Derbyshire Field Course

"...FITZROY SOLE WESTERLY OR SOUTHWESTERLY 8 OR 9. RAIN SHOWERS AT FIRST IN BISCAY. 968. POOR..."

Words from the radio that would have, a year ago, had me grabbing my surfboard and checking the local beaches' webcams. But not last Sunday. With my mind set for a drenching, I packed every waterproof I own and joined the minibus to Curbar Edge in the Peak District.

Thankfully the met-men got it wrong, and the forecast storms never made more than a down poor on the way home from the pub one night. This left us with excellent conditions to learn abseiling and jumaring: Techniques to allow us to descend into, and escape from crevasses in the ice. Although I spent a lot of time rock climbing at University, it had been a while since I last ventured on to the rocks. The knots and abseiling came flooding back, and I learned some new techniques for getting back up the ropes from our excellent mountain guides.

There was more to this course than just the ropes. Divided into the groups we will be sharing a base with, we lived in big tents and cooked outdoors. Once he had recovered from finding tins of Spam in the food box, Antony, our chef (pictured), supervised the best Pasta Surprize I've ever tasted.

T'was a good week.