Women In Mountain Training 2024
Hi, it’s Abbi here, and for me November got off to a sparkling start and not because of the fireworks displays!
I was really excited to able to attend the Women in Mountain Training conference held over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd November in the stunning Outward Bound centre in Ullswater, Lake District.
Around 80 delegates attended the second of these popular and much anticipated events: check out the overview and agenda for the weekend here. In a nutshell, lots of opportunities to meet, network, share and learn in a supportive and welcoming environment.
This support and welcome for me started even before I got there, as having asked Cath Luke at Mountain Training if I could attend and being welcomed to do so, I was so grateful to Cress Allwood, Partnerships Manager at the BMC, for her hospitality and ensuring I could get to and from the venue!
So, armed with a NICAS popup banner and much anticipation, I travelled up on Friday from where I’m based in Hertfordshire. It was good to stretch my legs with Cress after my 4-hour train trip with a boulder and a much appreciated cup of tea and flapjack at KendalWall, a long standing NICAS centre. Their recent bouldering facility upgrades looked great!
Saturday morning, we arrived at the beautiful venue and said hello to the fab Mountain Training team of Cath Luke, Nicola Jasieniecka-Evans, Maddie Sweetman and Emily Law. Warmly hosted by Rachel Crewesmith, we got underway and the conference was go!
In the first whole group session, Grassroots Heroes, it was great to hear from Steph Wetherell from Every Body Outdoors and Carla Khouri, lead instructor for Black Girls Hike (BGH). The key takeaways for me were about belonging and feeling welcome in the outdoors, and I felt that these learns were really applicable to accessing a climbing wall too. As an example, if your clothing (or your harness) doesn’t fit you well and that is taking your attention, then that will have an impact on your experience and sense of feeling at ease (or not) to do what you want to be doing. With leadership, which everyone in the room is doing or are wanting to do more of, feeling welcomed and empowered is so important, and Carla’s work to train leaders shows the demand for and success of having a community group like BGH to make this happen.
Other workshops I attended on Saturday were:
- “Tools and strategies to enable self-belief” (Professor Katrina Pritchard and Dr Helen Williams): A great session about confidence, with more info on the content and presenters here, from this highly engaging Breaking Binaries Research duo.
- “Progressing to higher level qualifications” e.g. CWDI or MCI (Kath James and Nicola Jasieniecka-Evans from Mountain Training): Useful information from those who have been there, done it and know the qualifications inside out. Helping those in the room with how to get to that next step.
The second whole group session on Saturday was “Neurodivergence in the industry”. Suzie Dick and Nicola Foyle talked passionately about participants, colleagues, and ourselves as leaders. There were some really useful insights and practical suggestions. Even picking one way to make what you do more inclusive has an impact, from the materials you provide to giving people time to prepare if they are expected to say something in discussions. For me, this session was applicable in so many scenarios, and I feel it is really important to welcome, support and keep engagement for all those involved in the industry. (Watch this space for NICAS Ascend, a new offering that was designed with neurodivergent participants in mind and that we will be talking a lot more about soon).
With lots to think about from day one, I returned on Sunday eager for more learning (after a great run, where I remembered that I don’t really run on hills at home but it was lovely nonetheless!).
Sunday’s all-group session was “Tackling discriminatory behaviour” delivered by Aneela McKenna and Kate O’Brien. With case studies and examples, there was a realisation that everyone in the room has experienced discriminatory behaviour. This was a really practical workshop that has applications in many scenarios. It was great to hear the ongoing work in the industry that extends wider than this weekend to challenge and dismantle discrimination. Advocacy is key, and so the messages need to be out there with everyone in the industry to make change.
Workshop sessions I attended on Sunday were:
- “Doing business in beautiful landscapes” (Kath James): Want to set up your own business, or reflect in a supportive environment on where you are? Suggestions and tips from Kath with some great audience insights too.
- “Understanding leadership styles and developing your own practice” (Claire Hunter): Big thanks to Claire who was a late stand-in to lead this session. Interesting to reflect for me, on the fact that one style of leadership isn’t always the right style. Adapting to the group you are leading is key – something to ponder on and something I feel is relevant to all who lead a group (from NICAS sessions to winter mountain expeditions).
With a final bit of the day being dedicated to useful peer-to-peer discussions, it was all over and suddenly time to go home! There were loads of things that I didn’t manage to attend, if only I could duplicate myself. Such a rich weekend of learning and opportunities, we were spoilt for choice.
Also, a key part of the weekend was the time inbetween the sessions and at the start and end of the days. For some, this time included going swimming in the lake (I looked at how beautiful the lake was… but that was as far as it went for me!) and there was networking, relaxing, and making short work of the lovely cakes provided by the Outward Bound team.
It was great to chat about NICAS in an informal way and to also catch up with colleagues at our NICAS Partner organisations while we were all in the same room. Working together is so worthwhile and important, and I feel so happy to have been a part of the weekend.
Thank you to Sport England for their part in making this event happen, and to all of the people who were there this weekend learning, sharing, supporting and growing the industry.
Women in Mountain Training – you rock!
To get involved with Women In Mountain Training: check out their Facebook group.
