ELTs BLOG – WALES – WEEKS 1

We arrived in dribs and drabs on a wet and windy Saturday in mid January with our numerous bags which were our lives for the next 4 months. We all met each other and our leaders Colin and Jade. The team consists of Mathias (YankEEEE), Mark (Dinner Lady), Luke (Forest Gump), Tash (The Android), Bryn (Bilbo), Pat (Ceasar Mugabe) and Tom (Hungry). We went to the local sports bar and met the locals and got to know each other.

After legal lessons we attempted our pacing and navigation on Sunday. Monday we walked to the summit of Elidir Fawr reaching the top for lunch. 6 hours of walking to break us in and an early night. We had our legal test.

Tuesday was orienteering which started well in Betws-y-coed from A1, A2, B1, C2, C3 and then a simple 5 minute walk to C4 proved too much for Forest Gump who ran for about 2 miles before turning back. This caused a lot of extra walking and banter on his return 1.5 hours later covered in scratches and hot pants for waterproofs courtesy of a barbed wire fence.

Wednesday we all voted for walks and after Patrick received no votes originally but somehow on the revote his route up Moel Elio was the most popular!! This was 5 hours over steep and sometimes difficult terrain with amazing views including Snowdon. Thursday had us groping resuscitation dolls for our Basic First Aid Course with Nicole and we were joined by Os, Al and Dom for the 2 day course.

After our DRABCs we packed up and tidied for our move to Blue Peris for our Mountain Leader Training.