A few weeks ago I spent the weekend at The National Mountain Centre, Plas Y Brenin, Taking part in the inaugural running of a new course. Apparently, the trend in recent times has been towards the technical in training programmes for Mountain Leader etc. and it was felt that something to redress the balance was in order.
The Mountain Environment Workshop focuses on the physical environment in which we walk and climb rather than the skills and techniques that we employ once we’re there. The aim of the course is to improve awareness and appreciation of all aspects of the mountain environment, its geology and geography, its flora and fauna, its evolution and history.
So, where to start? Well, breakfast, naturally. After a huge repast we were introduced to our tutors; Mike Rouse is a Mountain Leader and ex-geography teacher. Dr Janet Sumner is an earth scientist with a penchant for volcanoes. Both these individuals, it quickly became clear, are touched by the special kind of madness that allows their interest in and passion for their subject matter to infect everyone in close proximity. Trust me geography and geology were never like this at school. After a swift master class in rock formation and the underlying geology of Snowdonia, we were off out to witness it for real.
As well as knowing a thing or two about how the ground under our feet came to be there, Mike and Janet identified a lot of the stuff growing up out of it. Saturday’s walk took us to Idwal, past the Slabs and up to the Devil’s Kitchen, in glorious warm sunshine. Along the way we discovered the delights of Sundew, a tiny, carnivorous plant that frequents marshy ground. Next time you’re out in the hills look out for this spiny red plant and get up close, it’s bloody amazing! Further wonders were revealed as we climbed above the tree line – orchids, ferns and lichens, all identified and explained by our encyclopaedic guides.
From the head of the valley the unimaginable forces that created the landscape were apparent through the dramatic shapes in the rock around us. The folding and buckling of layers of rock, dozens of metres thick, the grinding and gouging of millions of tons of glacial ice and, against this, the relatively puny impact of man with his mines, quarries and farming.
Sunday found us on the slopes of Snowdon, with further plant life to discover but with the emphasis on the impact of the search for natural resources on the land. Copper mining and slate quarrying were important industries in Wales for hundreds of years and the legacy of these activities is to be seen in abandoned workings and buildings all over Snowdonia.
The living environment and the historical elements of its formation are brought together in the stories and legends that are attached to various places, plants and people of the area, Mike had a wealth of these tales which served to highlight the ways in which we strive to interpret and rationalise much of the natural world around us.
The biggest impact of the course, I think, is that I realised that all this stuff was always there. I’d been taught a lot over the weekend but nothing so important as how to look. I have stood on hillsides in the past and gazed around in contented wonder at my surroundings. Now I realise that I wasn’t really getting it at all!
Mike and Janet would like to make the Workshop a regular course, watch out for it in the brochures and on the web site. Training at PYB is always first rate but this is something special!
Fraser
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