Posts for category: Climbing Coach
Ice climbing And Dry Tooling
Posted by Max Hunter on 15th December, 2016
Warning – the last photo on this blog is GRAPHIC and possibly disturbing – don’t look if you are possibly sensitive to photos of injuries! Today Francesca wanted to try some actual ice climbing and work on technique with axes and crampons. This was fortunate because the wind was strong even down to sea […]...
Great Climbing Conditions In Polldubh
Posted by Max Hunter on 21st October, 2015
On Tuesday I was out climbing with Thomas again. We wanted to take advantage of the full day of dry, calm weather, so we went to Polldubh for easy access classic Glen Nevis rock climbing. To be honest, the conditions were perfect – dry rock […]...
Dry Kingussie (Mostly)
Posted by Max Hunter on 30th August, 2015
Jagged Globe Courses and Private Guiding Friday was the last day of the course with Davy, and we went for the sun and dry rock over at Kingussie. The goals for the day were to develop Davy’s movement with coaching (using bottom roping) and develop […]...
Dry Dunkeld
Posted by Max Hunter on
Jagged Globe Courses and Private Guiding Last Wednesday the weather was forecast wet all over, so we decided to go to Glencoe and the Zig Zags for most of the day. We started the day in Fort William covering something Davy wanted to do – […]...
Dry Polldubh, Glen Nevis
Posted by Max Hunter on
Jagged Globe Courses and Private Guiding On Tuesday last week, day 2 of Davy’s course, we took advantage of the great dry weather again and went to Glen Nevis, Polldubh. The intention was to have a great day of climbing, various routes, but also to […]...
Cold & Almost Dry – Glen Nevis
Posted by Max Hunter on 03rd May, 2015
On Saturday I was out climbing again with Davy. The weather was slightly different to Friday – it was much colder, and with a few cold showers of rain and sleet/hail. Davy wanted to spend the two days looking at moving his climbing from indoors […]...
Spring Glen Nevis Climbing
Posted by Max Hunter on 01st May, 2015
Today I met up again with Davy, who wants to get into summer trad climbing. To date he had done 2 trad climbs – they were in winter, in the rain/snow, in Glen Nevis – Pinnacle Ridge and The Gutter – so it was time […]...
Ice Factor For Sara And Gustav
Posted by Max Hunter on 05th December, 2014
Sara and Gustav have been looking forward to visiting the Ice Factor since they planned their trip to Scotland. Sara bought her crampons a while ago, eagerly anticipating trying some steep ice climbing, so today was the day for a trip to the Ice Factor. We spent pretty […]...
Leading And Rescues
Posted by Max Hunter on 12th November, 2014
Today I was working for the UHI West Highland College, and I was out with Callum, Blair and Jordan from ATM2. They are working towards their SPA and they have already led several outdoor trad climbs. Today in the wet weather, with wet rock, we […]...
Learning To Lead
Posted by Max Hunter on 09th November, 2014
Last Wednesday I was working for the College in Fort William (WHC, UHI), and the second year students on the ATM degree course. It was an opportunity to get the 4 students out to dry (or even wet) rock and to develop their leading. The students had already […]...
Ropework and Ice
Posted by Max Hunter on
Last Tuesday I met up with Doug MacDonald. He has recently done his SPA training, and is soon to attend his assessment, later this month. He wanted to spend half a day ‘fine tuning’ his ropework, and work on ideas of how to become more efficient. We met […]...
End Of Course At Kingussie
Posted by Max Hunter on 16th October, 2014
On Wednesday Jordan and Danny wanted to lead their first trad climbs, so we headed to Kingussie. The day was always going to be a little short, because everybody had to get back to Cameron Barracks early to do lots of kit admin, and do […]...
Polldubh In October
Posted by Max Hunter on 15th October, 2014
On Tuesday, I was again out with Danny and Jordan, who are on their ATCS Climbing course, which included the Foundation course last week. They wanted a little more guided climbing as well as continuing the process of learning to lead. We started on The […]...
Dry Rock Climbing In Polldubh
Posted by Max Hunter on 13th October, 2014
This week I’m working for ATCS and supporting Jamie Bankhead on his RSF course. We took the Infantry Soldiers to Glen Nevis, Polldubh for a quick afternoon on dry rock in warm temperatures. It’s middle October and we’re climbing in t-shirts – fantastic. We did […]...
Kingussie – Developing Climbing Skills
Posted by Max Hunter on 27th September, 2014
On Friday I was working with the first year students (Rob, Scott, Iain, Rosie and Cameron) from the college (WHC, UHI). We went off to Kingussie to develop their leading. Some of them had been climbing through last year, but had never got around to […]...
Students Climbing In The Glen
Posted by Max Hunter on 25th September, 2014
On Wednesday I was out with the WHC students, Angus, Louise, Erik and Mairead. Developing them from last week, we wanted to develop their trad leading skill set. We used the morning to build them up for ‘simu-leading’ 3 Pines (S) at Polldubh. Everybody got […]...
Pippet Slab
Posted by Max Hunter on 05th September, 2014
On Wednesday I was with Moffett and Ally who were keen to do another climb in the hills, so we headed off to the Northern Corries. This time we walked over to Stac an Fharaidh to do Pippet Slab (S***), which looked really good in the […]...
Kingussie, Cummingston, Duntelchaig
Posted by Max Hunter on 31st August, 2014
This week I’ve been working at ATC (Army Adventure Training Centre) Scotland, based out of Inverness. The course has been a RSF (Single Pitch Rock Foundation certificated award) – for 5 days. I have only had 4 in my group – Cunny, Howey, Moffett and […]...
Castle Ridge
Posted by Max Hunter on 26th July, 2014
On Thursday I went to Ben Nevis with Wayne to climb Castle Ridge. Lena came along for the day to do some observation. It was another scorcher of a day – we were almost getting used to this weather! As we got closer to Ben […]...
Duntelchaig, Drum
Posted by Max Hunter on 18th July, 2014
On Tuesday I went to Duntelchaig, to introduce the team to easy multi-pitch-climbing. We had Drum (VD*) in mind. It was my first visit to the crag and it took me a few minutes to find an easy access route to the climb, so after […]...
Reserves At Moy Rock
Posted by Max Hunter on
With the Reserves last weekend, we went to Moy Rock, in the Northern Highlands, just North of Inverness. This is a great little sport crag, close to the road. This is a relatively recently developed sport crag, and a great deal of forestry has been […]...
Reserves At Kingussie
Posted by Max Hunter on
Over the last weekend I was working at ATC-Scotland, with a group of Reserves (used to be known as the T.A.). It was an intro weekend to the sport of climbing, with a focus on fun,challenge, and possibly identifying who had sufficient interest to go on to […]...
Loch Tollaidh Crags – Raven’s Nest
Posted by Max Hunter on 06th July, 2014
On Thursday last week, I took the army climbing foundation course to the Loch Tollaidh Crags, and Raven’s Nest. We used the venue to do a mass climbing ascent of Assault Slab, a personal abseil for the whole group, and looking at being a competent […]...
Car Park Slabs – Gruinard Crags
Posted by Max Hunter on
On Wednesday last week, Lawrie and I took the army RSF group to the Gruinard Crags to initially coach their movement skills, before moving onto top roping, abseiling and rope management. The weather was great in the morning, but a band of rain moved in […]...
Climbing Near Dundonnell
Posted by Max Hunter on
The end of June was busy with a couple of days off, a day marshalling on Ben Nevis and the start of a RSF (Rock Foundation) course for the Army, based out of Dundonnell in Wester Ross, south of Ullapool. On day 1, for an […]...
Curved Ridge And Lena Working
Posted by Max Hunter on 24th June, 2014
On Monday David, Katie and Phoebe had their day on Curved Ridge with Hunter Mountaineering. I was working alongside Lena for the day. The weather forecast indicated that we would get a little drizzle during the day, with possibly cloud affecting our view, but as […]...
Foundation Climbing And Biking
Posted by Max Hunter on 20th May, 2014
Last week I was on another JSAT (Joint Services Adventurous Training) package at ATCS (Adventurous Training Centre – Scotland). The course started with a Foundation Rock climbing course. After day 1 at Kingussie we headed indoors to the Inverness climbing wall. The team went through […]...
Kingussie In Some Showers
Posted by Max Hunter on 13th May, 2014
This week I’m back on another JSAT (Joint Services Adventurous Training Scheme) package at ATS (Adventurous Training – Scotland). This course starts with a Foundation Rock climbing course. Today we started by going to Kingussie, and hoped that the weather stayed fine for us. The weather turned out […]...
Ice Climbing – Ice Factor
Posted by Max Hunter on 08th May, 2014
Wednesday was the last day of activity of the course for the Joint Services climbing team of 6. With the Foundation Rock Climbing course completed it was time for something a little different, so we went to the Ice Factor to introduce the team to ice climbing. This […]...
Chasing The Sun – Logie Head
Posted by Max Hunter on 07th May, 2014
On Tuesday we had to work out how to avoid the rain. We drove to Logie Head, and by the time we got there, the rain clouds were passing and it started to clear up. We started with a personal abseil for the group, after […]...