Recent activity at Kendal Mountaineering Services, July 2013.

As well as offering activity sessions and skills training courses to the general public, on occasion, Iain is asked to assist other providers with running courses.

Recently, Iain was asked to assist with the running of a National 3 peaks challenge. These challenges are often done by organisations attempting to raise money for charity and that was the case with this group (photo one) from Acer UK who were raising money for the Mountain Rescue Committee of England & Wales.
So what is a National 3 Peaks Challenge? These events consist of climbing the highest mountains in England, Wales & Scotland, these are Scafell Pike 3210 feet, Snowdon 3616 feet and Ben Nevis 4406 feet.

Often these 3 peaks challenges are done over 24 hours but Acer UK chose to do the event over 3 days which made it a much more relaxed affair and in the process thay raised over £4,000 for the MRC - well done.

Photo one is taken from the groups final day - an absolute scorcher, with the summit of Snowdon and Glaslyn behind.

A few days later, Iain was off on what has become an annual pilgrimage to North Yorkshire to assist with providing activities for children on a visit to the area with Village Camps.

Photo two  shows Iains team during our morning session at Brimham Rocks near Nidderdale.

At Brimham, a ridge of gritstone runs from north to south and the exposed rocks have been weathered over the years into giant monoliths - an ideal place to try bouldering.

We spent an hour weaving inbetween rock outcrops, climbing up and down them, squeezing through cracks and holes - all great fun!

Following bouldering, we spent a further hour rock climbing at a short cliff close to the main boulders where a number of ropes had been set up. Here, the students were able to work together in teams of three or four climbing on what we would call an introductory Rock Climbing Session.

Following our climbing session at Brimham in the morning, we moved base to the fantastic Howstean Gorge in Nidderdale for our afternoon session consisting of Abseiling in to the gorge followed by a Gorge Walking Session (photo three).

The howstean Gorge is set in Limestone and is surrounded by trees which, at the height of Summer, allow very little light to get in to the bottom of the gorge - at times it felt more like caving than gorge walking! We enjoyed a 2 hour session in here after our exhilarating abseil in to the bottom of the gorge, we made our way upstream clambering up many small waterfalls, wading through many pools and swimming through the one in the photo.

Following this session, the children prepared for an evening barbeque on the campsite where they would be staying overnight, it really had been a truly glorious day.

Iain offers rock climbing & abseiling, caving and gorge walking sessions in The Lake District through the Kendal Mountaineering Services website. Prices start at £45 per person for a half day session - less if you bring more people! These activities are great family fun so if visiting The Lake District - give us a call and see what great activity package we can put together for you!