For nine exciting, action-packed days in mid July, Officer Cadets (OCdts) from Birmingham Universities Officers Training Corps (UOTC) and a member of Oxford UOTC were given the opportunity to further their skills in rock climbing, mountaineering and kayaking. Ex DRAGON SLIM LAKES allowed participants to aim for and achieve foundation qualifications in AT, as well as giving more senior OCdts the chance to add quality days to their log books for future courses.
Upon arriving at Halton Training Camp, OCdts were split down into their three groups and provided the necessary equipment for the week’s activities as well as an overview on how each day’s activities would build on the skills learned the day before.
For students participating in kayaking and mountaineering, the weather was kind from day one. The warm weather and slight showers allowed for uninterrupted activity on the ground, which saw kayakers getting to grips with the basics of paddling on the sheltered River Lune and mountaineers take on the Old Man of Coniston, refreshing their navigation skills on their way to the summit.
However ‘caution- slippery when wet’ was the order of the day for climbers who instead spent the day quite literally learning the ropes in preparation for use during the rest of the week as well as some much-needed hand-eye coordination training.
On the second day of activities the weather was much kinder to the climbers who spent the day at Wilton 3 quarry, focusing on learning technical skills such as how to belay each other while bottom roping. This helped build trust within the team as OCdts were responsible for preventing each other hitting the floor, as well as teaching that some tasks simply cannot be multitasked. Venturing north, the mountaineering group spent the day climbing Blencathra via Sharp Edge a route which included a grade 1 scramble and a taste of micro-navigating using structural features. This relied on students having an eye for detail and showed the importance of working as a team to make sure no clues went unobserved.
Meanwhile the kayakers enjoyed the first of two days spent on Ullswater practicing their flat-water skills which included emergency drills for casualties in the water resulting in them spending almost as much time in the water as in the boats! As the weather held strong, the kayakers returned to Ullswater for a day focusing on righting themselves in the water, while the climbers returned to Wilton 3 to continue belaying and begin learning their Italian hitch from their clove hitch for abseiling. Teetering over a ledge while slowly lowering yourself helped instil a new level of self-confidence in the cadets going forward. The mountaineers honed their navigation skills further, spending the day near Rydal and exploring out to waterfalls through tough ground which made sure they could keep focused while in difficult conditions, which their navigation skills to the test before their crowning expedition the next day.
The two-day expedition undertaken by the mountaineers over days four and five took them across Great Gable and up Scafell Pike on the first day and then up Allen Crags and Glaramara the following day after camping out at Angle Tarn. Having slept out under the stars and ‘enjoying’ rations for breakfast, students dug deep to get themselves through physical and mental barriers as well as technically difficult skills including long scrambles and low visibility.
Meanwhile the paddlers returned to the River Lune and made their way from Rigmaden Bridge to Devils Bridge as an introduction to white water which allowed them to harness key skills including learning not to panic and when to fight the water, versus when to literally go with the flow. This gave them the necessary skills which enabled two further days of white water training on the River Eden as well as developing their river navigation skills to take forward for future water expeditions.
For their final days outdoors, the climbers were introduced to bouldering and tackled longer climbs at White Coppice Quarry to begin focusing on climbing technique as they amalgamated all their skills thus far, allowing them to quite literally reach new heights before moving on to lead climbing which was carried out indoors on the penultimate day. This allowed the climbers to put all their skills to the test at once: climbing from clip to clip, knowing what gear to take for each route, and making sure they were in a stable position to clip in. As a test of their endurance, climbing students attempted longer climbs and by using auto-belays, learned to trust equipment even during a fall. The day also made sure opportunity was given for those with prior qualifications to fill their log book with a range of lead climbs which students could follow.
To finish off the week with a bang, the mountaineers headed off early on their final day to tackle Helvellyn via Striding Edge which included more technical scrambling than on previous days, forcing students to trust themselves and their skills and ultimately rewarding them with a cloudless view from the summit.
For the final day of activities, climbers and mountaineers joined forces and travelled into nearby Lancaster to go bouldering, giving the mountaineers the opportunity to try their hand at a new AT activity. For the climbers it was a fun opportunity to try more technically demanding climbs without the safety net of a rope; pushing the boundaries of their comfort zones and testing the limits of some already very tired fingers and toes.
Meanwhile, the paddlers returned to Ullswater to master their final skill of the week: rolling. While initially unintentional, performing for members of the public only served to encourage the cadets further and a fun final day was had by all with 2 OCdts successfully rolling.
Ultimately the camp was a wonderful and challenging week full of adventure which resulted in foundation qualifications for all the cadets aiming for them as well as confidence in taking forward newfound skills. A member of the kayaking group ended the week saying ‘There’s nothing like going down a rapid to test how far you’ve managed to grow your comfort zone in only a week’.
All who attended are very grateful to the organising staff and internal instructors who made the camp run so smoothly and to the generous grants provided to BUOTC by the Ulysses Trust. Without this funding the opportunities to push ourselves through the challenging but highly rewarding medium of adventurous training would not have been possible.
OCdt Amelia O’Brien
Birmingham UOTC
