Last Saturday (24th Nov) I had the pleasure of taking a group of young CCF cadets from Kings and Queens School onto the hills for an 'AT' day. The brief was to provide a good hill day including navigation tuition and practice. The location and outline route was already chosen by the cadet unit, a route in the Carneddau area of Snowdonia, starting along Llyn Crafnant then up to the col leading to Capel Curig, up and over Crimpiau before circling back to to the col and returning along the same route. On doing a recce I decided that it wouldn't have been my ideal choice - too much tramping along the gravel track by the lake - but it was safe enough and importantly, unlikely to be made less safe by the bad weather forecast for Thursday, which was duly delivered and resulted in severe flooding in Llanberis.
After a thorough review of the forecast for Saturday courtesy of MWIS as well as a a check on the state of the roads, we gave the green light on Friday night, met at school at 9AM and had a thankfully uneventful drive to the car park near the head of the lake, despite the narrow road and wide minibus which had our driver (who also happens to be my wife) muttering that she was choosing the route next time !
The weather was pretty much as predicted, dry, with almost no wind, although the hoped for patches of sunshine never materialised which was a shame given all the autumn colours in evidence.
My group was the more advanced / stronger group and interestingly comprised 6 girls and 2 boys as well as the Contingent Commander ! A few exploratory questions revealed that we had a range of navigation levels within the group, so we started with basic map setting and pace count checking, talked about handrails and collecting features and then set off with some easier nav legs which would gradually get harder, a lead pair navigating to a point set by me and the others following and trying to relocate. At the end of the leg the navigators were asked to explain why they thought we had 'arrived' using 3 to 5 items of evidence and then the re-locators were asked to say where we were and why. The general pattern seemed to be that navigators got it there or thereabouts, but the re-locators came up with a variety of interesting variants including being by a totally different lake at one point ! The main reason for this was I think, simply a lack of concentration, not entirely surprising given they were a group of 13/14 year olds who were happily chattering to their mates and enjoying the day out :-)
We had lunch at the col and chatted about some of the plants we could see - mainly mosses and lichens at this time of year - and what they could be used for, and spotted a couple of wild welsh mountain ponies.
Next up was the ascent onto the summit of Crimpiau which involved a couple of small, easy rock steps - almost unnoticeable to the seasoned hill walker but quite daunting to some of our young group. With me standing by at each step they all managed them quite comfortably but the buzz they got from doing them and feeling like they were on more serious ground was quite evident and gratifying. It also served to show how important it is to understand the comfort zones and expectations of the group you are leading. The summit itself has a pleasing little rock cone which provided a perfect group photo opportunity along with quite a few oohs at the panorama despite the low cloud hiding the big summits. Some of the group were amazed at how much lower the lake looked and how far we had climbed, even though the summit is only 475m.
With time moving on, we descended the easier but very wet and slippy grassy slopes of the west side, with Mr Lee, the Contingent Commander providing much amusement as he executed a full 'banana skin' slip onto his backside about 30 secs after I had warned the group :-) There then followed some interesting but very boggy tramping round the hill - including two bog rescues - back to the col just as the anticipated rain began, requiring a quick waterproof stop. From there, we headed down the hill to the lake at a good pace, though the reduction in chatter compared to earlier was a give away that young legs were starting to get a bit tired. At the track head we bumped into one of the more junior groups, which kick started the chatter once more as we returned along the easy track beside the lake to the minibuses, in what was now a constant drizzle, though it didn't seem to dampen spirits in any way. A quick turn around at the buses and headed out to arrive back at school 5 minutes ahead of 6 pm target.
In summary a good day out - nearly 12km and 750m of ascent - with a very engaging and enthusiastic bunch of young people. They seemed to enjoy themselves so objective number 1 was accomplished. Hopefully they also learnt a few nav skills along the way !
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