Alpine Break

This was the first real course specifically aimed at the mountain leadership award. It seems strange that we have to wait 9 months from the entrance exam back in September to do this course. Obviously they leave some time to do the Tronc Commun but even so there seems to have been a lot of dead time since the probatoire.

This course, called ‘Connaissance Fondamentales’ was all about the necessary knowledge to get going on our apprenticeship which will last the rest of the summer. It was pretty intensive with most days starting at 8 and finishing near 7 in the evening. During the second week there was a night time orienteering test that took us past midnight and there was a two day walk where we were supposed to bivvy out. As it happened the weather was pretty bad and we ended up staying in a hut.

The course covered a number of the legal and administrative aspects that we would need to deal with in the future and especially in the near future during our apprenticeship. In France everything is complicated by layers of bureaucracy and this was no exception. The form filling necessary just to be allowed to do the ‘stage’ was impressive.

The rest of the course was learning the fundamentals about the fauna, the flora, the geography and the history of the area. We covered some rope work, but as the restrictions in practice mean that we cannot use slings or karabiners this was quite limited. There was quite a bit of info about how to deal with emergencies and medical situations. I thought that there could have been a bit more on route finding and navigation. I got the impression that because the weather is always good over here they don’t see the need to be able to navigate in bad visibility, which sounds like a recipe for a disaster to me.

In general the course was very instructive and gave me a sound basis to develop my knowledge and leadership abilities. Now I just have the summer to get through and see how it goes in practice.

Filed under: News on June 13th, 2008