Plas y Brenin Winter Skills Course Tested |  |  |  As the glut of wintry landscapes in the gallery
this week shows, it's well worth getting out in the British hills in
the winter as well as the summer. It's not always as straightforward
as the low altitudes suggest though. As one of Plas y Brenin's
instructors told us on Saturday, 'there isn't really any such thing
as winter hill walking; it's all winter mountaineering' and you need
specialised winter skills to stay safe and make the most of the
conditions.
Plas
y Brenin - near Capel Curig in North Wales - is the Welsh
National Mountain Sports Centre and one of a number of centres that
offer winter skills courses to help walkers make the transition from
summer to winter conditions.
You don't need any previous experience of winter mountaineering,
although former exploits in the hills of some kind are a must. Just
bring along a decent helping of fitness and qualified instructors
will spend two days teaching you the rest.
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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.
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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.
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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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Big thanks to Plas y Brenin for teaching Susan how to survive in
winter conditions. More information on the centre and the range of
courses it runs at www.pyb.co.uk
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