Friday 24 June 2011

BMC leaflet on belay devices

The new (free!) BMC leaflet on belay devices is now out. The new edition focuses on the factors that users should consider when it comes to choosing a device. One big change is a switch in terminology to describe all belay devices as either 'manual devices' or 'assisted braking devices'. This wording has arisen out of progress being made by CEN (the European Committee for Standarisation) who are seeking to develop a standard for belay devices. Long-standing BMC volunteer Neville McMillan, (who recently received a BMC volunteer award), was involved with those developments for many years, with new BMC volunteer Rob Foster continuing this work. 

Friday 17 June 2011

Coaching Developments Update


The two advisory groups supporting Mountain Leader Training in developing a coaching system met earlier this week. The climbing coaching system is being developed by Mountain Leader Training (MLT) under the direction of their Technical Officer Steve Long. The two advisory groups supporting Steve in his work are a Coaching Management Group and a Coaching Technical Group.
The Management Group is made up of MLT Board members, and comprises John Cousins (MLT Executive Officer), Steve Long (MLT Technical Officer), Nick Colton (BMC Deputy CEO), Mike Pinder (BMC MLT Board Member) and Rosie Goolden (MCofS MLT Board Member). This group is concerned with the strategic and practical delivery of a sustainable and self-funding infrastructure for coaching qualifications.
The Technical Group comprises Steve Long, Jon Garside (BMC/MLTE Training Officer), Ian Dunn, (British Team Manager), Neil Gresham (Climbing Coach), Graeme Morrison (Chair, Mountain Leader Training Scotland), Angela Carlin (Mountaineering Ireland Coaching Development and Talent ID Officer), Dave Binney (Sport Scientist) and Martin Chester (Plas y Brenin Director of Training). Being comprised of coaches and coach trainers, this group's job is to design scheme syllabi & course materials and the methodology for training, assessment, accrediting prior learning and continued coach development.
A lot of research and development has taken place over the last 5 years. A National Source Group was established in late 2006 to investigate the possibilities of a coaching scheme, with their report published in autumn 2008.  Subsequently, the BMC sourced funding from Sport England for 2009 - 2013 to develop a coaching system.
Other sports and outside agencies such as Sports Coach UK have been consulted, and Steve Long attended the recent round of National Indoor Climbing Achievement Scheme workshops to gauge the needs of climbing walls.
The BMC Coaching Symposium demonstrated the very strong grass roots support for a coaching system; the  FUNdamentals of Climbing Workshops have played a part in identifying the demand for a particualar aspect of coach education (see also Scotland and Ireland) and  Plas y Brenin has been delivereing a Coaching Processes for Climbers workshop for a number of years. A central theme of that training is that coaches don't coach climbing, they coach people. Developing coaching behaviours will be an important theme of MLT's coaching system.
However, a wholly new set of national coaching awards cannot be developed without consulting widely and taking into account the views of the many different stakeholders, all of which takes time. The sometimes differing views of the three Mountaineering Councils can lead to a pause in progress whilst issues are explored.
At their recent meetings, the Management and Technical groups discussed progress to date, and reviewed MLT's strategic plan. The short term goal is finalising syllabi for assistant coach and coach qualifications by mid-September. Steve Long presented the first drafts of these syllabi to the Technical Group who thought them a very good first draft.
MLT are working to a tight deadline. Alongside finalising syllabi, their immediate task is reviewing the coaching system operational plan covering the period from now to March 2013.

Monday 13 June 2011

British Mountain Guides Committee Meetings

The British Mountain Guides held a series of meetings this weekend in Leysin, which I attended as observer. Both meetings were very efficient and further progress was made in paving the way for collaborative work with MLT award holders as well as the UIAA Training Label. On the Sunday we showed guests from the BMG's new sponsor, Arc'teryx, around the local crags. More photos from the weekend at http://www.flickr.com/photos/46624718@N03/sets/72157626924557330/


DSC01335
Originally uploaded by SteveMLT
Via Flickr:

Roger Payne, BMG President, shows some of our guests from Arc'teryx where the lines go.

Thursday 9 June 2011

Peak District visit.


Wee Doris_05
Originally uploaded by SteveMLT
Just back from a couple of days in the Peak District. Showery outbreaks (thunder and lightning!) drove us to the shelter of Stoney Middleton, where we enjoyed Dead Banana Crack, Scoop Wall and, to my surprise, a clean onsight of Wee Doris, the polished testpiece. The next day was bright and breezy so we went over to Stanage, where I managed to climb high enough to get into trouble on a couple of pitches but no higher. Sion took a bit of persuading but preceded to saunter up a delightful pitch called Cave Buttress. I'll be back, just as soon as I've worked out where the footholds are on grit. I've been looking for 30 years and still not found them.

Saturday 4 June 2011

Craig y Don

Fisnishing the crux of The Tyndale
Rocio and I decided to go for a day of red-pointing on Pen Trwyn limestone, so packed accordingly. It just goes to show that you need to keep your options open for climbing: the whole of the Marine Drive was shut to both vehicles and pedestrians for the day, so we ended up calling in at Craig y Don, where we were fortunately able to have a look at another team's guidebook - at least I had a selection of wires so after climbing the easiest sport route on the crag we were able to climb a couple of trad pitches, both very worthwhile - though one felt very fierce for the grade as the holds after the crux were quite dirty and vegetated. We climbed The Tyndale (6c+ but with a hard clip for a sport route), New Wave (E3 6a and delightful) and finally The Cruel Sea (E3 6a - old school E3 - i.e. the holds think that they are on an E4).

Thursday 2 June 2011

A great day's climbing at Llandulas Cave

Llandulas Cave is becoming a great little venue for climbing, as the local community has cleaned up a lot of rubbish and loose rock. There are some excellent climbs now ranging from Grade 5 through to 7c, though the rock still demands some respect in places. Today Rocio Siemens and I worked our say through a couple of old classics at the righthand end of the crag, including the classic Ralarwdins (6b+) before moving along to a newly developed crag tucked away in the trees. Unfortunately I can't tell you where this is or we would have to shoot you. But suffice it to say that there are some really worthwhile new routes of about 20 metres in length - standout lines being a 6c groove near the righthand side - an outstanding pitch, and at the far left another nice route but it felt very strenuous and sustained for the grade, maybe I had got the wrong beta!