Sometime earlier this summer, one of the club movers and shakers collared me at the club hut and said, “We’re running a novice course in September, are you coming?”

My first reaction was “Cheeky git! I know I’m crap, but I’m not *that* crap!”, but it turned out that what he actually meant was that he wanted me as one of various spare bodies to help shepherd people around when they weren’t doing the course, the two days of the course being aimed at two separate groups of people.

Fairy nuff.

A couple of days before the weekend, I had a little think. People in the weekly pub session had been making noises about slate quarries, and almost every time we end up sport climbing we seem to end up shouting the what-to-do-at-the-top instructions up the crag to someone who’s got to the top of the route and realised they aren’t sure how to get down. Trying to teach people what to do with a two-bolt belay without actually having the belay to play with doesn’t work very well (which is why people still end up being unsure and confused) , so I had a guddle around in the toolbox and came up with . . . a simulated crag top.

Of course, Sod’s Law then dictated that we then found some bolts at the right height for people to practice on! Which I shall bear in mind for future reference.

(Score so far:
Winter Routes (survived): 3
Sport Routes (seconded): 30
Sport Routes (led): 4
Trad Routes (seconded): 44.5
Trad Routes (led): 7.5
Trad routes (solo: 1)

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 9:58 am and is filed under Gear, Places. Both comments and pings are closed.