Training Weekend 26/09/2015
On the weekend of 26th and 27th September the team was training around Derry Bothy. Saturday was a core skills day, with groups splitting off for several activities. Some went walking nearby the bothy, some for a trail run, and some on a more arduous 18km run up to Carn Crom, Derry Cairngorn, Beinn Mheadhoin then back to the bothy via Glen Derry.
The Sunday was a training day based around the cliffs at Carn Crom - only a short walk from the bothy. The training was to be based around setting up belays, lowering a jockey down cliffs on two ropes and some easy raises. This involved taking a significant amount of gear onto the hill - including several small ropes, a 200m rope, 2 x 100m ropes and an abundance of rock protection, ascenders and descender devices. We started the training day with a workshop session on setting up spider belay systems, then worked as teams with around 4 people per rope lowering a jockey the full 200m down the cliffs on 2 ropes. We rotated through the different roles, i.e. jockey, edge manager, radio comms and descender management. The day ended with a short lower and pulley assisted raise.
Great weather, only a short walk, and lots of interesting and valuable rope practice. Everyone found it useful and enjoyed it.
