1 st 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 1 st 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 i
Are you Mad? An investigation into the motivations of adventure sports participants as regards risk, fear and extreme hardship; for recreation. (by Keith McGregor) This qualitative research investigates why some of us (me included) want to put our minds and bodies through extremes of physical and psychological trauma. On a resent trip to Ben Nevis I was amazed to see some people trying to climb the mountain in some of the worst conditions I have seen. One of our party exclaimed “what are they thinking?’ needless to say we turned back and left them to it. This is a typical example of my research area. What drives people to do such mad things and put themselves in danger (let alone others) to risk life and limb, for what? Firstly I needed to look at my motivations and to do this I have used a personal narrative to investigate this phenomenon. The narrative is about a trip to the European Alps, which culminated in me falling into a crevasse. The falling into the crevasse wa