Mountain Leader Course

[chrisj]

Yes MIA is my aspiration too. I've put a lot of time into canoe and kayak qualifications over the last few years, so mountaineering training has had to be put on hold a bit. There is so much work involved in higher level qualifications in any activity that it's only possible to work towards one at a time, with work as well.
However that isn't a bad thing. It means that I've got lots of working experience with my ML before going on to MIA. I've heard it said amongst trade contacts that people coming out of schemes like the PYB intensive one, can find it hard to get work. They have great qualifications but no experience. Then because they are highly qualified they don't want to take the lower quality, lower paid work to build up their experience and contacts, because they are conscious of having to make back the £10,000 investment. So they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
ML and paddling quals fit nicely together because when ML(s) work is harder to get over winter, the rivers are up for paddling work.

[MoelPysgod]

Ah, you're one of these people who manage proficiency at more than one sport! Beats me how you do that. I suppose you're at an advantage living in Blaenau, but balancing work, domestic life and all the trappings entailed therein, with not just climbing but also paddling, would be beyond me I fear. Loads of the instructors were keen paddlers too. I'll just be working at becoming a good climber.

Interesting point about the fast track scheme. An instructor earlier in the week had done his but he'd already done a lot of work freelance in Scotland before coming to Wales.

For now, I have enough on my plate anyway. Ropework doesn't come naturally to me and will need practising. And although I'm already a competent navigator, and was pleased to find that my skills were about as good as I'd hoped they were, I now realise there's a big difference between finding your own way around in the mountains and being able to find a tiny spur in a cwm full of other tiny spurs. In the dark. With someone assessing you. When you can't remember if you've just taken your 80th or 90th pace.

[chrisj]

Yes I know that wandering in the dark feeling. Wait until assessment  . Not really, I enjoyed my assessment.
It's not easy being active in more than one activity. It definitely means that you are less proficient in each activity than if you focussed on just one. But it does provide more openings. And often I find that if you've worked for a provider in one activity you can then get offered more work in others.
I'll look forward to hearing about your course. I did my training at PYB and really enjoyed it.
When it comes to assessment I can strongly recommend Phil George in Llanberis. He does (or at least did) a modular assessment spread over 2 weekends, which is much less intense than doing the 5 days straight.

[midweekmountain]

Yes the MIA is a tough cookie and MIC even tougher as the stuff like nav assessments are set at a much higher level than basic MLs


Plus you have to log a minimum of 40 multipitch mountain/seacliff  routes (of VS or above)before you go for assessment, they actually recommend 60.


If you are starting from scratch that is a big ask, I was lucky that I had over 300 mountain routes mostly in the E grades up to E5 under my belt before I started even my ML


The bit I found hard was getting the teaching days in and organising belays for clients.


I came across  a few folks who were operating at VS the minimum level and thought they  always seemed to be at a disadvantage, so would reccommend get your grades up into the Eees  and go and bag the mega classic routes on places like Cloggy, you cannot beat having a strong log book.


Even for summer ML what the assessors like is a logbook with folks doing big classic  walks in different areas Wales, Lakes, Peak District and scotland, scotland, scotland plus you get bonus points for winter stuff.


One other point when you present yur logbook put some impressive photos in, works wonders!!!!!!!