The North Wales panel of the Local Cave & Mine Leader Award scheme has just run a block of courses based out of Oaklands OEC near Llanwrst. I am a member of the N Wales panel and I will be working alongside other T/A’s as I move towards completing my assessor apprenticeship. The centre was host to 2 full LCMLA Level 1 Mine training courses and a full Level 2. There were also a number of people on mine to cave transfers and 1 person on a 3rd day of cave training.
I worked alongside Nige Atkins CIC, one of the UK’s most experienced trainers and it was a pleasure to absorb his knowledge. We ran day 1 from Oaklands OEC, in their annex building, where there was a small but amply equipped training wall. This venue is a perfect base for LCMLA courses and technical training. Day 2 started with an introduction to tyrolean traverse rigging and then it was off to a local mine to put it all into practice.

We set a 40m floating SRT line for longer spells of practice on the rope.

Course members and Nige taking a break.

Alun contemplating knots.

The first day was a relaxed, candidate-led workshop environment where we managed to cover a huge amount without needing to follow a rigid plan. The candidates were a great bunch and it was nice to have a mix of other outdoor qualifications in the room.

If you are interested in becoming a BCA cave leader award holder then the first stop for you should be the BCA Training web pages. You need to register for the LCMLA scheme before Level 1 training and this registration will take you through the whole LCMLA scheme.
BCA Training Website