It is the time of year where those keen individuals from CCF cadets throw themselves into a challenging environment in Snowdonia (Eryri) and embark on adventurous training.
Adventure training is designed to take cadets outside their comfort zone. Its aim is developing leadership skills, resilience, communication skills, decision making, courage, physical fitness, managing risk and most of all teamwork. This was achieved under the watchful eye of CCF school staff and our Boulder Adventure instructors in progressive and safely managed training.
After the long trip cadets safely arrived at their accommodation for the week where they grouped together to share rooms, perhaps their first challenge; living in a small space with their peers. As our cadets started to make themselves comfortable in their new surroundings, the staff sprang into action in preparing the evening meal. Our own version of Gordon Ramsey, Mr O’Rooke, put aside his English teaching skills only to find his new hidden talent as a chef for the week. Later that evening, Dr Smale briefed our cadets for the outline of the week followed by evening activities/command tasks by Mr Jones that concentrated on team and communication skills to get everyone in the right mindset.
Saturday saw the first day of activities with the cadets broken down into two small groups before going out for the morning and rotating after lunch. Group one took to a great spot for rock climbing in Pen-Y-Pass, whilst group two split up to compete against each other in raft building. They set said rafts onto their maiden voyage inside a lagoon at the end of lake Llyn Padam to see whose construction lasted the longest after a few tests. After chef O’Rooke conjured the evening meal and desert, the cadets took part in the Dr Smale’s famous Taskmaster competition; competing in three team, against eachother, in evening activities throughout the week.
Sunday saw the two groups come together for a 40-minute journey to Trefriw, a hotspot for a Gorge scrambling. Once changed into wetsuits, buoyancy aids, helmets and their game faces, cadets took a small walk to the bottom of a series of waterfalls. Their task was to get to the top but in their way was lots of rapid free flowing water, undulating rock, and rock pools. Cadets had to work as a team to help each other to scramble and navigate over, under and through the obstacles that mother nature was putting in their way. Now and again our instructors stopped us at some unique points where cadets had a chance to show off some backflips or other improvised ways of jumping into deep rock pools. The Gorge scramble really tested the cadet’s leadership qualities, communication and took most out of their comfort zone. Later that evening, Mr Jones ran the catchphrase game (surprisingly new to some cadets), Kim’s Game (a much-used military activity using memory and awareness) before finishing the evening off with a music round.
Now the weekend tourists had mostly disappeared, Monday was the best time to tackle Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa). Some of our cadets started with a false sense of security as we started on an easy route, the “Miners Track” where it was a steady walk with slight incline. We arrived at Glaslyn lake, approximately 600m above sea level, where, according to Welsh folklore, King Arthurs’ sword Excalibur was thrown. It was here where, once again, the cadets were taken out of their comfort zone as we came off the Miners Track and went cross country to the left of Glaslyn for a small scramble. At times there were a minimum of three points of contact as the cadets tackled and weaved in and out of the rock face to eventually join onto Watkins path which we then followed to the summit of 1085m. On the weather front, it was absolutely epic! Never before have I or most people got to the top for a full 360 view. After soaking up the views and taking photos, we then took the long walk down the mountain onto the LLanberis path which led us all the way back to our accommodation.
Now some tired cadets, feeling the huge walk from the previous day, meant we could have a fun Tuesday. Again, this saw the cadets take off into two groups rotating between canoeing on lake Llyn Padam and abseiling down into the old quarry in Llanberis. To finish off the fun day, we relaxed the activities and had a cinema night in the accommodation.
Wednesday saw us testing those adventure training virtues again, with some extremely tired cadets tackling a grade 1 scramble just beneath Glyder Fawr in the picturesque Ogwen valley. Whilst scaling our way up, we were treated with a military fast jet navigating its way through the valley beneath us in the distance and once we made it to the top, we were blessed with views all the way out to sea and Anglesey. After a spot of lunch, and before our descent, we walked the cadets to a unique cantilever rock situated on Y Gwyliwr; only accessible if you have made the hard walk/scramble up.
Later that evening, we handed out awards including our best cadet trophy; awarded to the cadet who, throughout the week, showed all the qualities required to take on the full aspect of adventure training with a smile on their face. Well done Tilly H from the Navy section who is the 3rd female in consecutive years to win the award and thoroughly deserved.
As adventure training goes, we have never seen weather like it this time of year, which did cause different issues to those we dealt with last year. Swapping warm clothes, hats and gloves for lots of water and sun cream. Huge thanks to the staff team of Dr Smale, Mr O’Rooke (head chef) and Mr Jones, and all the cadets who threw themselves into the challenge.
Written by David Jones, School staff instructor
You can view the images from the trip in our Flickr album below.
