Easter
Mountain Activities Course 2003
After
concentrating on staff training courses over the winter, it was good to be
running the first cadet course of the year in North Wales over Easter. We took
13 cadets from Squadrons across the Wing, and set up our base at a private
campsite
Two
members of staff drove to the campsite on Thursday morning to
erect the tents and set up an impressive kitchen and dining area. The rest of us
left Watford
on Thursday evening towing a box trailer
full of food and equipment behind our minibus. We were passing Banbury when a mechanical problem reduced the number of wheels on the trailer
from four to three... Several hours later we were back at Watford where we
spent what was left of the night... Our thanks to the RAC for recovering the
trailer, and to a cadet's parent who drove across from Hertfordshire well after
midnight to help us get everyone back!
On Friday morning, the contents of the trailer were
reloaded into
various cars and the course finally arrived at the campsite at
around 1630. The cadets stretched their legs with a simple
navigation exercise near Harlech beach while the evening meal was
prepared
On Saturday, all staff and cadets went mountain biking at Coed Y Brenin,
using bikes hired from the nearby ski centre, and some personal bikes brought by
members of staff. We regularly use Coed Y Brenin, which contains some of the finest trails in
Britain, but the trails are physically and technically challenging - especially
for anyone whose cycling experience has been gained mainly on roads
On this occasion, we spent the day on the mbr route, and survived
without seriously damaging any bikes, cadets or members of staff
For
Easter Sunday our plan was for a big mountain day. We had noticed that the local campsites, towns
and roads were busier than we had seen for many years. This was very good news
for the local economy, but with stories of
traffic jams and crowded hills in Northern Snowdonia we decided to avoid popular
mountains like Snowdon and Tryfan, and chose to ascend Cader Idris from the Minffordd
hotel instead
None of the cadets had done this route
before, so we split them into three small groups and got them to navigate us out
of the car-park and onto the mountain. As forecast, there was a cold
easterly wind at high level, but visibility was good and the rarely seen view
from the summit was well worth the effort
An
early start on Monday saw us clearing the campsite and filling every corner of the
bus and two cars with equipment before we went to the crag and set up and abseil
and two top-roped climbs. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse,
with a cold wind and heavy showers, but we carried on regardless and
everyone had the opportunity to do as many abseils and climbs as they wanted,
before we
set off for home with a bus full of tired but happy cadets
