29th June: Grabbed a few routes at Llandulas Cave this everning: the crag has been cleaned qutie a bit recently and has some surprisingly good additions. I thought "Mind Light" was one of the best routes for its grade in the area (6a+) Sion led it cleanly on sight, another proud moment for dad coach. Or pushy parent, depeding on how you view these things.

28th June: I spent an enjoyable sunny day teaching navigation skills to Trail for Sale auction winner Graham Brown. We went through the whole range of good and bad visibility techniques on a circuit around Moel Elio above Llanberis. This was a day that put the work of MLT back in context for me. We are so lucky to be able to work in the places we love, and its a privelege to be able to help others to achieve the same thin, whether for paid or for voluntary work.

27th June: For Sions' birthday we took a group of friends to the Ropes and Ladders high ropes course in Llanberis. It was interesting also to see this from a professional point of view. Built by Crispin Waddy, a few of the elements are built with climbing activities in mind. In the evening I went cragging with my old friend Chris Forrest, who now works as the Chief Instructor for the Joint Sevices at Indefatigable. (I can't quite remember exactly what his title is, but he certainly has a strong team to work with).

13th June: After an evening meeting with Pat Littlejohn, Alan Blakshaw, Audrey Seguy and Doug Scott to discuss the implications of coaching for traditional mountaineering values, we joined the Lakes climbing festival in the back end of beyond, aka Seathwaite. Once the sun fought its way through the mist we nipped out to the fast-drying Stonestar crag; probably the busiest this crag has ever been! I climbed with Pat Littlejohn for the afternoon on a bunch of pleasant pitches from E1 to E4. At one point Pat called out "Good lead, Steve" - high praise!

17th June: Lots of interesting bits of work this month. We have received the proofs for "Mynydda" - the Welsh langauge version of Hillwalking, so its almost ready for publishing now. The BMC access and conservation officer has been appointed and will start work in September. I made a moderation visit to an MIA assessment course at the beginning of the month and was impressed by the standard. On 12th June I attended a meeting in Kendal to explain the rationale behind the coaching qualifications to a group of distinguished mountaineers and climbers from the BMC, followed by an afternoon's climbing in the Duddon Valley. A reasonable amount of cragging in my free time, with a range of routes from VS to E5 and 7a+. The latter half of this week will be taken up by meetings of the MTT Board, which manages Plas y Brenin. The MLTA post has received considerable interest, and we will be looking at the applications this week.The woodpeckers have continued to visit my feeding station and I have more photos than I know what to do with! Lots of interest in the UIAA Training Standards as well.

27th May: Wildlife has always fascinated me and my teenage years were mostly spent at bird reserves, when my schoolmates were hanging out at the local chippy and Spar. One of my great favourites is the woodpecker family, and I've been coaxing them into our garden over the last few years, despite a major setback when I was outvoted on the family pet and we ended up with a cat - in fact two cats! This feeder is about 3 metres from my kitchen window, so I've now got more photos of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers than I know what to do with! I've been out cragging a bit lately as well, routes including "Simulator", "Mistaken Identity", "Assassin" at Gogarth, "That's what friends R4" and "Easter Wall" in the Moelwyns, and "NIght Glue" and "Crunchy Toad" at Pen Trwyn.

20th May: My "blog" has been down for a while lately, in case you've been wondering why there was a big gap. It's full steam ahead now though! One change will be that there will be more updates on the inside workings of Mountain Leader Training as well as all the fun and adventures. One of the exciting recent developments is that work on a Welsh language version of "Hillwalking" is well underway and we should have this published by the early autumn. As a resident of Snowdonia for over 20 years I am proud to see this project approaching completion. I'm also proud to have been involved in some of the projects that the local climbers and walkers have tackled in this area with the support and leadership of BMC Cymru. This looks set to gather even more impetus once the Wales access and conservation officer is appointed (see http://www.mltuk.org/docs/height-news.html for more information). Yesterday I was climbing at PenTrwyn and completed a few great lines (including the mega-classic Night Glue) whilst Pete Harrison worked all day unpaid and unacknowledged cleaning up Lower Pen Trwyn; work he has been undertaking on our behalf over several weeks.. A fantastic and very professional effort which deserves recognition even from climbers who have no interest in sports climbing.

29th April: I've been resting from a damaged tendon, tweaked it doing the first repeat of the rather fingery "Wow Factor" at Craig y Gesail. I tested it out last night on "Central Sadness" with Rachael Hinchliffe from the MLTA. A cold wind was whistling through Llanberis, the harbinger of a day's rain so California Quarry seemed the best option as its sheltered from the wind. Forgot about the two fingered pull at ankle-breaking height! We topped out shortly before the rain arrived.

8th April: The UIAA Mountaineering Commission meeting had a receord turn out, including vistors from the USA, Japan, Russia and Chile. Afterwards I spent a week ski touring with other delegates, including a mass descent of the Vallee Blanche!

March 200

31st March: This has been a distinctly unglamorous month, but masses of work done behind the scenes coordinating a series of projects. MLTA continues to develop and is well on the way to fulfilling its potential. If you're not a member, check it out - it's the single most important development in CPD for mountain leader training in the history of our awards. Much of the month has been spent writing a business/strategic plan, coordinating a spring edition of the scheme providers' newletter, managing the translation of "Hillwalking" into Welsh, and examining ways that we can be more effective and communicate better. Just one sentence but a lot of complex issues!

The proposed development of a coaching qualifications structure has provoked considerable interest from some stalwart mountaineers who quite rightly fear the dilution of our traditional values if the "Educationalists" try to label and control our anarchic pastime. Since Mountain Leader Training occupies prime ground in the educational camp I find myself increasingly bemused by this label which seems to imply that traditional values can't be reconciled with education: I can only surmise that some people suffered some unhappy times at school! There will be a healthy debate about this balance at the BMC AGM and I strongly advise you to come along and either support us or point out the errors of our ways - either way we are willing to listen and learn! I will also be posting up some personal reflections about coaching, mentoring and - heaven forbid! competition in traditional climbing. Watch this space!

7th March: The Board Meeting at Glenmore Lodge was a great success, with several important resolutions passed and it represented a step closer towards a simpler interface between all the home nation boards. Follow this link to a summary of the Board minutes. After the meeting 4 of us trekked into Coire nan Lochan, but I have to admit that I didn't do my homework, and we found the approach slopes too unstable. Coupled with driving hail the journey home seemed a better option, until that is we found ourselves in a huge traffic jam on the A9 caused by a pile-up. Eventually we traversed the country and headed south via Fort William, so 3 hours after leaving Aviemore we were further away from home than when we started!

12th February: Today we finally managed to complete the third of Chris Parkin's trilogy of lines based on the best summer routes on the Black Ladders. He thinks this has the hardest pitch of the lot - it's the one we fell from on Saturday. No such problems this time, although the crag started thawing from about 10.00 and carried on getting warmer all day. By the time we approached the summit rim we were dripping wet. The crux involves an exciting span out left to a torqued hammer (clue: not the axe...), a delicate step through and then some long reaches on full lock-offs. We've graded at VI, 8. The approach and finish were also quite spicy, especially as most of the turf had thawed on the long final groove.

11th February: Well, there was a lot to be done in the office this week as we have a Board meeting coming up with a lot of important issues to be discussed. We have made a lot of progress in so many areas this winter so ther's a lot to debate, including the success of MLTA, which is starting to take its place as the premiere CPD opportunity for our award holders (particularly ML, WGL, CWA and SPA -see the links above - Training Schemes - for further details of the awards). We have best-selling author Libby Peter working for us at the moment to help me cope with the additional workload that we are currently experiencing. Meanwhile my good friend and climbing partner Baggy Richards has continued to storm the crags - he's either cashing in some lieu time or is in for a rocketing! - but who cares? when the ice is this good the boys and girls have gotta play! I've waited 20 years for a season like this, so tomorrow its back up for another crack at our line. Thank goodness, so far it's a clear night, so we are in with a chance. I've actually taken the unprecedented step of sharpening my tools - must be catching on to the modern idiom. Today was so mild that the icefalls in Llanberis Pass had collapsed, so we need a night like this. Fingers crossed - I don't want to beat our air time from Saturday.

9th February: Chris Parkin and I climbed Western Gully today, taking in the Direct Finish for good measure. It deserves its classic status for the rock architecture and sustained nature. Well worth the wait - I last tried it in 1985 but decided to wait until it was properly iced up - I've waited ever since! We saw Ian Parnell and Baggy Richards completing what appeared to be the first repeat of the hardest of Chris's contributions to the crag to date- it will be interesting to see what they made of it.

7th February: Welsh winter is back! The conditions are the best in 20 years, although temperatures are hovering on the edge of a thaw. All the main crags are coming into condition though - let's hope it lasts a bit longer. Chris Parkin and I had a crack at finishing a line we tried about 15 years ago. It was as hard as we remembered but it's definitely possible. We baled after both of us had taken a 20' head-first lob from the final hard move. Shame really, but we'll be back!

31st January: The month ended in fine style with the Association of Mountaneering Instructors (AMI) AGM and annual conference. Jon Garside, Malcolm Creasey and I travelled up for a meeting on Friday with legendary mountaineer Allen Fyffe at Glenmore Lodge, and then stayed on for the AGM. We renewed many old aquaintances and stayed up late into the night enjoying the local beers and whiskeys. A fantastically successful foray to the north, with a perfect blend of work and pleasure. Jon and I worked off raging hangovers with a quick journey up the mega-classic mixed climb "The Message" (IV, 6) on the Mess of Pottage crag, amazingly sheltered for a day when 120mph winds were recorded on Cairngorm summit. I must admit it was pretty breezy at the top of the climb! The weekend also gave us the opportunity to chat to the new AMI committee, conduct straw polls with the AMI members, and discuss some joint marketing initiatives with the new management staff at Glenmore Lodge, as well as update AMI with the ongoing work concerning coaching, the forthcoming Climbing Wall Leading Award, and the review of the Mountaineering Instructors Award that I am about to kick-start with a stakeholders' survey.

19th January: So far this year has been all work, not much play! Behind the scenes we have been working on a lot of exciting projects, which I am confident have set Mountain Leader Training in position to develop very strongly in 2009. We have also made funding bids and changes that will enormously strengthen our ability to deliver an exciting and innovative programme of courses and workshops. Watch this space for career opportunities and regular newsletters! At home I've been rebuilding my office over the Christmas break and the evenings and weekends that followed. I've been climbing with my son a few times and last night I managed my first ever V6 boulder problem, so working on my weak area (definitely bouldering!) is starting to pay dividends. I intend to put a few top tips on this in the MLTA website shortly. V6 is not particularly hard but if you are incapable of slapping for holds its hard to do statically - so this represents a breakthrough in trying to develop a more modern, fluid movement style.

We went bouldering with Owen Hayward, the Chair of MLTW somewhere around New Year. Here we are at Porth Ysgo, Lleyn - note Owen pulling my shoulder and removing the mat simultaneously - the cad!:

28th December: We went down to my sister's house in Bishop's Stortford for a a family Christmas but today we were back in Wales with blue skies! Sion and I nipped out to the slate quarries to catch the afternoon sun. Unfortunately a bitter wind was howling, but we found shelter in California Quarry, a hidden slate hole beyond Blue Peris.The back walls were bathed in sun, so as a perfect finale for the year, we tackled Chris Parkin's immaculate "Waves of Inspiration"(E5 6a). I couldn't feel my feet at first but it worked out alright in the end. I think it was our first route for about a month, so we were very pleased with ourselves! Brilliant climbing and a perfect (but Baltic!) sunset. Appropriately we went over to Chris' house for supper.