Plas y Brenin Winter Skills Course Tested

When There's No Snow...

Last weekend couldn't have been a better time to sample one of these courses , but even in less classic winter conditions (ie. wetter ones!) the courses still take place. Ice axe arrests on snowy slopes are replaced by participants slithering down grass banks on bivvy bags. Crampons, meanwhile, can be worn on the artificial winter slope whether it's 10 degrees above freezing or 10. below. Still, a picture book winter is what it's really all about and this time around, no one was disappointed. We'd lucked out, big time.

The course began with a hike part way up Y Garn, with crampons straight from the Plas y Brenin store cupboard strapped to six pairs of feet half-way up. Although it's always good to get a few miles under your boots, the weekend wasn't primarily about churning out the distance,. We didn't reach any summits, nor did we try to. After all, it was a skills' weekend, with an emphasis on soaking up new information rather than maximising the heart rate or up the summit count..

The first challenge was to walk in crampons without spearing our Gore-Tex trousers - think monkey... After that, the fun with ice axes began. It's not often you can bum-slide down a snowy slope like a five-year-old and tell yourself you're learning an important new skill. In this case, it served the purpose of preparing a nice fast chute to practice ice axe arrests on.

Head first, feet first, on our fronts or backs - whatever direction you might fall in - we pushed off down the slope to practice ice-axe braking. It's tough on the waterproofs, but then that's what they're made for. More importantly, it was far from tough on anyone's sense of enjoyment.

Textbook Skills...

Some of the other skills were a little more cerebral. How to assess avalanche danger; how to recognise a cornice; how to read weather maps and predict the day's weather, were all questions we discussed.

Also, how to climb Ben Nevis avoiding friendly encounters with any of the man-eating gullies! As we only had two days at our disposal, some of this information was covered in an evening lecture. We could then put theory into practice by testing the stability of the snow on the slopes the next day.

Sunday was a bit more technical, involving some rope work and belay skills, and even an ice climbing session. This isn't a feature of every course - they're all tailored to the skill level of the participants, so don't shy away from taking part if climbing isn't your thing. In this case though, most of us were drooling over the crag-high ice walls developing all over the hillsides and were eager to give it a go.

We spent the first half of the afternoon dangling from a couple of ice axes and the front points of our crampons, not to mention a good old safety rope. The fact that all of us then walked back down the side of the ice wall, ready for a second bite at the cherry, is a good measure of our satisfaction.

Bar Skills...

Last but not least, no course would be complete without a good old pint at the end of the day, even if it was super-informative. This one was no exception. After a mammoth Plas y Brenin dinner, we all piled into the lecture theatre for a talk on climbing in Patagonia, then headed to the bar. The advantage of the residential courses is that everything's on-site, so you don't have to get your feet wet en route to the morning's fry-up or the evening's night-cap. Eating, trying out the centre's climbing wall, and relaxing over a beer all take place under the same roof. So once you've put your life in someone's hands, you can find out their name and job and aims in life afterwards:-)

Saying that the course was fun, informative and sociable is a rather predictable conclusion - no surprise endings here then The winter skills weekend genuinely comes highly recommended (at your own risk etc. etc. - or however the legal disclaimers go!)

With the experience under your belt, you're more likely to hit the hills next time we have a snow-covered Britain, camera in hand, ready to take some more pictures for the OM gallery. We won't be complaining. And even if that doesn't happen for a while, it's still a far better way to spend the weekend than cleaning the car or rambling round the park. The season has just about finished for this year. So, winter mountaineering 2007, anyone?

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