Coniston May 2024 - Scrambling Course

This trip was especially important to me as the Safety and Equipment Officer, as I'd learn how to scramble and use the scrambling gear, which the club has a fair bit of. Nick had been highly recommending the course, and, well, I wanted to go anyway just to build my own skill. 

The drive up was uneventful, fortunately. After the whole fiasco that occurred in Scotland, we were thankful for a fast, smooth journey to the bunkhouse. When we got there, we soon realised that we were in the perfect place to catch the aurora, and I think we got the best view of it by far. First time giving the safety speech, and we discovered that a car had gotten a double puncture. Well played, cursed bunkhouse. 

Day 1, up on the fells scrambling. Technique, footwork, route finding, and especially footwork, balance and body position. Pretty much half of the course can be summed up as 'Build good footwork', as that seemed to be the most critical thing to moving over the rocks safely. A mantra we learned from Tom, our instructor, was 'Slow is smooth, smooth is fast'. It was at times easy to get caught in the moment, and realise that one was rushing over things. Went over Brim Fell Slabs, and summitted the Old Man, before coming back down for Day 1. 

Dinner is food. I like food. I like cooking. Thanks for the food, Ranga. 

Day 2 was an '8am out of the bunkhouse' day. We wanted to work a lot on technique and making sure we had the basics down, so we headed to an easy scramble where we could work on those nonstop. Knots, technique, and most importantly assessment and working with everyone on the scramble. It was a lot of information to take in, but on the fells, we soon discovered how smoothly and simply everything came together. 

Smooth drive back, not going to say too much on that. Altogether one of the best trips, and one I'd highly recommend, especially the scrambling.