Working towards my MIA is leading me on a path to develop all aspects of my climbing and I am finding this to be a very rewarding experience. As well as obviously demonstrating my personal climbing skills and knowledge to assessors I will complete a teaching day on assessment. There is so much more to a day than just taking people climbing than just guiding them and ticking routes. After a pretty relaxed start I picked up Finn and James and made the trip to the Northern Lakes, back to Borrowdale and Shepherds Crag. The forecast was looking suspect and the sheltered quick drying nature of the crag made it a perfect choice for our day.
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| Finn and James on the first belay of Ardus |
I had climbed a little with Finn before as he is a student on the BTEC course at The Wensleydale School. He has done a fair bit of climbing before but mainly indoor bouldering and a bit of top roping. This was the first time I had climbed with James, who is a Trainee Instructor at nearby Bewerley Park Centre, who has done a lot of climbing on the grit and limestone crags of Yorkshire. James is hoping to attend his MIA training next year so coming out with me was a real eye opener to me and he learnt a lot of new terminology.
We started at Brown Slabs, climbing the two pitch Brown Slabs Direct, working with parallel ropes to get the guys climbing and warmed up. The VDiff climbing was no issue for them, I just wanted to get them used to the rope work and the different tasks that need to be sorted on stances. It also gave me a chance to work on my stance management and organising Finn and James once they reached the belay.
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| Finn climbing the corner pitch 2 of Ardus |
I felt that they needed to challenged in their climbing so we moved around the corner to Brown Crag Wall, a VS- but three good pitches of climbing with good roomy stances. We began working in series with our ropes with Finn as the middle climber. The climbing was definitely a step up from the previous route and suited both Finn and James. Finn was learning how to set up belays, selecting gear placements to create good angles and in correct direction before belaying James up to join us. James was like a sponge, asking loads of questions about stance management. We repeated our order up the next two pitches of the route, consolidating Finn’s learning. He was picking it up extremely well and was happy with little intervention from myself other than checking it all, prior to bringing James up to join us.
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| Finn delicately climbing across the final slab of Ardus |
It was great for me to go back to these routes that I had climbed a few years ago, just as I was beginning to develop my own multipitch climbing. Working back along the crag we chose Ardus as our next route. Three brilliant pitches of climbing, all with different character, a bold slab, a bridging corner and a delicate exposed slab and crack to finish. At the base of the route, I went into further depth of building belays and each of the principles that need to be followed to create a safe belay and explained the route to Finn and what his tasks were at each belay. It was a brilliant route, with good climbing by Finn and James up the polished corner and final slab. There was a great balance of climbing which pushed them through the pitches and learning at belays. Straight into more ropes as I organised a stacked abseil to get us back down to the bags which went without a hitch. Finn was keen for one more route but with time pushing, I pointed James in the direction of Kransic Crack Direct, a great HVS single pitch which would also push Finn’s climbing on the second, and the lads both climbed it in good style.
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| Finn belaying James up the final crack of Ardus |
The focus of the day was to develop Finn’s understanding of building belays and rope work, and this was certainly addressed and it was great to have such focussed climbers who really want to develop their climbing. I think that is something I am most looking forward as a Mountain Instructor, teaching climbers the skills that they will require to go to the crags and climb safely themselves.
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