Post by panzer0170 on Apr 3, 2015 10:36:20 GMT -5
6 Days doing Mountain Leader Training. On top of this I now need to garner 40 'Quality Mountain Days' and be assessed and then I am qualified (Even though you can do this kind of thing without qualifications, it's nice to have all the bits of paper that say you're competent, especially if someone else is paying for the bits of paper!) to Lead groups in mountainous terrain, so long as there isn't snow on the ground (That's the next level up.)
Basically spent all week doing micronav 'PUT THAT COMPASS AWAY' from feature to feature, wandering up and down as many peaks as humanly possible, and in generaly having a good little beasting. The image above shows my playround for the whole period (Most of it, there's some areas off the the north but this is as big as I dared upload without someone sulking at me!) Absolutely stonking good time, lot of hard work and I'm pretty good at Nav and I learned a few things.
Did some security on steep ground stuff as well (how to use ropes without hardware in emergencies, belaying 'old school' and abseiling without gear. All rather excellent.
My only issue with the whole course was the love of following ridgelines and going to high features, rather than travelling through dead ground... But then it's very much an outdoor pursuits qualification, not a tactical qualification!
Would recommend anyone who hasn't done Nav recently to get back out and refresh - I wonder how much you have forgotten, because I'd forgotten quite a bit, and the difference in my Nav after 3-4 days of practise was pretty impressive, with input from someone who does it day in day out.
