Andrew Stemp, Fay Walsh, Paul Pružina – 2-day outdoor first aid training course.

A while ago the Airienteers suggested that we do an outdoor first aid course so that we could help out at their orienteering events and the Jack Bloor Fund kindly agreed to cover part of the costs. We thought this was a great idea as first aid knowledge is very important for outdoor events and we have all needed first aid help in the past! The club organised a two-day course run by Chris Leleux at Blackhills Scout camp near Bingley where we were joined by 10 other orienteers from around the area. The course was a mixture of theory, practical sessions and some outdoor practice where the heavy rain meant we got to experience bad weather conditions.

On the first day we arrived we started off with introductions before covering the basics of first aid. The course was tailored to outdoor situations with a focus on the kind of injuries most likely to come across. Normally we would have gone outside but the constant rain meant we stayed inside practicing on dummies with plenty of tea breaks to keep us going. After a long first day of training, we headed into Bradford to replenish our energies with the biggest naans in Yorkshire!

The second day was more specific to orienteering and we spent time consolidating what we had learnt yesterday. After lunch we went outside to put our skills into practice in more realistic scenarios. We split up into pairs and took turns pretending to be a casualty and a rescuer administering first aid. The cold February weather helped us practice in less than ideal conditions and drove home how important it is to carry sufficient kit and help casualties quickly. At the end of the course, we all qualified with Level 3 awards in outdoor first aid.

A couple of months later we had our first call up as first aiders at the Buck Wood regional event organised by the Airienteers. Fortunately, we had no major incidents except for a couple of people with cuts and scratches so our skills are as yet untested and hopefully will remain so!

Thank you very much to the Jack Bloor Fund for helping with the cost of our outdoor first aid training.

Katherine Whyte – Climbing Wall Instructor Assessment, June 2022, Leeds, England.

In June 2022 I attended my Climbing Wall Instructor (CWI) assessment, following a two day training earlier this year. Achieving the CWI qualification personally feels very fulfilling, the qualification represents my many years of teaching friends, and then coaching within my role on the Leeds University club committee. I am very grateful to the support from the Jack Bloor Fund, which enabled me to become certified.

The assessment day started very chilled, discussing the outcomes of the home paper, before we moved on to the assessment of the coaching and skills based section. Having had multiple years of coaching myself I felt comfortable leading a warm-up, game and technique drill. With hold colour twister followed by a drill on ‘twisting’. Twisting is a tactic that utilises the movement of bringing your left or right hip into the wall by twisting your knees, hence bringing your hips into the wall to improve stability as well as increasing reach. Each taking turns to run our sessions we next moved onto scenarios for teaching top rope climbing and belaying. I was slightly thrown off by the fact my scenario was 8 young offenders, I quickly planned a session that was climbing volume focussed, that kept all parties engaged and involved. We were then assessed on our ability to structure teaching over a longer period of time, coming up with an 8 week plan for some GCSE PE students, who wanted to finish being independent climbers. Having looked online at resources relating to taught curriculums like that for GCSE students as well as NICAS/NIBAS, I was able to come up with a weekly structure that featured a technique development, regular checkpoints and enabled progression within the students. As we approached the end of the day, it was time for rescues and emergent scenarios, to test how well we could ensure the safety of all parties in a changing environment. I was given a collapsed belayer, and someone who’s figure-of-8 knot had come undone on the wall. Having gone over a plethora of scenarios in our training, I aimed to keep a calm demeanour and reassure the parties and deal with the situation quickly and effectively.

I am very happy to say that I, along with two of the other LUUMC committee members passed the assessment and are looking forward to utilising these qualifications, not only to improve the quality of teaching within the climbing club. But, also to continue to foster a love of climbing as I hope to gain some additional coaching specific training in the future, as I aim to add a development team to the competition team I set up this past year within the university club.

Thanks again for all your support, it really is so very appreciated.

Katherine Whyte

Photos:

1 – Running a weekly coaching session with LUUMC

2 – Myself (second left) with the competition team at the third round of the Northern University Bouldering Series, of which one of our girls achieved 3^rd overall.

3 – Training day of the CWI at The Big Depot, Leeds

Kitzbuhel European Cup Write-Up for Jack Bloor

I travelled to Kitzbuhel on June 15th to compete in a European Cup Triathlon event, representing Great Britain and support from the Jack Bloor fund allowed me to fund my travel to the event. The race format was an eliminator- something that I hadn’t done before. Heats took place on the Friday, where the 10 first finishing athletes in each heat qualified to race the following day. Then, the top 30 athletes started the next day, when the format consisted of 3 shorter races. At the end of each, the bottom 10 athletes were eliminated from the competition, until there were 10 in the final race.

The racing was fast, hot, and tough, but I managed to get into the final race and finished 6^th overall, my best senior result ever. Completing 4 races over 2 days provided many opportunities for me to practice race skills such as racing open water with close contact around buoys, transitions and more. The race location was amazing, and I had a great experience, plus, the result means my world ranking went up by over 100 positions, allowing me to get international racing opportunities more easily in the future. Thanks very much for the support, it has made a huge difference 🙂

Calum Sowden – Mountain Leader Assessment May 2022, Snowdonia, Wales

In May 2022 I attended my Mountain Leader Assessment in Snowdonia. This is a qualification which I have been working towards for the last couple of years, and I am incredibly appreciative of the support from the Jack Blood Fund.

The five-day assessment kicked off with a day in the Crimpiau area of Snowdonia. We spent a full day on the hill, completing micro-navigation legs and discussing emergency and extrication procedures for group leaders. This was a good warm-up for the rest of the week, and an indication that the hard work I’d put in over the preceding months was going to pay off. The next day saw some pretty miserable weather coming in. Not the kind of day to be stood around, but that’s exactly what we did as we had all the emergency rope work skills and steep ground management to demonstrate. Despite an early hiccup when spotting the assessor on steep ground (which I rectified later on through a second chance) the day went really smoothly. The assessor chose me to manage the whole group on the only section which we actually needed the rope, rather than in artificial circumstances, which I took as a major indication of his trust in my ability.

Over the next three days we undertook the ‘expedition’ – a three-day, two-night trip with wild camps both nights. On the first day, we took in Snowdon via the Ranger path before dropping down into Cwm Tregalan for the camp. Once the sun had set, we set out on the night-navigation element of the assessment. This is the part which candidates are often most nervous for, however the is the component which I spent the most time practicing and so it went very smoothly. We did have perfect conditions for it, with 50m visibility, so there were no real excuses! On the second day we looped around towards Moel Siabod before cutting back to Pen y Pas and camping in Cwm Glas. The second round of night-navigation went just as well and at this point I was confident that the week had gone well. I spent the night camped on a little island in Llyn Glas, but woke to the stepping-stones completely submerged after a night of heavy rain! The final day was short and sweet and we made it back down to Llanberis for a big fry up in Pete’s Eats by midday.

All in all, I was really pleased with how the week went, and delighted that I passed the assessment. Thank you so much again for all the support, it’s really appreciated!

Calum Sowden

Photos:

1 – me prepping the rope on the rock step.

2 – out for some night-navigation

3 – the rare sight of sunshine for the week!