In May next year, I'm going to be leading an overseas mountaineering expedition for a group of students. The exact destination is still undecided, but today was the first of a series of training days to get the team prepared. The weather forecast was suitably dreadful; wet and windy - but after weeks of cold temperatures, the thermometer had hit 17 degrees by 9am today!? Surely some kind of record? In light of the conditions, we planned to go up into the Carneddau with the hopes of gaining some lunchtime shelter in the 'secret bothy'.
Before setting off, we spent some time introducing each other and establishing the aims and objectives of the expedition. I used an exercise that involved looking at the similarities and differences between a 'holiday' and an 'expedition' to help everyone gain an awareness of what they were getting involved with. The idea of taking part in 'a journey with an unknown outcome', got everyone suitably enthused and psyched to get out in mountains, despite the 70mph winds. After a blustery and very soggy (thanks to lots of melted snow) start, we made it to the sanctuary of the Bothy.
Needless to say, there was nobody home, so we got the fire lit with the wood that we had carried up in our rucsacks, got dried out and were able to continue with some map work skills.
With the fire lit, the place soon warmed up.
We even managed to brew up a pan of hot water to make some tea and warmed our sausage rolls on the stove too. Luxury treatment!
The weather was not lending itself well to a continuation up to the summits, so we used the GPS to go 'treasure hunting' (Geocaching) and found two stashes hidden up by the nearby reservoirs. It was good to be out with a fit and motivated team. We managed a big hike in the end and had an average walking speed of 5km/h which is fast for mountainous terrain. Got back at the van just as it got dark, soaked, but only on the outside thanks to my new Rab waterproofs!
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