Sunday 14 April 2013

Beginners Rock Climbing Sessions in The Lake District. April 11th 2013.

Last Thursday Kendal Mountaineering services were back in action again with one of our corporate clients - Nucleargraduates.

Nucleargraduates are responsible for recruiting graduate apprentices to a two year scheme which will see them work within and ultimately find employment with a variety of organisations including the Nuclear Decommisioning Authority, Rolls Royce, Sellafield Ltd and Magnox to name a few.

Nucleargraduates first approached Kendal Mountaineering Services two years ago looking for an activity with a purpose and that purpose is as follows.

Initially, all apprentices joining Nucleargraduates attend a two day welcome workshop. Based in Kendal, this involves various tasks and gives the successful graduate apprentices a chance to get to know each other.

As part of these welcome workshops, Nucleargraduates decided to introduce an activity where the participants will be faced with a challenge where they will need to work together to achieve success; and this is where our services come in. In most cases we use our Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning sessions to facilitate this requirement.

All graduate groups such as the ones in the photos here will be working together for the next two years of their apprentice-ships so, the intention of  the Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning Sessions with Kendal Mountaineering Services is intended to encourage participants to work together closely and this allows individuals within the group to bond with one another.

Any of our activity sessions can be used in this way - allowing development of individual & group support allowing trust to develop as well as improving communication, decision making and leadership skills In effect the sessions are designed to work as an "icebreaker" session and we have a proven track record of achieving good results in this field.


All of these photos were taken during a Beginners Rock Climbing session, albeit designed to have the same effect of bringing together this group of individuals to form bonds & work together as a team.

We chose to use a beginners Rock Climbing Session in The lake district (Langdale to be precise) to facilitate team development on this occasion as the client had previously expressed a concern about the negative effect that a cold Ghyll Scrambling & Canyoning Session would be likely to have on the developmental purpose of the session - quite rightly so.

As can be seen in all of the photos the clients are enjoying themselves. We split them into three teams and each person in the team rotated between actually climbing, belaying and tailing - that is to say - holding the rope behind the belayer - just in case they let go!

The challenge of course was climbing and overcoming that fear of hieghts which many people have and during this session many participants improved their climbing ability a great deal through the support & encouragement of their peers. Trust and communication skills would also improve along the way and new skills & techniques would be learnt by most; although we did have a few keen climbers arrive with this group.

In the final photo, we offered an abseil to those who wanted to try a different challenge. Different in the respect that rather than being belayed (ie kept safe) by one of their peers, in this instance it was Iain who was holding the safety rope and providing the encouragement instead.

However, being asked to lean over a cliif and descend a rope when that rope has not been tight on you all the time (as in the top rope/bottom belay system employed for all of the climbing during the session) can be quite a different thing and initially a new & harder challenge for many people.

Iain has many years of experience in encouraging & supporting nervous people attempting to abseil and it is a very rare occasion he does not succeed. This time the success rate was 100%.

Today saw the return of rain to the area after a long dry spell. However, whilst it didn't rain hard it was cold, but everyone worked with great enthusiasm and the objectives of the session were undoubtedly met. We helped facilitate this further by providing hats & gloves for the group as many individuals didn't have them. Halfway through the session we also provided a hot drink for everyone - much appreciated by all!

As well as being a great session for team development work and Corporate Events our beginners rock climbing & abseiling sessions in The Lake District are ideal a part of a Stag or Hen Event and just great fun if you want to push yourself a little bit and learn some new skills.

As the weather warms up climbing becomes more enjoyable so contact us to book your climbing & Abseiling session in The Lake District. We look forward to working with you.

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