During the October break two members of 1st Battalion the Highlanders spent a week rock climbing in Spain.
Cadet Sergeant Andy Tait (17) and Staff Sergeant Craig MacIver (32), from Dingwall Detachment, built on their climbing techniques in Calpe, in Spain’s Costa Blanca.
The ‘Cadet Rock’ expedition, offered through the Cadet Force’s Adventure Training Organisation – the Cadet Centre for Adventurous Training – offered eight days in a multi-pitch environment predominantly on bolted routes.
The region boasts some of the best bolted rock climbing in Europe and, over the week, Craig and Andy covered access and conservation, mountain hazards, weather, care and use of equipment, rope management and knot tying, belaying techniques, climbing techniques, multi pitch climbing, abseiling, setting up anchors, gear placement and protection. The course also covered an introduction to leading in the outdoor and indoor environment.
Both of them got quite a lot of the Spanish sun, as well as the odd day of thundery showers which took them inside for a day at a bouldering gym in Benidorm. The course was not for the faint hearted, requiring outdoor rock climbing experience – plus a good head for heights!
Andy (centre) making sure the heavy rain did not affect his climbing by spending the day bouldering in Benidorm.
The next step for Craig and Andy is to gain more experience climbing outdoors, which in the future will lead them on the pathway to become qualified rock climbing leaders and instructors.
Main image (top of page) shows Craig (left) and Andy ready for a day’s climbing, with Calpe’s Peñón de Ifach rock in the background.
