Events

Come and develop your mountain knowledge and judgement at one of our FREE winter skills talks. Learn decision making skills for planning and undertaking winter journeys and understand the effects of the weather on mountain conditions. These talks will take place every Saturday from Jan 4 – Feb 29 excluding Feb 22, and start 5:30PM in the Plas y Brenin lecture room.

Join us for the incredible Adventure Activists Tour with Kate Rawles, Dan Yates, Tom Law and sustainable steward Dom Ferris.

For this session host Kate Rawles aka Carbon Cycle Kate will guide us through the issue of how best to protect our wild places.

We welcome kayaker and environmental activist, Dan Yates to the stage. Dan lives in Snowdonia having set up home amongst the rugged mountains and wild rivers of the National Park. Travelling the world as an expedition kayaker Dan sees firsthand the destruction that hydroelectric development of free-flowing rivers has on both the environment and local communities.

Plus hear from Dom Ferris, Dom is one of the fantastic folk who brought us Surfers Against Sewage and has now created a trail stewardship, which every mountain biker should be getting behind. Trash Free Trails is a non-profit organisation who are working hard to reduce the amount of litter on the UK’s mountain bike trails by 75% by 2025. Dom shares insights into the work they do and offers advice on how you can get involved.

Join us for a FREE talk by Snowdonia National Park Dark Skies Officer Dani Robertson.

As ever our bar will be open for drinks and meals beforehand.

Darren Clarkson King, known to many as Daz, has had a diverse and colourful paddling career that’s still in full flurry and has taken him all over the world to remote gorges, multi-day expeditions, first descents, solo descents and highly iconic rivers and locations. Come and join us on 22 February for his special guest talk, ‘Twenty Years of Street Food and I’m Still Alive’.

Emma Twyford has had an unbelievably successful two years rock climbing, doing loads of hard trad and sport and culminating in an ascent of Wales’ hardest sport route, The Big Bang, 9a at the end of 2019, becoming the only women in the UK to have climbed this difficult a sport climb. Emma will be giving an inspiring talk as part of the BMC youth coach training weekend. This event is FREE and open to the public; join us for a drink in the Plas y Brenin bar beforehand!

On 29 February to 1 March there will be a weekend of highly subsidised training courses for young people who are interested in getting into coaching climbing.

Ian Dunn & Katherine Schirrmacher will deliver a FUNDAMENTALS 1 on the Saturday and a FOUNDATION COACH TRAINING on the Sunday. Young people can sign up for either both the days or just one day. Each day will cost just £25 which will cover the cost of the course, the registration fee and lunch. 

FUNdamentals 1, Saturday 29 Feb will look at various areas of what can be taught in climbing from balance, agility and coordination through to climbing techniques such as flagging, rockovers. At the end of the course, people will have gleaned ideas of what they can do when coaching people of different abilities in climbing. AGE: 14-18.

Foundation Coach, Sunday 1 March – covers observation and analysis, clear delivery, feedback, session planning and gives a good starting point for how to deliver good coaching. To access the foundation coach course at this special rate, it is necessary to register an account with Mountain Training. See the booking form for further information.

John Harold has worked in conservation for long enough to know better. He is particularly fond of the 95% of species that get 5% of the attention. Join us for a talk by the director of Snowdonia Society; a member-based conservation charity that works with local communities, organisations, businesses and individuals to help look after Snowdonia.

Photo: Patrick Gillespie

The successful breeding and release of captive animals is an important wildlife conservation tool as recently demonstrated in recent Tasmanian Devil population management. What are the benefits and disadvantages of using captive rather than wild-born animals in species restoration projects? The presentation will critically review red squirrel conservation on Anglesey and pine marten release in Gwynedd to illuminate the challenges faced by applied conservation programmes.

Join us for this FREE talk in the Plas y Brenin Lecture room.

WEMSI is a unique organisation delivering courses in pre-hospital emergency care. The volunteer faculty is made up of actively practising, highly experienced doctors, paramedics, ambulance technicians, climbers, paddlers, cavers, skiers, explorers and adventurers! Each year they come together from all over the world and volunteer their time to provide a high staff-to-student ratio course that aims to equip students with the knowledge and practical skills that will help prepare them for patient care in a remote environment.

The WEMT course is the gold standard in preparing for situations when you could be in a remote setting with a patient. Mountain Rescue team members, expedition leaders, humanitarian professionals, scientists working remotely, and military medics are among some of the people who have benefited in the past.