GLN Hillwalking Mountain Experience Weekend
On the weekend of 17th – 19th September, a year later than planned, leaders from across GLN headed off with the GLN County Mountaineering Team to the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia National Park. After driving up in the minibus and setting up camp on Friday night, everyone was up early on Saturday morning and after breakfast, split into two groups. Starting from the Ogwen Cottage, one group headed up via The Devil’s Kitchen route onto the Glyders and the other climbed the mighty Tryfan. Throughout the day the rain mostly held off and we were treated to some stunning views looking down into the valley and eventually everyone made it safely back down at the finish point around 6pm. After a long day, and dinner back at the campsite, a few social hours were had warming up in the local pub.
On Sunday morning it was time to pack up camp and take a short trip up the road for a bit of navigation practice in mountainous terrain. Splitting into two groups again, the more experienced group headed off for the summit of Crimpiau and the less experienced group worked on and learned about compass bearings, pacing, contour and map features. In true Welsh fashion the rain started to come down but within an hour it had all cleared and the sun came out! All in all a good weekend was had, with everyone gaining more experience in mountainous terrain and hopefully we’ll have some new hillwalking permit holders in 2022!
Many thanks to John Coffield, Colin & Gill Kirk from County Mountaineering Team for helping to run the weekend and 9th Muswell Hill Scout Group for the use of the minibus.
The next firm date for a T1 & T2 Summer Hillwalking Permit Training & Assessment Weekend is the 10th – 12th June 2022 in Snowdonia. Other dates will be announced in due course on the County website, North Circular and Training Updates emails. If you want any more information on Hillwalking Permits or to book your place for next year please email me at hillwalking@gln-scouts.org.uk