down.

Desperately trying to stay upright controlling the pulk Photo by David Williams

This photo sums up my personal journey as part of the team, lots of gear and hardwork but very happy to be there Photo by David Williams

Tips learnt:

• Keep you ski boot shells in the inner tent, it’s a hassle to clean them and make the space but they stay much warmer.
• Use chemical heaters in your gloves and boots when it’s cold.  They really do work, mine lasted the entire summit day.
• Eat on summit day, even if you are in mittens and don't really feel like it.
• Lastly, go with a good team, and huge thanks go to my fellow teammates who really made it the incredible trip it was (in fact as I finish this post I can't help but grin a bit as I go through the photos again!)