Contents

Navigation Training (two for one offer)

Winter Skills Courses

Vegetarian Walking Holiday on Skye

Multi Pitch Climbing and Scrambling

Viva and Vegan 15 Peak Challenges

Duke of Edinburgh's Award

Duke of Edinburgh's Award Navigation Refresher

It has been over 6 months since I put out our last newsletter and, since then, things have been really, busy for Lupine Adventure Co-operative.

We have run our first winter skills courses, sold out and ran a wonderful walking holiday on Skye , expanded the number of schools we are working with on the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and run some pretty exciting sponsored events.

We're making the most of the fantastic weather and are looking forward to a summer packed with climbing, walking, teaching, scrambling and guiding.

Take a look at our website for full information on all our activities and dates.

Navigation Training

Our navigation training courses at the beginning of the year were over subscribed meaning that over the first May bank holiday we ran two courses simultaneously to cover demand. Our navigation courses run over 2 days and cover all you need for fair weather navigation and then go further into what to do when the mist comes down and features are few and far between. 

We still have space on our July 2010 course and as such are able to offer 2 places for the price of 1 for this course only (while spare places remain). So if you would like more information or to book visit the navigation page on our website.

Winter Skills Courses

2010 was our first year of running Winter Skills Courses and we managed to run them in both Scotland and North Wales. In Scotland we operate in the Glen Coe / Fort William area. We ran 5 day winter skills courses covering the the full range of winter mountaineering skills including movement with and without the use of ice axes and crampons, avalanche awareness and emergency snow shelters.

Due to the winter being long and hard we also managed to run a weekend winter skills course in North Wales in mid March. During this course we covered all the basic skills necessary for staying safe in the winter mountain environment.

In February this year Andy completed the Winter Mountain Leader Training course and will be assisting Pete with our winter courses in 2011. We will be based in the same area, Ballachulish, so get in touch if you want to book us for some winter skills training or if you want us to simply give you some experience of winter walking. With two staff working it is a good opportunity to get some high instructor / student ratio learning in.

Vegetarian Walking Holiday : Skye : 15-22 May 2010

I don't know where to begin really, as far as I am concerned (and I think I speak for all) it was a fantastic holiday. We had 8 guests on this trip and staffed it with 3 of us meaning we could split the group when necessary. On one day, for example, some people wanted to scramble their way up a munro whereas others fancied a boat trip and coastal walk. For me the highlight was the otters in Portree harbour. Last year, despite even going to an otter hide for an afternoon, we didn't get to see any. This year we were treated to a good half hour on two occasions of otters crawling around on moored up fishing boats at dusk.

We went to some different areas of the island this year in order to be out walking where the weather was the best. Next year we'll be bringing up hike tents so if some of the group want to they can hang out watching the whales, dolphins and sea birds while the sun sets over the Atlantic before camping out on the beach, I can't wait.

Looking forward to 2011

It was such a good trip I've excitedly started to plan next year. With most of our guest this year saying they would like to come back on this trip or another one next year we have decided to run three week long vegetarian walking holidays for 2011. One will be in Skye, one will be in Glen Coe and we're going to investigate running one in the English Lake District.

For the Glen Coe holiday I'm really keen to book this fantastic looking place, it comes with a Gym, sauna and Jacuzzi and sleeps 14. If we are to book this then we need to know that we, in turn are going to get the bookings. So if you are interested then please do get in touch and let us know, we won't hold you to anything at this time but a statement of interest would be appreciated.

For a fuller report of our 2010 Skye Holiday please take a look at our website. There is also a photo album here.

Multi-pitch climbing and scrambling in North Wales

Pete has been busy this summer teaching multi-pitch climbing and scrambling in North Wales.

Our Multi-pitch climbing and scrambling courses are necessarily run on low ratios so get in touch to let know when you would like to book us. It doesn't matter if you are new to the delights of multi-pitch climbing and scrambling or if you have a bit of experience and want to learn best practice from a trained, experienced instructor. Get in touch and we'll tailor a course to your current needs.

Viva and Vegan Welsh 15 peaks

In our last newsletter we told you about the Welsh 15 peak challenges we were running this summer. Well the first one (the vegans) has been completed and we decided to run the two Viva ones simultaneously which is going to happen on 3rd July.

The Welsh 15 peak challenge involves taking in all the Welsh mountains over 3000ft in one 24 hour period. The route is about 50km long and involves about 4000m of assent. While the 24 hour time frame is quite generous the actual challenge is extremely hard.

So at 4:30am on 8th June three members of Lupine staff and 8 intrepid vegan walkers started to assent of Crib Goch. After Crib Goch the lupine staff did bits of the route in shifts to reduce the risk of instructor injury and fatigue. An amazing 7 or the 8 starters finished, the 8th dropping out due to the heat on the day and feeling unwell whenever he ate (not good on a 50km walk).

Andy took a number of photos of the event that are viewable here.

The group have their own web pages about their event

One of the participants wrote this report on a walking forum

The Vegan team completed in 17 hours and 30 minutes which gives the Viva group a challenging target to attempt to beat.

The event was really enjoyable to staff and I think an amazing achievement for all who take part so we'll be making it a regular fixture in future years so please get in touch if you would like to take part in 2011.

Duke of Edinburgh's Award Work

We've been really busy on the Duke of Edinburgh's Award side of things. We've run a number of residential training sessions on what must be the windiest part of the country on the edge of Ilkley Moor. Some groups were open groups while the other 3 were all from the University College School (UCS) in London. On our residential courses we run 3 evenings and two days of training followed by the practice expedition and then run the assessed expedition at a later date. All the UCS boys are out on their assessed expedition in the Yorkshire Dales from tomorrow.

As well as running complete programs we carry out supervision and assessment for groups that we have not trained. We have been working with a number of schools from all over the country supervising expeditions in the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales. In July we'll be going up to Northumberland with the Royal Hospital School from Suffolk to train and supervise one group and assess another.

August is currently pretty clear of Duke of Edinburgh's Award work (though if last year is anything to go by we'll be seeing an end of school holiday rush), save for one expedition for a group of scouts from Cheshire so if you would like help supervising your trip there is still time to book us in.

One day navigation refresher - Ilkley Moor - Friday 23/7/2010 - £30 per participant

We are running a navigation refresher day for Silver and Gold DofE participants on Friday 23rd July. If you feel your navigation could do with a bit of improvement before your expedition then get in touch to secure your place. We have more information on our website.

Get in touch

Please take a look at our web site for more and fuller information on all our activities. If you would like to ask any question the please feel free to reply to this e-mail or give us a bell on 0845 217 8917 or 07963 324 399.

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