Monday, August 31, 2009

Froggatt with friends

To celebrate being a student again, we joined climbing friends who were camping in the Peak. Yesterday, we climbed at Froggatt. I started with Chequers Buttress and belayed Heather and then Louise:



Click on the picture to open a slide show of Heather climbing chequers buttress or here to access the set on flickr:



Same for Louise: click on the picture for the slide show and here for the set:



I climbed Sickle Buttress Direct, a route i'd never done before and belayed Louise and Scott up it. Meanwhile, Heather was leading the very nice Allen's Slab. By the time i got to the camera, she was at the top:



Rob and Angie joined us. I havne't seen Rob look so happy for a long time, so here they are:



Inspired by Heather, I lead Allen's Slab. I managed to place the three "friends" given to me as a leaving present by my ex-colleagues. Mike fetched my camera and took pictures of the finish, while the audience heckeled me for "posing"



Only Louise followed me up that one. Then, Slab recess direct with Louise and Scott.

Finally, Jaimie gave me the chance to try downhill racer on a top rope. It's too hard for me, and if Scott puts his pictures on the web i won't look so good then!

We then retreated to the pub under the thin drizzle. What a great day!

Thank you to Heather, Louise and Mike for taking these pictures.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Outdoor Instructor no more!

Last Friday was my last day working as an outdoor education instructor at Beaumanor Hall. The instructors gave me this card:



And the ground staff this one:



Let's include this drawing courtesy of Sophie:



I don't have any pictures of the speach: Clive took me to the high rope store, where all the people with whom i worked were waiting. We went to the top of the zip wire tower, and i was presented with the cards and three "friends" (climbing equipment).

We were then invited by the YHA leaders to join their end of the summer camp bbq:



I will miss the pleasure of working in a beautiful place, delivering exiting high ropes and climbing sessions to young people and adults. I won't miss the awful management practice. I'm glad that my last moments in Beaumanor were on the high ropes, in the store and in the cabin furthest away from the beige building and the shenanigans it contains.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Dancing Sophie





I wasn't the only one who enjoyed the high rope course. What a star!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Tight beam walk

Having spent many a high rope sessions wondering what it would feel like to walk on the top beam,



I finally had a chance to try. Clive had asked me to glue some stamps on the trolleys at the very top, and to try the new harnesses:



Instead of climbing to each of the two trolleys, i decided to gather them in the same place and then to glue them. This worked very well as the caps were glued to the tubes, and i had to slash open the tube. I would not have liked to have to downclimb with open glue tubes in my hands!

It felt very wobbly up there at first:



But i soon felt more confident:



These trolleys are seldom used and were a bit rusty. In fact, the one i was attached to needed pulling along:




Allan and Mark were up there with me. A big thanks to Mark for taking these pictures!



Now glueing the stamps



Then retrieving and threading the tracers:





It started raining as i started to thread the second tracer:



Writing this post made me wonder if "normal" participants feel as stretched on the high rope course as i felt at the very top. I felt exhilarated after walking the beam!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

budgie sitting

We are Budgie sitting. The poor bird is so lonely, it wants to play with our rats. It mimicks the rats when we feed them:



It even stalks them all the way to their cage: