Snowdonia Winter Skills Course
We're spending the weekend at Plas Y Brenin in Capel Curig learning how not to impale ourselves on our crampons, how to stop ourselves sliding down slopes using ice axes, and how not to get lost in the hills in the winter. We're both very much fair weather walkers, but it would be nice to be able to do some hill walking in the winter without the fear of sliding down the side of the hill to a certain and painful death, or getting lost on a snow covered peak because we end up following another lost traveller's footprints (like last year). So we've come here to get some proper instruction.
The course is on Saturday and Sunday and includes overnight accommodation on the Friday and Saturday nights. So we arrived late this afternoon, and after we'd dried out after carting all our kit from the car to our room in the pouring rain, and I'd broken the safe in our room within minutes, we decided to retreat to the bar where hopefully I would cause less trouble.
We inspected the course notice board on the way, and found that there are only 3 other people on our course, Anthony, Darren and Sarah, and couldn't help wondering if it would be Tony and Daz or if we'd be on full name terms.
The bar was quite busy, and there were no free tables, so we gate crashed onto the table with the most room to spare, which was occupied by a lone bearded man, studiously tapping away on his MacBook Pro. I was a bit peeved because everyone in the bar seemed to have better gadgets with them than me. I'd left my iPad in the safe (after dragging the receptionist up to the third floor with the master key to fix it I felt obliged to leave something valuable in there). I'd brought my Kindle and iPhone, but they're ten a penny these days and I felt quite inferior. Claire sat there reading a "Mountain Leadership" book and looking like a right swot.
We had a pretty average steak, but things improved when we got a free pudding as a result of sitting next to the kitchen door when the cook emerged with surplus food! We wouldn't have stood a chance if we'd been at the other end of the room. I read a few pages of a book about an American assassin but found myself people watching instead. I was trying to figure out who Anthony, Darren and Sarah were, and while I was at it couldn't help noticing there was a far higher proportion of beards in the room than I'm used to. Something to do with hillwalking folk I think. And that I work in a team of 7 women too.
After a little while we got chatting to the bearded man with the MacBook, who turned out to be Anthony! Not Tony, and definitely not Tone, but Ant is OK. We spent quite some time discussing Darren and Sarah, and narrowed them down to a couple sitting in the middle of the room, on the basis that all the other couples seemed to be part of a larger group, and none of the men in the other couples looked like a Darren, or fitted Anthony's socio economic profile for a Darren (he has previous experience in these matters).
None of us wanted to go and ask Darren and Sarah if they were indeed Darren and Sarah, or even Daz and Sarah. We decided to leave it until tomorrow morning as a surprise. A small wager is in place though.
Breakfast tomorrow is at 8am, collection of packed lunch at 8.30am, tea and cakes at 5pm, and dinner at 7pm. Somewhere in between all those we will be learning some winter skills and eating the packed lunch. And finding out who the real Darren and Sarah are.
All we need now is some snow.
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Location:Plas Y Brenin, Capel Curig
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