Skills Training

In the Lakes we provide instruction, skills training, coaching and guiding in rock climbing, abseiling, general mountaineering for the adventurous walker, scrambling, route planning and navigation including GPS, self-rescue, alpine preparation, crevasse courses and expedition training. All these activities can run at any time of year when I’m not in the Alps or off on a trip somewhere.

Whenever winter conditions permit I provide winter skills tuition and guiding in climbing and mountaineering in the Lakes as well as in Scotland, and there’s even ski mountaineering here on those amazing, rare occasions when we have full snow cover! The incredible winter of 2010 was a wakeup call for me, and we had a fantastic time climbing and skiing routes we thought we’d never see in such amazing condition, right on our doorstep, literally. It brought home to me what a special place the Lake District is, and I resolved to spend far more time exploring here.

Climbers will be interested in choice and use of equipment, guidebooks, grades and choice of route, rope work, placing trad gear, building belays and belaying techniques, climbing technique and training.

In winter we add ice axe and crampon skills including self-arrest, snow craft, ice craft, snow, ice and mixed climbing, snow pack assessment, avalanche risk, use of weather and avalanche bulletins, and building survival shelters

I can introduce you to the Alps at any time of year from our base near Chamonix or anywhere else in the Alps by arrangement. I have connections going back many years with Saas Grund and have spent much time based there too. I can help you get to grips with the basic alpine skills including the use of ice axe and crampons, glacier travel, crevasse rescue, rope management, belaying techniques and movement on rock, snow, ice and mixed terrain. We also experience the huge scale of the alpine mountains and the pleasures of alpine huts.

Our winter alpine seasons are about skiing, ice climbing, mountaineering and snowshoeing. When skiing, in addition to the other general, winter and alpine skill sets, we tend to focus on the use of ski touring gear, skinning, kick turns, avalanche safety kit, transceiver searches, shovelling, probing, snowpack and avalanche assessment and glacier skiing.

Some of our course such as Navigation and Route-finding, Alpine Prep and Expedition Training are 100% skills focussed, but remember that we aim to offer skills training to participants in ALL of our courses and guiding.

Maybe there’s a particular area you want to work on, like mountain navigation, lead climbing or avalanche transceiver searches. Get in touch for a chat and we can design a course to your specific needs.