Author: Mr Alderson

Bwlch y Sygyn

Posted on 30 October 2019 | By Mr Alderson

Yesterday night Archie and a few other classmates went to the ‘beacon’ climbing wall with our instructor Jez. We brought with us harnesses and climbing shoes that we got from the store room just outside the main building of the Kent Mountain Centre. We drove over in a ford transit with around 9 other people (excluding Jez) it was a large building in an industrial park, when we went inside we saw that it was very popular with around 40 people in there. The walls were 20 meters high and they were packed with multicoloured routes. All of them had manual belays because all the routes went to the ceiling. I had fun as I went on some of the harder routes but they were descent. After that we went on some fun routes using auto belays they were called CrAzY cLiMbS, they may sound babyish, but they were so much fun.
In the morning, Aiden and four other members were woken up early as we were on duty; it felt too early for me. Fifteen minutes before breakfast (breakfast is normally at 7:45), I had to be at the centre’s dining room for duty (duty means serving everyone else and helping the kitchen staff with the washing up). It went very smoothly and all was well when we were briefed for the day. Our instructor Mary told us that we were going to go to a great mountain called Bwlch y Sygyn and then go past a beautiful river and woodland. Everyone was feeling ready to go when we finally were on our way.
Our first stop was a lake named Llyn Dinas (meaning Fortress Lake). Here Mary told us that we were going to have to fend for ourselves. She gave us some maps and gave some short but much needed directions then drove round to the other side of the mountain to meet us at the top. She also left us a tent like parachute for when we got to the top (as there were high winds) and a first aid kit. Our Teacher (Ms Webster) was meant to wait five minutes but then follow just in case we needed her help.
We set off with our maps and food we followed a rocky trail that zigged and zagged. When we were following the path, we had many stops to have a breather as it was very steep. We kept going until we found a ‘throne’ (a large seat shaped boulder) and Stopped as one of our group mates was tired and twisted his ankle. We then continued on after a long break and then stopped at a ‘building’ made of rocks. From here we could see Ms Webster but we soon moved to the signpost where we finally met back up with Mary. After having most of our lunch in the yellow parachute, we then continued to the summit of the mountain where it was very windy!
After that cold experience, we went back down the mountain where we begun the second part of the adventure. From here, we followed a path to a derelict copper mine where we used rocks to ‘mine’ through to some copper nuggets. A few of our group, including ourselves, found some and we were very pleased with ourselves when we were allowed to drink from the river. It was great and we didn’t want to stop, however we still needed to follow the bulk of it to our final destination.
After following the river for a little while, we reached a small village called Beddgelert. It was named after a famous dog that protected a duke’s son yet the duke thought the dog had killed his son and slayed the dog. Here we did a little shopping and headed back to the coach for a trip back to the KMC.

By Aiden and Archie

Day 3 (Tryfan)

Posted on 30 October 2019 | By Mr Alderson

On Tuesday we went rock climbing for our evening activity, it was at a public climbing centre. The group that went were led by Jezz (our instructor) we stayed there for around 2 hours. It was really exiting we climbed up many walls which ranged in difficulty we arrived home at around 9pm then went straight to bed we were all exhausted.
On Wednesday we had a mountain day we were going to be climbing Tryfan a really tall mountain which means three sharp points in welsh.we gathered our kit and met in the courtyard at 9:30 and we where then on our way. During the drive to the mountain we saw some very interesting things including the longest zip wire in the northern hemisphere (zip worlds titan). when we arrived at the mountain there was a large lake to the left of us called lake Ogwen. When we first started to climb it was very cold and at the beginning it was nearly all walking up uneven steps ,it was very tiring. when we got around a quarter of the way up the climbing started this wast the exiting part. we had to be careful not to loose our footing on the way up otherwise we would be sent plummeting the the floor,luckily no one fell every time we thought we might be getting close to the summit it kept going up and up into the clouds.the climb up was very dangerous we had to use all our strength to pull ourselves up the rocks.
when we finally reached the central peak we saw to huge stones which have been named Adam and Eve welsh folk law states that this is where the first people on earth were we were in the clouds at this point.the air around us was very foggy and hard to see though, however from the bottom of the mountain nobody would be able to see us. as we started the decline we were all very tired. the route down was very steep and hard to get your footing so much that a lot of us fell over from this we had to be careful of were put our foot due to the loose rocks that could easily fall.after the difficult part was done we had reached the easier part of the decline or so we thought. on the hill down the was a set of rocky stairs which were awful they were small and very uneven.we all fell over a lot.
we had made it all the way down the mountain then we reached the minibus and were out of the wind and on our way back to the centre and going to have dinner day 3 was nearly done.

By Jasmine and Mei

Evening climbing wall visits

Posted on 30 October 2019 | By Mr Alderson

Across Monday to Thursday evenings, everyone visits The Beacon – an excellent public indoor climbing wall in Caernarfon which is a few miles from the Centre.
We will add more images to this post as the week progresses.

Tryfan

Posted on 29 October 2019 | By Mr Alderson

On Monday night there were various activities for different groups. Lily’s group went to a public climbing wall. After a short minibus ride with Keith and Karl, we arrived and practised on a small wall. We then got harnessed up and began climbing, belaying and helping each other. Almost all of us climbed to the top of each wall; we did traversing, bouldering, top-roping. Then we went back to the centre listening to the minibus’ music.
I did problem solving it was alright, on the first activity we had a bomb in the middle of a rope circle and then had little ropes that we had to tie together and then try to get the bomb out of the middle. We had to put a hard hat and goggles that blacked out so you couldn’t see anything and we hat to go and follow a rope and at different bits there were bags with things in them and we had to remember what they all were and repeat the order of them at the end. the last challenge we had to transfer tires onto a hoop it was very hard but we did it. my group did very well and got full points on two activities and got a total of 25 points.
After a quick biscuit and drink break, we were all exhausted and headed to our dorms to get ready for bed.
Mrs Webster banging on the door, we woke up tired. we showered got dressed and went down to breakfast. I had toast, cereal and orange juice to drink. We then met with our team leaders and they introduced the day’s activity. We were told we were climbing Tryfan.
We went on the mini bus and set of, we left the mini bus and all of us put on our coats because it was proper cold we started the mountain and were told that it was going to be fun, we found a rock that said on the back to bring to the top so we did. we had to come over some hard obstacles and nearly fell off.
Compared to yesterday, there was a lot more climbing rather than walking.
Once we got to the top we ate lunch, we went down a different way from when we came up which was good because it was quicker on the way down. On our way to the minibus, we stopped by a field of short legged ponies.
Then we all fell asleep in the minibus at dinner time we ate pizza or mashed potato and for pudding we had jelly and ice cream or toffee sponge cake.
We love you Keith and Karl
By Lily and Finn

The Range

Posted on 29 October 2019 | By Mr Alderson

Monday night most of us were doing problem solving in the outside area of the centre others went to a public climbing wall outside of the centre. The challenges consisted of ‘Isotope’ , which was a puzzle where you had to pull a bomb of a ring which you could not step inside , the only way to extract the bomb was using the pieces of cord provided and 2 others.

Cutting to today (Tuesday) our activity group went to a place to the west of Anglesey which we refer to as the range. It was a 30 minute drive there with no traffic and when we got there we had a 2 minute walk with our Ikea bags down to sea level. there we had set up our bags and put on our harness’ on ready for the sea level traversal. We climbed across rocks and jumps to the end of where the instructor JEZZAAAA (our nickname for Jez) had placed for us it was fun and exhilarating. While we were eating lunch there was a dog named Genevieve, who was a neek of a pug, ripped Dominique’s roll out of his mouth and ran over to Jasmine and dragged her muffin across the floor and then was tied up by his master and walked away. After that we had fun on an obstacle called the Tyrolean Taverse where we went across two cliff face by hanging from a cord and shuffling along it. There was a trick which you did, in it you would swing your legs round the rope and balance on the top (back-flip) Then crawl across but instead of hanging under it you crawl across it. Hayden (me), Rowan and Mr Stavri were the only ones that successfully did. The next activity that we did was the ropeless traverse (or journey) across the sea level, we made our way down, and walked across the rocks with water splashing straight at our legs and making us soaked. We got to an edge about 2 or 3 metres above the water and Hayden being the degenerate he is yeeted (thrown) himself of the edge and proceeded to complain about being wet and cold (using remarks such as: tHiS iS ThE wOrSt ExPeRiEncE i HaVe eVeR hAd.). After seeing this everyone dropped in instead of jumped and didn’t go down into the water. That night we had pizza or jacket potato.

Hayden & Rhys

The Gorgeous, Green day of Gorging

Posted on 29 October 2019 | By Mr Alderson

Last night, a group of 8 went to the local rock climbing and did various challenges. These included bouldering, free climbing and top-roping. This activity took around 2 hours to finally complete. After the group arrived back at the centre, everyone went to the dining room and had a hot drink with a biscuit of their choice. After an hour of talking everyone went back to their dormitories, some had a shower and some got ready for the night.
As Mrs. Webster pounded down the door, we awoke for the morning. We scrambled out of bed at 6:45 and it was tiring. We searched through our suitcases to find clothing to wear for the adventure ahead of us. Our bodies felt like someone had pulled and pushed on all of our muscles and we felt like mushy peas. Our feet dragged along the floor as we went down to the dining room.
Breakfast began at 7:45, where we were greeted by the staff and the duty group. We ate until our bellies were full, as we didn’t want to hungry on our activity. We were all very curious about what we were doing for the day, as we had different options for the week. After we had finished our breakfast, it was compulsory to collect our packed- lunch boxes and fill up our water bottles for the day.
At 9:00 we gathered in the common room to meet our group leader (Mary) that we have for the week and soon after went to our assigned meeting room. We discussed what we were going to do for the day and what we need to pack and wear in our KMC backpacks. Mary told us where Afon Ddu Gorge. Afon means river and Ddu means black. In welsh you swap it around and so it means black river. We had 20 minutes to go to our rooms and get all the equipment we needed as were told we were going to get extremely wet. The drive was about 40 minutes and had some incredible views along the way.
We started off at the gorge climbing rocks and not getting wet at all. Slowly but swiftly, there were more rocks to climb and more water to go through. A lot of the group slipped over along the way until the very end. Just over half way there was some of the most pure and unfiltered water you will ever taste from the mountains that we could drink. We had to harness up at some points to climb through and over waterfalls, and we always had to help each other up and down. Towards the end we had all soaked through our many layers and were dripping from head to toe. Our wellingtons were as good as waterfalls. We worked our way down a steep hill back to the mini bus and got out our spare clothes. We changed into dry, and comfy fleeces and jogger, then hopped back onto the bus and finished our lunch. We were all so tired. It was such a picturesque day and was filled with natural life.

By Rhiannon and Amelie

Snowdon

Posted on 29 October 2019 | By Mr Alderson

Last night (Monday), We (minus some girls and the bloggers) were split into 2 groups and had to finish challenges within the 25 minutes we were given. The first challenge was where we had to sort numbered tyres into their correct groups. Kian’s team didn’t complete this task as they were not working as a team. The second task they had to remove a bomb from a circle by using some rope. They worked well as a team but were still unable to finish successfully. The final task they were blindfolded and had to identify what was in the bags as they followed a rope through the trees. Kian’s group lost by 8 points.

Some of the girls and I went to the public climbing wall with Karl and Keith and did some transverse climbing, bouldering and top-roping. we quickly got harnessed up and began helping each other climb by belaying. after starting on an easier transverse wall we were in groups of three on three different walls, after each of us attempted to reach the top we swapped walls and once we’d attempted all three walls we did some bouldering which was where we were given the choice of which wall we wanted to climb without a harness. finally, we all ten of us got back in the bus for a short mini bus ride back to the centre.

the next day, we went and collected our breakfast and lunch boxes after being woken up by Mrs Webster and Shaheer. our group then met with Mr Alderson in the lecture room and learnt how to count to 8 in Welsh. we discussed what we were going to do that day and set off to gather our things and get in the mini bus. we were dropped off in the car park at Pen-y-Pass and began our journey to the summit of Snowdon on the miner’s track. it was wide enough that a land rover could drive up it. We had to face many challenges to face including a very uneven steep path and a vertical rock face later on. we also had an encounter with some sheep. As we went up the mountain the temperature fluctuated so at some points we only had t-shirts and jumpers on and other times we had hats, gloves, coats, jumpers and more jumpers.

we then continued onto Gribin Ridge after walking on stepping stones to cross a river. On the way up the mountain we came across a butterfly who was near to dying. we carried on up the mountain but this time climbing and gradually working our way to the top. we trekked up the steep Watkin Path for about 200m. from there on we took our own direct route towards the summit of Snowdon. we encountered lots of grime that looked a lot like snow and ice as we got higher into the clouds. it was tricky so lots of us slipped and Kian died around seven times.

we eventually reached the summit and almost got blown off the top. we were surprisingly joined by many dogs. after we took some photos and had some lunch a bit further down, we stopped for lunch. We walked down a uneven path for a long time and at the bottom we met some sheep. We then waited for Jez who took us back in to the centre in the mini-bus. it was a very adventurous day.

By Kian and Millie

Sunday evening and walk to Dolbadarn Castle

Posted on 27 October 2019 | By Mr Alderson

Activity locations map

Posted on 5 September 2019 | By Mr Alderson | No comments

I’ve added some of the activity locations to a Google map (click here to view larger map).
A few of the walks and most of the other activities used by earlier trips are shown.
Many of the place names will soon become familiar because all the dormitories are named after major mountains and rivers near KMC.

Will we get lost?

Posted on 3 November 2018 | By Mr Alderson

Today Kiera and Libby came into our room to wake us up, to get ready for the day. However most of us couldn’t be bothered to move, but I needed to have a shower and whilst I was in the shower I encountered a big lobster bug so I ran out nearly screaming. Staying in bed we eventually realised the time so we rushed quickly to get to breakfast. For breakfast we had Sausage, Beans and Potato SMILEYSSSSS!!!! Most of us enjoyed breakfast, which was followed on by our usual meet in the common room to watch either CBeebies, milkshake or CBBC, the channels that we all love <3

After this we met in our collective meeting rooms with our instructor to review the previous day, also to discuss the plan for the day and to also find out the equipment and clothes for our adventure. We found out that we would be navigating our own walk by starting at one point on our maps and reaching a little village by a lake to find the teachers. To start with we all agreed that someone or everyone one would die or get completely lost.

We gathered in the courtyard in our walking boots all ready to leave. So we climbed on the minibus, but as per usual Sam was either late, missing clothing or missing equipment. On the journey to our starting point, well… to begin Paige was reading ‘HARRY POTTER’ like normal but Mr. White said “Paige why not read it out loud so that we can all listen.” Paige disagreed, but then Jaime piped in and read almost a whole chapter with great voices!

Once we arrived at our stop by the train station we got off. Mr. White stayed with us until the farm, which was about 50m from the bus. Then we were alone… So we grabbed our maps and started walking uphill zig zagging left and right, so far so good. However we came across some cross roads. Devon and Oscar thought that we were quite a bit higher up on the map, but me, Sam, Charlotte, Paige and Jamie all knew that we had to head up. We knew this because the way they wanted to go had a sign for Snowdon which is NOT where we wanted to go. We argued. Luckily Simon, our instructor, came to the rescue. Apparently, he could hear us from really high up (OOPS!) He told us that we as in (Jaime’s side) we’re right!!

Eventually we carried on moving up until we reach the BULCH which is two hills with a gap/dip running through the centre. We carried on past the bulch down a long path. We came across many mountain sheep, and a few were perched on the track, we attempted stroking them however the sheep ran away L

As we travelled down this really long continuous path we reached some house ruins. By this time it was around 12:30 so we agreed to sit and have lunch in the house. Afterwards we carried on with our trek. As we kept walking we found a bridge and crossed it. Next we kept walking a bit further and we knew we had to turn left yet we turned on the wrong left. Luckily we were only on the right side of the lake as we were supposed to be on the left. Soooooo we had to cross the lake by standing on rocks similar to stepping stones, like the gorge on Thursday. We got back on track after travelling through a small green of bogs(No-one fell in – luckily)

Then we kept moving towards the village. On the whole trip Alex spoke to a lot of people that we were walking by. Most of us asked the people passers the time as none of us had watches or phones. Next we entered the forest, we weren’t in there for long but it was fun, even though we didn’t know which way to go as there were many paths optional. We ended up reaching the end of the woods and finding Simon and Mr. White. They told us that we were only round the corner from the centre.

When we finally got back Simon said “We’re going abseiling”, however first we had to clean our boots and then hand in our whole kit without failure. Then we took off for the abseil rock. It was really fun said most of us. Also Oscar was currently scared of heights, however he temporarily got rid of this fear (I think) a great accomplishment. Also whilst at the rock there were some other people doing the same as us and as we got down from the rock we got to stroke their dog called OREO. He loved the attention.

For dinner we had either fish and chips or burger and chips, with mushy peas, but nobody on our table ate them. Next we went back to our rooms to pack as we had to leave early the next morning. After packing briefly we met back in the dining room for the OFFICIAL KMC QUIZ. The team ‘Barnacles and limpets’.

Then we met in the boys’ common room to get some certificates or significant funny, compliment or bad moments. After this we watched a slideshow of photos which some laughed at J Finally we finished watching ‘Happy Gilmore’.

I had a great time on this trip and I’m pretty sure most others did too!!!!

By Savannah Day