The annual BMC Student Safety Seminar was held last weekend, and Joe and I made the long trip to North Wales to see what it was all about...
"Supported by Plas y Brenin the seminar gives university club members the opportunity to improve their club practices and ensure safer enjoyment of our cliffs and mountains. The weekend comprises a mixture of lectures, discussions and practical workshops."
This promised to be a useful outing and so on Friday afternoon I made my way out to Joe's house and set off on the journey to Snowdonia. Local radio, Sainsburys Basics Peanuts and experimental photography saw us through, and we arrived at Casa Ullrich just before midnight, having set off at 6pm. George Ullrich is a friend of mine from school, and he has a house situated right in the heart of Llanberis. The 2 bed house was home to five climbers (1 each in the bedrooms, 2 on the living room floor and 1 in the tarp shelter in the garden) and with fingerboards, ropes and climbing paraphernalia spread liberally around the house Joe and I immediately felt at home. Almost forgot to mention the wood burning stove in the living room. On reflection I think I may have been in heaven.
It should also be mentioned that George had recently burnt off his right eyelashes after attempting to fire their homemade potato canon. 'Nuff said.
Rising to porridge and tea on Saturday we made our way over to Plas y Brenin for the morning's lectures. The topics included issues such as planning trips, incident management, legalities of minibus usage and a very sobering video featuring Colette Fleetwood. Some smaller practical sessions on individual topics broke up the lectures.
The afternoon saw us split into groups; Joe climbed at the indoor wall whilst I ventured out in the pretty grim weather to a local single pitch crag called "The Pinnacles" (photo on right). Good instruction on building belays followed, with some time saving knowledge imparted from our excellent instructor. Incidently all the instructors who helped on the weekend were volunteers - giving up their weekend to help teach us students! Joe came back from the indoor session with some good ideas which will be implemented at the Castle no doubt!
After a brew it was time for the bouldering competition at the indoor wall. Obviously we would have crushed the opposition but sadly there was not enough time in the second session to get on all the routes. That's my excuse anyway! To promote inter-university bonding we gave two Imperial climbers a lift back to Llanberis, and after a tortellini dinner we got our heads down in prep for the Sunday.
Unfortunately Sunday saw me feeling pretty under the weather, so I opted to stay at Casa Ullrich and watch the rugby. Pretty annoying considering we'd driven so far to get to Snowdonia for the weekend! Joe ventured out to Ogwen Slabs on a multi-pitch day, learning nifty tricks and good skills whilst on the rock. After a final debrief at Plas y Brenin the weekend was concluded and we hopped in the car and set out back for London. Rugby FM was a particular highlight, as well as "Word Gets Around" by the Stereophonics. The queues on the M1 however were accompanied by many expletives. We arrived back at 11:30pm, brimming with new ideas and skills that we'll be sure to implement over the coming year!
Words by Martin Davies
For more information on the BMC visit www.thebmc.co.uk.
