I am a member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI), which is the representative body for professionally qualified Mountaineering Instructors in the UK and Ireland. AMI is committed to promoting good practice in all mountaineering instruction and the qualification that I hold – The Mountaineering Instructor Certificate (MIC), represents the highest level of UK… Read more

I entered a climbing competition today and my arms and fingers are so tired I can barely write! The ‘Boulder Jam’ was held at The Beacon Climbing Wall and was great fun, well attended and not too serious. Thirty different ‘problems’ had been set in the bouldering areas and each entrant had a maximum of… Read more

Back up into the mountains today, but this time without any static weirdness or lightning bolts! There has been more fresh snow put down last night, so we headed up into Cwm Llugwy to get up into the deep stuff! The service road from the A5 gives a quick and easy (albit rather steep at… Read more

I’ve been mostly indoors today, working in the climbing wall, but this evening “Mountaineering Instructor, Ian Martin”, was interviewed live on air on BBC Radio Wales! You can listen to it here (fast forward to 02:19:47) http://bbc.in/1RlNjMw Read more

Rain has stripped away the low snow, but it looks like it’s still snowing hard up high. It’s mostly been a day of admin today – (the psych was low to venture up into the low cloud with gales, blizzards and whiteout). We got our fix of fresh air though, with a lap of Moel… Read more

We’ve had so crazy experiences in the mountains over the years, but have never experienced the kind of freaky electrical conditions that we did today! Something was quite literally in the air today, involving our hair standing on end, our ice axes humming, but thankfully no bolts of lightning! It’s a mountain phenomenon that I… Read more