Last week Hannah and I passed our BCU UKCC L2 certificate in coaching paddlesport. Pete Gwatkin has been observing some of my sessions and giving lots of feedback. Here's some pics of me coaching James in Open Boat on the pond at Glenmore Lodge! On another day we also practiced throwing lines for each other on the pond and had to break the ice which had formed on the surface, which was entertaining.

some hills

I've been trying to get fit for winter recently and get some hill days in. Some pics of Glen Markie on a beautiful windless autumn day a couple of weeks ago, and Rachel and myself about to get blown about on Meall Cuich near Dalwhinnie at the weekend - it continues to be very windy and wet up here...

Middle Findhorn

Paddled the middle Findhorn yesterday with Malcolm Ian Chris O and Laura. Lots of water really good fun. No pic of the Middle Findhorn but some of the grade 3 rapid on the Dulnain at the Old Packhorse Bridge, Carbridge. Definitely in spate! Malcolm and Chris were tempted but we had run out of daylight...

Winter

so what's next? Snow :) there is a sprinkling on the hills but nothing significant yet. I'll be posting pictures. Anyone up for winter hill days or climbing give me a shout. You can sleep on my floor!

adventures recently

more pictures soon I promise!

Since I last blogged I've been biking quite a lot. Recently biked up Burma road and then down (falling off a lot) the black descent back to Aviemore. Chris and I did the Laggan route a while back - good route, really picturesque and a good descent. We had to battle against the wind quite a bit and had to ford a river - not sure if the brisge was ever there in the first place! I joined an intermediate biking course George Mac was running which was really helpful - lots to practice! unsuprisingly I find shin guards really help. The Lodge has some good man made mtb trails and skills sections on site and Wolf Trax also has some good bits in the play park. At home in the Peak I did the Cut Gate route with Pete. I would say this is the best route I've done in the Peak - great technical uphill as well as down hill.

In September I took part in the Scottish Open Canoe Symposium. I did an awesome tandem tandem wokshop with Tom Sibbald and Anna (Graham?) which despite being on a section of the Spey I have paddled a lot, was really helpful

I have been doing quite a lot of coaching in Kayak and Open Boat whilst working towards my L2. Giles TRussel has been helping me with lesson plans and I've also had a lot of help from Pete Gwatkin who kindly came in on his day off to observe my sessions, what a legend!

WEMSI First Responder

I have been a bit lax with the old blog of late. but I thought this was worth mentioning. Last week I took (and passed) the WEMSI First Repsonder course which takes place at Glenmore Lodge every year. The First Responder course is currently run in the states and Ireland as well as at the Lodge. It's an advanced 'first aid' certificate for leaders working in remote environments around the world. The course is designed to prepare you for protracted care of casulaties where help is far away or totally unavailable. We covered a really broad range of topics from puncture wounds and anaphylaxia to tropical diseases and altitude sickness. In all I think we had about 26 casualty scenarios outside and then a mass casualty scenario for all 20 of us to deal with set in a 'gorge' on the hill to the east of the Ciste car park. It was great to have actually done all this stuff - for example one scenario involved us carrying a drowned paddler out of a river and resuscitating him on the bank. Our mass scenario also involved a stretcher carry which was great to practice. I feel so much more repared for any mis haps that might occur on expedition. I can't recommend the course highly enough.