Four days in Church Beck. September 6th - 9th 2012.

It has been a wet week for the team at Kendal Mountaineering services. The previous post - also about a Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning session in Church Beck, was dated Wednesday September 5th 2012. So, Iain has been here every day for the last five days and thats a record!

Not everyone comes with the objective of purely having fun. Photo one shows Thursdays corporate group from Nucleargraduates who were attending as part of their welcome workshop. These young people have been successful in securing apprenticeships with Nucleargraduates partner businesses and the Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning Session undertaken with us is intended to further enhance & develop relationships being built between these graduates who will often be working together for the next two years whilst on apprenticeship.

Photo two shows Jon Chetwoods Stag Party as we were all about to head off up Church Beck last Saturday morning.

These lads had come together from all over the country to celebrate Jons brother - Tims engagement with a weekend away in The Lake District. Jon, whilst searching the internet had come across the Kendal Mountaineering Services Website and liking what he saw, booked a Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning Session as part of the stag event.

We all headed off up the ghyll together before splitting our party down into three subgroups so that rather than hanging around getting cold, each group could go off to enjoy the three different upper parts of the Church Beck Canyoning descent.

The Church Beck Canyoning descent has three distinct parts, the Upper Gorge, the Miners Bridge Fall and the Top Jumps. We offer all of these as part of our Church Beck Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning sessions

It is amazing how many providers don't seem to take their clients to the upper gorge in Church Beck. Certainly, none of the other parties we saw being guided on Saturday ever went upstream of Miners Bridge and we didn't see any other groups doing the Miners Bridge Fall lower either.

We like to offer our clients a little extra and as such we think  the upper gorge is certainly well worth a visit. In photo three, one of Jons Stag party gets lowered down the top waterfall in the upper gorge. Everyone in the group thoroughly enjoyed this and the plunge into a deep pool just below.

Photo four is also taken from the same Stag session and shows the plunge below the top fall in the upper gorge of Church Beck.

Below this is an easy walk to Miners Bridge and the lower down the Miners Bridge Waterfall. Recently we have been getting out on to dry rock to finish the walk down to Miners Bridge as the slabs in the stream have been really slippery all Summer.

The day before these three photos were taken, Iain was in Church Beck - not with clients but with another instructor whom he wanted to endorse to be able to work on Church Beck Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning Sessions for our business. As recently stated, our sessions are run with the following principles in mind "safety first, comfort second & enjoyment third". Any instructors working for us have to be inducted into our operational procedures for any venue. So, Iain went and "did" Church Beck with Ken Applegate who got to try out the whole experience and was made aware of the haxards in the ghyll and how to deal with them before working for us the very next day on Jon Chetwoods Stag session.

Whilst packing up all of the equipment in Coppermines Lane after Jon Chetwoods Stag session, Iain was approached by a couple enquiring as to how they could book on to a Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning Session. As they were leaving the Lake District at the end of the very next day, Iain arranged to give them their very own session starting at 1 oclock on Sunday afternoon (photo five).

Kira & Danny are both in the military and wanted to try out Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning whilst in the area before they both head abroad for a tour of duty. They fairly raced up the ghyll and because there were only two of them, it didn't take long to do the Canyoning Descent either.

After doing the Miners Bridge Fall, we were joined by a large group at the top Jump and, as is oft the case - this group were intending to jump off the boulder above the top jump into the narrow slot below. Danny was keen to do the jump by this method but Iain refused to allow it. Moments later both Danny & Kira saw why as the first person down struck the rock with her left foot and apparently Kira saw another person strike their hand on the rock. After that, both were very keen to tackle this section the way that we do it - for your safety!

This may well be the last post before Iain heads off to the Isle of Skye to run our Cuillin Ridge Traverse trip although we have room this week for anyone fancying an action packed activity session or skills training course. Iain does fancy a break from Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning though - why not give us a shout if you would like to go Caving, Canoeing or Kayaking instead? We will be happy to provide you with an outdoor activity session of your choice here in The Lake District, as always.