Hill and Mountain Skills Tutor Training
In April 2014 Mountain Training are launching their new Hill Skills and Mountain Skills courses. Lupine Adventure Co-operative put in an application to be one of the first wave of providers for the new courses and were accepted. Before we can run these courses all course tutors have to attend a two day training course.
I attended mine in the Peak District last week, as with any training that one is obliged to attend I had all the usual concerns. Will it be a waste of time and money? What sort of snacks will be provided? will the other Mountain Leaders like me?
My fears were without foundation. The course was great, the lunch awesome and the other attendees in my group were a lovely bunch. After various introductions on the first day we split into groups and, using the syllabus, we worked out a sample programme and went into detail about the different ways we could deliver the various aspects.
On day 2 we went out for a walk in our groups and each took it in turns to deliver a topic. One person taught, one person gave feedback and then we all gave feedback on the feedback (It actually worked quite well even if it sounds a bit silly). My group were great, no massive egos meant that we all had a chance to show what we knew and learn from each other. I picked up a few new tricks for teaching about contour lines, pacing and timing.
I elected to do my talk on movement skills and in particular ‘how to walk up-hill’ not a topic that I would choose to cover on every course but something I have a growing slightly nerdy interest in (I’ve even written a sheet on it). We were accompanied by an Editor of Grough magazine so I got this rather nice picture of me instructing a group of Mountain Leaders how to walk up-hill.
Photo courtesy of Grough Magazine: www.grough.co.uk
Lupine Adventure will be delivering Hill Skills and Mountain Skills courses from May 2014.
