Skip to main content

Uclan Winter skills Scotland Fort William 2016


Day one – Sunday
Our First Journey day!

“On Sunday we hiked up towards Buachaille Etive Beag, before turning and heading towards Stob Coire Raineach, learning the basic skills of walking in snow, using crampons and ice axes. Overall it took 5-7 hours, in snow and poor visibility the higher we got up, as well as moderate wind that seem stronger due to the snow and cold. One each took different turns in leading the group and practicing how to walk in snow as it’s different to walking normally. I learnt so many skills for the first time that first day and really enjoyed the day, I know that the others did too.”
-Marianne Wilson

Day two – Monday

Our 2nd Journey day!

“For me, Monday was one of the main highlights of the unforgettable trip, we were all pretty equip and knew how to use our crampons and ice axes by then. We also knew how to judge the weather and make sensible decisions on what to do. The instructors kindly gave us the choice of journey or skills, we all choose a journey and it definitely payed of! The scenery was truly stunning, we all agreed that we couldn’t believe that there was that kind of scenery in the UK, and one of our instructors said that many of her clients say that too!. But it truly was breath taking.
 We also got to do a lot of scrambling with crampons on, allowing us to use them on rocky terrain and crags. We led the group one by one helping our leadership skills, focusing on our pacing and keeping the group together (as well as checking up on everyone using encouraging language when needed).
We all reached the summit of 1115 m (Stob Coire nan Lochan), this was a huge accomplishment, we all felt very proud of each other and had a great team spirit. For most of us it was the highest peak we’ve reached so far and has inspired us to want to accomplish more and more in our spare time.  The good weather also made us feel very lucky! Which carried on throughout the week.”
-Gabrielle Smith


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A number of the UCLan Outdoor team presented at the Adventure Sports Coaching Conference at   Plas y Brenin earlier this year demonstrating the continuing participation of staff in industry

Presentations included:

Prof Dave Collins and Dr Loel Collins: Redesigning Training and Accreditation Systems in Adventure Sports Coaching
Dr Howie Carson and Chris Eastabrook: Adaptive Automaticity in Adventure Sport: Contemporary Views And implications
Sharon Rosser: Understanding successful aging through Nature Challenge Activities, insights from the older adult climbers, cavers and sea kayakers
Dr Paul Gray: Using Social Interaction to promote, All good coaching is individualised
Dr Helen Hooper, Rosemary Smith and Cath Wilson: Learning through sharing experiences: critical reflections of the experiences of three female outdoor instructors.
Abstracts can be found here 
Post a Comment
Read more

Outdoor Learning – Gallery Event – Art displays

Tuesday 6th March 2018
The third year Outdoor students on the Outdoor Image module all presented their artwork and portfolios from a year of deep thinking and philosophising. The Gallery Event is the culmination of their learning journey guided by Clive Palmer who claims, amongst many things, “that education should be memorable, not forgettable”. What the students presented, and the way they presented it was professional and memorable for very positive reasons in [Outdoor] Education. The topics were as varied as the mediums used to create the artworks, for example, from our dependence on social media, devilish artificial intelligence, plastic poisoning in the oceans to poetry and plays that celebrate the joy of humanity. Social culture and aging and gender issues, animal rights and human rights, the freedom of the environment and the importance of the Outdoors for our very being. There were short stories, sculptures, speeches, creations in metal, paper-Mache, wood and clay, it was all…
Post a Comment
Read more

1st year applied work at Plas y Brenin

1st year applied work at Plas y Brenin During their first year on the BAHons Outdoor Adventure Leadership course, students spent 5 weeks at Plas y Brenin the National Mountain Centre, in North Wales. The focus of the first week was to consider the core competencies used when operating in the outdoors, and in that first week we kayaked, spent time in a canoe, rock climbed and had a day on a mountain. Over the subsequent four weeks, each group spent one week focusing on each of these adventure sports.

Staying in the centre, the students also made good use of the climbing wall and rolling pool in the evenings, as well as attending talks from the staff at Plas y Brenin.


Here are some of the thoughts from 1st year students about their experiences at Plas y Brenin:

 “The environment was incredible as it allowed so many options” “The instructors that work with us are really good… they have a high level of experience” “Plas y Brenin allowed me to have an outlook into a wider avenue for my dev…
Post a Comment
Read more