Urban Hamster - Summer ML Training!

I was still mildly alarmed as to why so many people would want to plunge themselves into the depths of Wastwater, the deepest lake in England, in chilly December… “Oh that’ll be the gnome garden down on one of the ledges – great fun!”

“What?! Gnome Garden???!” OK so now I felt quite normal and not at all crazy, and especially not at all crazy for choosing to do my UK Summer Mountain Leader (ML) Training Course based at Wastwater YHA in the middle of winter! There were weirder goings-on for sure!

Here, a bit of background… you may recall that the Urban Hamster is on her path to Mountain Marmot-dom. In normal language, she has left the rat-race and is working towards her International Mountain Leader (IML) Award to enable this transformation.

In order to qualify as an IML, you must first hold the UK Summer ML award. The latter (at it’s simplest description) involves building up an experience bank of ‘proper walking’, a compulsory Training Course, building up subsequent ‘proper walking’ experience, attaining a designated First Aid certificate, and then taking (and passing!) the official Assessment.

So here I was, eager to throw myself into the Training Deep-End for 6 days (although certainly not into the lake!): into a world of knots and navigation, camping expeditions, and slightly more precipitous ground than the average bear may expect to come across (should he have got his navigation spot-on as well as having refrained from eating too many fermented blackberries that may otherwise cause him to stumble off his path). Here is how it panned out, from the Hamster’s eye-view.

Day 1 – Break them in gently and see who is the least ham-fisted with a compass, and who knows how to keep count… and then get them to tie each other in knots after dinner

Group introductions complete (yes, here I discover I am definitely the only ‘chick’ on the course, and in fact most of the other trainees have some sort of formal military training and are already pretty adept with ‘knots and nav’ … eek, I thought, as only a True Hamster could. However not to be put off, in many ways it was rather good as there were more people to learn from! Positive Mental Attitude! We covered the basics of how to go in the desired direction, how to keep going in the desired direction, and how to measure distance (this is where the step-counting came in!!!).

The introductory ropework session was held indoors after dinner owing to it being pitch-dark outside, and in fact is highly-recommended as an alternative after-dinner entertainment for anyone stuck for an idea for dinner parties this festive season. So, all good and looking forward to the coming days, although with a bit of intrepidation as big snow storms were forecast!!!

Day 2 – How to avoid becoming the Proverbial Fromage; how to get your partner in a cinch; trot about at night with map, compass and headtorch in a snowstorm!

Today we got the chance to Live the Experience of Ropes. Again this is a Hamster-term and will be etched in the memory forever. ‘Why’ will become very clear. This involved getting into pairs to find potential anchor points and rate them out of ten (great fun, a bit like an outdoors version of Car Cricket / Top Trumps) and my ‘buddy’ and I were thrilled to have found one of the ‘best’ ones!

Then the Cheesy Part – learning to belay on a steep slope. This involves, in layman’s terms, attaching your ‘prey’ to the end of the rope at the foot of the slope; you, ML Extraordinaire, the Grand Fromage, climbing up the ‘steep slope’, attaching the rope to an appropriate anchor point (in our case an 8 out of 10 boulder: most of the cats preferred it) and attaching yourself to the rope, between you and your ‘prey’ for example.

During this, we had to learn what it would feel like if someone slipped and we had to take all their weight… this experience told me everything I needed to know as to why navigation and safety is so important so that ideally you should never actually have to be in this situation. I let out such a yowl that I am still surprised it did not cause a mini rock-slide on Wasdale Screes directly opposite. I can only say that having a rope secured around you at the base of your rib-cage is not to be recommended, with two people heaving on the end of it ‘so you know what it might feel like if someone on the other end has a slip’. It is however necessary training and MLs need to be able to cope with this as part of their ‘emergency skills toolkit’. There are ways to improve comfort as it turns out, which did indeed make for a much Happier Hamster later in the week, although at this stage I really did think that my dream to become a Mountain Marmot would never come true if I couldn’t get over this pain factor! Real Hamster Tears there were, in the hail, in Wasdale.

Day 3 – Graceful rock dancing (OK so I tell myself anything to avoid thinking I will actually be having the cheeseboard experience again)

Today we used our rope skills in earnest, and after learning that you can wear your rucksack to pad your back and stuff a sit-mat down your front, it really did help! A very Happy Hamster engaged in belaying and abseiling on small cliffs of approximately 10m in height today! The thing to point out here is that those amongst the group who participate in rock climbing were having to learn ‘new tricks’ in the sense that, for example, abseiling ML Style involves just you, your rope and your anchor point (thanks to ingenious methods of wrapping the rope around yourself – cat’s cradle this is not, although it does start out looking like a skipping game). For those amongst the group who were used to harnesses and climbing hardware, this was back to basics!!! In fact, probably pre-basics. Main thing with the ML Ropework is remembering which knot to use when and in what order you need to do things, as well as ending up with the knots and people in the right place – more on this later when we come to the Bunny Connection.

Day 4 - How not to become a human kit

Today was meant to be the start of our two-day expedition with an overnight wild-camp at around 600m elevation. Having had a weather lesson in the classroom the day before, including learning how to interpret synoptic charts (the weather maps with all the isobars plotted on them, NOT the ones we see on the BBC with little clouds and cute sunshines stamped on them!), it came as no surprise when we were told that the camping would have to be cancelled due to the force ten winds and snow forecast to come in. It was in fact even too dangerous to camp in the valley… however we did do a great route and expedition planning session (where it materialized that the Urban Hamster had put together possibly the best route of the lot!), before getting out onto a couple of lower peaks (Seatallan and Middle Fell) to practice navigation, so we were able to experience some winter conditions instead!

Although we were told this was far and beyond anything that we would be expected to undertake for UK Summer ML, it was a great experience. We had snow, hail, and aforementioned very strong winds that continued to build to the point where I, by far the lightest member of the group, was designated as ‘officially being needed to be held onto’ for about half an hour as we made our way towards a very steep snowy gully which would subsequently provide us with a sheltered route off the hill. The regular walkers’ path straight down the front of Middle Fell would have been straight into the wind. Afterwards my ‘handler’ described it as ‘like having hold of a kite’ – he could not quite believe just how much lighter people can be picked up by the wind! I am 5’9”, so not small, but am light and it showed!!!

Practical note: on days like this, if you wish to avoid daubing your jacket hood with substances such as Nutella, coleslaw or Branston Pickle (or really don’t mind having to disrobe your entire head in a blizzard to get your lunch into your mouth / would actually quite like an edgy ‘fashion-student’ look applied to your outdoor gear) then I strongly recommend having Food That Fits Through Narrow Gaps in Scarves Etc!!! There are some very funny stories attached to this which will ‘stay on the hill’…

Day 5 – Rivers – how to cross, why to cross, and many reasons why to avoid this in the first place!

Today was even colder than the day before, although less snowy and we could actually see much further than the tips of our whiskers. A great time to get into a freezing cold river!!! At this stage we had all begun talking about how we would go along to the nearest pub that night, so we all had lots of warming thoughts to keep us going.

We also got the chance to practice our Thompson Knots in earnest – this is great fun and involves making bunny ears as part of the makeshift rope ‘harness’ to be worn by your prey so that they can be safely lowered down steep ground. The bunny ears are the piece de resistance, ensuring a good fit. This exercise had the rock-climbers lamenting over the absence of their climbing harnesses once again, as well as over the squealing girl who ‘couldn’t wait to make bunny ears again’! I didn’t quite get my measurements right first time and ended up with some very large ears. Time to redo the knot – might have worked pretty well for someone with four arms though… This was the relatively toasty element of the day, and now protected by the rucksack I was an Eager Hamster who kept ‘wanting to have another go, pleeeeese’!

Now the flipside, temperature-wise… so much precipitation in recent days had caused the rivers to really swell so we were only allowed to proceed halfway across and back again as the flow and depth were too great to be safe beyond this point. Again this was a great illustration of ‘when to not cross a river’, and being in the icy chill (without a nice hot tub / sauna to dive into immediately afterwards, or any birch twigs to hand to beat each other with) this experience will certainly help us to remember all the options that should be investigated before considering an actual river crossing, as well as when a river does become unsafe to cross. I can only say that some of the gentlemen amongst the group did let out a few yowls of their own when the water reached the tideline… bizarrely I was quite a Happy Hamster here and wasn’t in too much of a hurry to get out, which is actually a good thing as we were taught that you need to move slowly, deliberately and precisely on riverbeds… then it was back to the ranch for more classroom learning to warm up before a lovely meal and a few pints out that evening!

Day 6 – Cosy Classroom Day

Today was spent cosy in the classroom discussing Access and Conservation and doing individual feedback for next steps ahead of our Assessment...I can't really add much more....

… so what next for Urban Hamster?

Urban Hamster’s plan is to go for the UK ML Assessment in May / early June so that she can get into IML Training and Assessments from the coming summer onwards. In the meantime the next batch of UK Summer experience and the First Aid certificates need to happen! However, given it is currently the depths of winter, a little bit of the Mountain Marmot will be making an appearance… the next great adventures are in fact part of her Winter IML experience! These will include at least two snow-shoeing trips with Lindsay at Tracks and Trails, and hopefully some Nordic Touring later in the season! Next up: Cross Country Ski pre-season training in Wisconsin with family at Christmas… then Pyrenees Snowshoe Scouting Trip with Lindsay in January! Watch this space!!! We should get some great photos from that trip, provided she hasn’t tied up her guide in too many knots!