D of E Assesment in Germany

I took out a group of 10 pupils from Kinlochleven High school, with the help of two teacher, to complete their D of E silver Expedition, as well as a few other fun activities. We were based in Southern Germany, the Allgau region of Bavaria. Sharing the border with the Tirol region of Austria, the Allgau is surrounded by some of the finest scenery, cultures and traditions to be found in Europe. We spent the first 3 days in the mountains on their expedition with assistance from Jen Dickinson who lives and works in the area. The group created the route cards and navigated themselves throughout, we stayed in mountain huts for two nights. The rest of the week we were water skiing, wake boarding, swimming, sightseeing (the chitty chitty bang bang castle), flat water canoing, plus various other activities.

Back in Scotland

. . After 2 weeks in the Lakes. Unfortunately my climbing partner had an injury so we didn't do a great deal of climbing. I met up with with Dangerous Dave and some friends from London and did the 3 peaks challenge. We completed it within 24 hours and had fantastic weather the whole time. The team raised £12,000 for cancer research. I also did some solo days in the hills to keep the legs stretched. I'm going to Bavaria on Sunday to lead a Silver Duke of Edinburgh Expedition with 10 students from Kinlochleven High School.

The Napes

Today I headed out Honister and walked in to the Great Napes on Great Gable. I walked the long way in, past Grey Knots, under Brandreth, under Gable Crag and around to the climbers traverse. I had a good look at all the climbs and the Needle, definitely worth going back with a partner, then i scrambled up an interesting line to the top of the crag and onto Westmorland crag, climbed through this up onto the summit of Great Gable. On decent back to the car I walked past Gable Crag again and saw climbers on Engineers Slabs, looks like a great line. Another warm and sunny day in the Lakes!

Great End - Not really

On Tuesday Graham and I went up to Greatend crag looking to climb Banzai Pipeline, a 3 star E1. It looked great but as we arrived at the base of the crag a team were gearing up for it already. We decided to do the first pitch of No Holds Barred (E2 5b) then abb off and get on the E1. Graham got as far as he could on the route and decided to back off. Whilst lowering him the top 2 pieces of gear popped and he fell, hitting his foot hard against the crag. A xray a few hours later showed a broken bone in his foot. No more climbing with Graham this week :-(