As many people know, Bigfoot Services Limited ceased operations at the end of March. Due to Covid-19 however I still have clients waiting for various training courses and I am continuing with these but only until March 31st 2022.
Courses which are available until March 31st are:

• REC (L5) Travel & Expedition First Aid - 16 hours: September 1st/2nd
• REC High Altitude First Aid - 4 hours: December 17th 
• Hill Skills - 16 hours
• Mountain Skills in Snowdonia - 3.5 days: October 18th - 22nd
• NNAS Gold Navigator Award - 12 hours: September 9th/10th
• NNAS Tutor Award - 8 hours: September 11th 
• RGS Off Site Safety Management - 15 hours: December 15th/16th

For anyone interested in any of these courses I suggest you send me a Contact Form from www.alanmward.co.uk to indicate which course(s) interest you and if your preference is for midweek or weekend courses. I will then endeavour to provide any training which is required.

I'd been planning on running this course at Llangasty Village Hall on July 24th/25th but see that I only have two booking forms. If anyone is interested then please feel free to contact me or simply send me a booking form by midday on Monday 12th July. I'm happy to reschedule this course and run my last such course in March 2022.

A two day course (16 hours). The travel and expedition first aid course is designed to introduce a systematic way of advanced first aid for managing casualties. Topic learning and practicals intermixed with scenarios of real situations. The course includes:

• Development of skills gained at emergency level

• In-depth review of emergency care topics

• Advanced techniques • skills • development

• Review of special interest topics by the candidates

Course content:
First aid training with the REC scheme is easy and fun. The course is progressive by building on each session, introducing new scenarios to test all techniques for:

• Environment: hazards • cold • heat • chemicals • poisons • light • toxic substances

• Escort: vital signs • psychological • monitoring • fluids • stretcher • splints • pain control
• Illness: chest pain • stroke • asthma • epilepsy • diabetes • poisons •  hyperventilation • mental
• Scenarios: triage • incident management • emergency plans • action cards
• Travel: dislocations • wound management • tropical diseases • gastric  illnesses • high altitude (incl. PAC)

The Assessment:
Travel & Expedition First Aid is assessed by observation of practical skills throughout the course and written assignments.​

• During the last week of June, I was the Mountain Training Course Provider/Instructor for this course arranged by Helen Menhinick of Bryn Walking for Women for six candidates. The course is normally 18 hours but this was an extended course of 3.5 days duration to offer more theory and 3 full Quality Mountain Days.
• ​The course is specifically aimed at those with basic hillwalking skills who wish to develop their skills on more mountainous terrain.
• The base for this course was the excellent,  Dol Peris Hotel (Self-catering) run by Phill & Lisa George and is my favourite place to stay in Snowdonia. The course utilised car sharing, private mini-bus hire and a public bus back from the Pen y Gwryd Hotel to Llanberis and the candidates were included in evening social activities which culminated with a BBQ on the Thursday night.
• The full syllabus can be seen at the end of this post and this is followed by a gallery of images.

​Please contact me for details of future Mountain Skills Courses in Snowdonia or the Brecon Beacons - [email protected]  

DAY 1: The course started with an afternoon talk by Chris Lloyd of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team and this talk by such an experienced mountaineer was exceptionally interesting and gave a great insight in to the work of Mountain Rescue Teams in Snowdonia. It was particularly relevant to the ​​Hazards and Emergency Procedures in the Mountains section of the Mountain Skills syllabus.
During the early evening I held a 1.5 hour theory session on Mountain Skills, illustrated through Powerpoint to go over the Mountain Skills syllabus and provide an introduction to the course and an outline of activities for the next three days.

 DAY 2: Because the pandemic has been attracting huge numbers of walkers to the area, I thought it best to arrange an early start to the day to ensure we could park at Rhyd-Ddu and everyone seemed happy with this. The next two days would be similarly early as our private Bws Peris mini-bus was required for school runs after dropping us off at Pen y Pass.
The route today took us onto the eastern half of the Nantlle Ridge and then returned through the forest along a well defined bridleway. The long climb up to Y Garn (633m) offered plenty of opportunity for practicing navigational procedures using outlying features. After taking in the views from the summit we continued over to the summit of Mynydd Drws-y-Coed (695m) where we enjoyed a lunchtime stop with great views. The final climb to the summit provided an introduction to scrambling in mountainous terrain.
The descent to Bwlch-y-Ddwy-elor (400m) was easy enough and we then continued northeasterly and back to Rhyd-ddu.

DAY 3: ​Our private Bws Peris mini-bus collected us at 0800 and took us up to Pen y Pass for the start of a full day on the Glyderau. Participants were asked to check the weather forecast for the day and we soon set off, generally following the Cambrian Way with participants leading and navigating individual sections.
We reached the summit of Glyder Fawr (1001m) in time for lunch before passing Castell y Gwynt to Glyder fach (994m) and on to the Cantilever Stone. Three of the group had their photographs taken on the stone whilst the Leader of another group was trying a few pull-ups on the end of the stone, which is a common practice but not for me. One of the younger members of the other group tried the same but fell off after a couple of attempts and sustained head and leg injuries even though he didn't fall far. I helped him over to an area where he was safer and to recover and I spoke with the group who then twice refused my offer of assistance. Head injuries require medical treatment and it was at my third attempt to offer assistance that their leader agreed, at my strong recommendation, to call 999 for Mountain Rescue assistance. We later saw the rescue helicopter descending to collect the casualty who we later found out was accompanied by one of the group.
We descended eastwards and then turned southwards on the Miner's Track to end the day at the Pen y Gwryd Hotel and caught a public bus back to Llanberis. We stopped for a drink at the Padarn Hotel after alighting from the bus.
That evening Helen coordinated a pizza evening and she and I drove to the Gallt y Glyn (Pizza & Pint) to collect them.

DAY 4: ​Our private Bws Peris mini-bus collected us at 0730 and took us up to Pen y Pass for the start of a full day on the Snowdon massif. The weather forecast was again checked before we set off up the PYG Track towards Bwlch y Moch (569m). We paused for about half an hour at Bwlch y Moch whilst Helen talked about ​Clothing and Equipment but the midges were somewhat irritating before setting off again with participants leading and navigating individual sections. Soon after leaving Bwlch y Moch the weather closed in and we were in reduced visibility for the rest of the day which was useful for navigation training.
We reached the summit in time for lunch and I accompanied two of the group in the short queue up to the summit.
After lunch we descended the Llanberis Path and on reaching the minor road, Helen kindly offered to jog back to Dol Peris and drive back to collect us from Penceunant Isaf where we all enjoyed a well earned drink. Throughout the course Helen went out of her way to ensure her members benefited from additional touches such as the pizza collection, transfers to walk starting points and other benefits.
That evening Helen had arranged a BBQ where participants bought their own burgers or steaks but she provided BBQ salad and accompaniments, cheese/biscuits/port and cake to finish off the course.