A Quick review of the weekend.
JJ, Nick ‘em, Lock ‘em, Gareth, Barry, Mick, Louise, IanB and Me. £2,400 if we were paying going rate for the seven of us. Plus All the back office work done by Brothers Kev R, Murray, Steve Rich, Gavin and James W amongst others. Scouts are getting one hell of a service from us.
Small course this weekend, just six customers. T1 and T2 training and assessment, ML training (camping weekend). Of course, being ML camping the weather had a play with us, windy Saturday and not as much rain as forecast on the Sunday.
The T2 assessment was successful.
If Ian B asks you to follow him to the woods, be on your guard. His detailed knowledge on how to dispose of bodies is quite unsettling. Strange how quick you can get from a discussion on the finer points of navigation.
Gareth put up a couple of new key safes outside. One on the rock for the car park chain and the other one unused. As always, all codes in the description of the Hafod team group on WhatsApp.
T1 Training
Like all the other groups Nick and Lock’s stayed low to keep out of the wind. So Idwal, Clogwyn y Tarw, Bochlwyd. Little wind until top of the Griben Facet. Excellent visibility on the Saturday. Bit more wet and wind soon moved on Sunday.
Both clients enjoyed the day and picked up lots of new superpowers.
All the groups were glad of the early night so reduced visibility (night) navigation was started straight after an excellent dinner by Louise yet again. Apologies to Barry and Mick, you were out when we tried to deliver.
All participants debriefed individually and happy with the course.
T2 Training and Assessment
JJ (James Johnson) and IanB did the Idwal, Bochlwyd, Bwlch/Cwm Tryfan tour. This kept them out of most of the wind and they had a jolly time with rope work and the inevitable and much anticipated river crossing.
The candidate gained a restricted T2 (geography) and a full T1. A happy client.
The trainee will be back.
All participants debriefed individually and happy with the course.
ML Training including tenting
Barry and Mick off to the Moelwyns
The group found a sheepfold to put the tents up in to shelter from the worst of it. Top secret location. Expedition went as planned. Plenty of parking at Gellilago. Walked into camp site and covered all the camp components of the ML syllabus. Ate early and then went walking and finishing at around 21:30 therefore included a good amount of low vis nav. Night was very windy and wet. Following day was walking off the mountains with some great ML terrain. River crossing and debriefs covered near or in the Nant Gwynant cafe with plenty of cake.
Food
Excellent food as ever by Louise. Those breakfasts…
Brother Gareth and Mem
Saturday was Gareths last day at Hafod. He and Mem are taking a year out to think about what he wants to do and if Hafod may feature in it.
Personally I will miss the pair of them. The banter, hill/climbing wisdom and his hard work about the place quietly getting with fixing stuff. From two foot fluorescent tubes to designing and having the new kitchen installed, all within his grasp. Mem’s cooking will be missed and will her little laundry.
If it is broke, fix it and fix it now.
Hopefully we will see them both again. Don’t let them become strangers.
Gareths parting request is if you see something that is broken, please fix it. It is unfair for other folk to drive for over an hour each way for simple fixes.
The Paper Mountain
Again the route cards, dirty risk assessments and other parts of the paper mountain are being filled in to a high standard, thank you all.
8th November open weekend
Due to the lack of customers we have had to cancel the course. Kev R and Murray have worked hard to resolve this. The clients will be coming back in the new year when we have more folk wanting to do permit courses. This is a recent problem we are having where we aren’t getting folk on permit courses, quite a drop in bookings.
With this weekend becoming free we are having an open weekend instead with you all invited. A questionnaire will be coming out soon for you to book on and help with some questions we will be tackling on the weekend. The obvious one being how do we get more folk on courses.
Thinking caps on.
The Kitchen, Stores and Key safe.
Please ensure everything is locked after a course. Due to some confusion, the stores, food cupboards and the key safe have been left open at the end of courses recently. Please, please do not do this. I know everyone is busy with paperwork, cleaning etc.
Fire Alarm
Recently the fire alarm has been playing up. A service has fixed it. If you have a fire alarm, it is for real.
Toodeloo to one and all.
Thank you for making all the magic happen.
