TELS- Feb 2010- Wales Phase

The new group of TELs all managed to arrive safe and sound in Wales, despite some last minute running for late trains and cancellations. With 12 people, we were split in to two houses, 4 of us taking up the "Love Shack" (as christened by John), while the rest were in the main house. For the first week, Colin battled manfully with all 12 of us, teaching us some basic navigation and leadership skills. By the end of the first week, we were set a task to plan out our route around the local area with the intention of leading the rest of the group on an 8 hour walk. We had time to plan before the rest of the group could vote for their favourite, which we would then complete the following day. Unfortunately no one was able to partake in Henry's tea & medals at the bothy on Snowdon as the unusually snowy winter made the peak too dangerous without crampons and ice axes (Colin having had the good sense not to give us either), so instead we went on Rhona's route - up Elidir Fawr and on to Y Garn, down through Devil's Kitchen and back to Llanberis with only a little snow on the peaks. We were joined by Helen and her dog Cluny - presumably a failsafe by Colin as Helen and Cluny work for the local Mountain Rescue team! The following day, we were again joined by Helen and Cluny and also Tilly (another search dog) for an Orienteering course where we practiced our fabulous navigation skills, hampered somewhat by the forestry commission cutting down a lot of the markers. Back at the Big Broth- er, sorry, Trekforce house, we took part in some team bonding as Colin got us to play Mafia, where Jamie's catchphrase quickly became "You will regret this" as he was Mafia 3 times in a row!

Confident that we could now fend for ourselves, Colin left us to plan things for the Belize phase, while we embarked on our Mountain Leader (Summer) Award training with Gareth and Simon from Blue Peris. The minute Colin left though, things started to fall apart and we had our first casualty - Dom tripped while out for a walk damaging the ligaments and chipping a bone in his wrist. The weather turned nasty as well, and our day of grade 1 scrambling with the Blue Peris boys was cut short after we were battered by torrential rain all day. Things then went from bad to worse as our overnight camping expedition in summer conditions was conducted in nearly a foot of snow! Apart from the weather (which they can't be blamed for!) the chaps at Blue Peris guided us through our ML training with ease, covering river crossings and ropework as well as expanding upon our navigation skills. The Love Shack started to live up to its name this week too, with Sam waking up one morning to find Max cuddling up in bed with him. Our time in Wales coming to an end, we did a ninja style cleaning session on both houses to make Colin proud and discovered Dan had been stashing Nutrigrain bars in a microwave!