Over 80 young people took over Plas y Brenin last week to take part in a range of courses designed for young people in the outdoors, 60 of these were on mountain related courses whilst over 40 specialised in rock climbing.

Of these very few were true beginners most having taken their first steps on rock indoors or local to where they live. What shone through strongly was their desire to climb out side on real rock in trad style. When the performance climbing group were taken to Castle Inn Quarry for their short last day a few of them groaned about having to climb on bolts!

We've had a fantastic week of weather and have been able to climb in the Llanberis Pass, Ogwen, Gogarth, Dinorwig Quarries, Slate, the Orme and at Tremadog. There have been many top performances this week with students seconding routes up to E5 including Heading the Shot, Slug Club Special, Silly Arete, Cemetery Gates and the Superdirect on the Mot. They have then gone on to lead routes such as the Plum and Grim Wall Direct in fine style. In fact Natasha was up the first pitch of the Plum before the photographer could get in position and Will lead the second pitch faster then his coach could jumar!

Thursday evening's Bouldering competition was a real hit too showing that the youngsters are willing to embrace all aspects of climbing.

The experienced staff at Plas y Brenin have worked hard this week and they have been very much rewarded by the attitude of the youngsters and the maturity of their approach to climbing. The teams have climbed on rhyolite, dolerite, limestone, quartzite and slate. Without doubt there is a fine generation of keen, committed all round climbers on their way to a crag near you. Let's hope they can get involved with the BMC and continue to climb well and safely for years to come.

Plas y Brenin has two weeks every summer dedicated to instructing and coaching young climbers between the ages of 12 and 16. Find out more here.

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