The Rules:
As many ‘long arm’ pull up’s as you can in a single attempt on the campus board located at the door to our indoor climbing wall.  Not too difficult hey!

Here are the times for our 3km single track mountain bike trail – the ‘Malsis Loop’.

The Rules:
Starting at any point of your choice you must complete an entire loop of the ‘Hope Malsis’ 3km single track.  Any amount of crashes, dabs and mechanicals are allowed.  All you have to do is complete the entire loop (along with your bike) in the quickest time possible.  Any bike is alllowed!

5 Mountain Bikers from High Adventure have just returned from the 2010 Mountain of Hell race on Les Deux Alpes glacier high in the French Alps.

Check out Bikes-Oisans for more information on the event and the results.

Our riders & their results were: Tim Ferguson (192nd; 1 hr 6:57), Mick Ellerton (364th; 1 hr 35:59), Chris Jepson (334th; 1 hr 23:19), Jon Beyer (261st; 1 hr 13:00) & Lawrence Baker (247th; 1 hr 12:04) all succesfully made it through the qualifying race and the ‘Finale’ unscathed and with their mountain bikes ’sort of intact’!!

Want to see what they rode down? 
Have a look at Pink Bikes
Or Zapiks

And for a look at all the photos of all the competitors.

This weekend the Mountain of Hell event returns to Les Deux Alpes for the 11th year. The freeride downhill MTB competition takes place over three days and is considered one of the most extreme on the circuit. Entrants have the chance to preview the course on Friday before qualification rounds on Saturday afternoon and the race on Sunday.

The course runs from Les Deux Alpes’ glacier at 3400m to the local village of Venosc at 900m, and last year Greg Doucende won the race with a time of 00:47:08:673. He’s entered to defend his title again this year but will be competing against the stiff competition of last week’s Megavalanche Jérôme Clémentz Australia’s top rider Mick Hannah and legendary US rider Eric Carter. With names like this, it’s set to be an incredible race, but the 500 entrants include amateurs as well as professionals.  For the FULL results click here.

World Cup 2010 Fantasy Football Competition

In a nutshell the competition is very simple, you have to ‘buy’ 6 teams and they must be from different groups (see group table below).  You have 60 million to spend, the price of each team is in brackets after their name in the groups table.  In every single match your teams play in they can score you points and cost you points.

PS – Come on STROMA boys & girls dont get beaten like last time by 3 HA entered teams taking 1st, 2nd & 3rd!  Plus can anyone remember one of Tom’s team, I think it was the one called ‘Tom Tom Tom’ getting the wooden spoon!?!

Points scoring:
Win = 5 points
Draw = 2 points
Loss = -3 points
Qualifying in 1st place from the group stage = 5 bonus points
Qualifying in 2nd from the group stage = 2 bonus points
Goal scored = 1 point per goal
Goal conceded = -1 point per goal
(losing / winning on penalities is the equivalent of losing / winning by a single goal)

£5 per team entered (you can enter as many teams as you like)
Winner gets 70% of the pot
Runner Up gets 20% of the pot
3rd Placed gets 10% of the pot
In the event of a tie the person who spent the least on their team wins, if still a tie the ‘winnings monies’ are split.

How to enter
Get your £5 entry fees to Tim (HA) or Liz (STROMA) and your team entry details to tim@highadventureoec.co.uk

The details you need to submit to Tim are:
1. Your ‘Team Name’
2. Your Manager’s Name (ie Yourself)
3. Your 6 team’s you have chosen.  Please list your teams including which group they are in eg
Group A – France
Group C – Algeria
Group D – Ghana etc etc
4. Your Total Team cost in millions – remember you cant spend more than 60 million, you are not the Chelsea or Man City owner!

DEADLINE  is THURSDAY 10th JUNE 2010!!!

Click here to see the World Cup Groups & Fixtures - BBC Sports Website

Latest News, Gossip & Comments on the teams:
Best Name – I think this has to go to Monsiuer Robert Coxon for “Thin kits allover”.
Most Likely Manager to get SACKED – Marc Cowlin for ‘Peasant United’.
Most hoped for FINAL – England vs Honduras, if this final happens Tim is paying for himself & John Cockram to go to Whistler for a weeks snowboarding!
AND FINALLY a thought !
Well, once the Spanish team get out of hospital (having had the lumps that the Dutch kicked out of them inserted back where they came from) I am sure they will be celebrating hard!  The team that actually played football won and it does seem fair, even though the best team to have never won the WC are still ‘the best team to have never won the WC’.
Regarding our little competition:  Congratulations must go to a 4 year old girl for winning, an Australian Lady (do they get Ladies in Australia?) for coming 2nd and a very dodgy man by the name of Dave Lister for getting 3rd.

As with all blogs the right to a reposte should always be given.  So here is Mrs Sheila Ellerton’s reply (gosh its so difficult to not make a joke about the aptness of Sheila’s first name given her nationality…..):

Dear Mike
I came second! Tell that cheeky bugger they do have ladies in Australia if I wasn’t a lady I would have put a lot of expletives in here.!
Sheila Ellerton

Then keep an eye on this page, all Team Results will be posted on the site and updated daily.

Fantasy World Cup 2010 Football Competition – current scores

Our next planned charity event will be a challenge to climb the height of Mt Everest on our indoor climbing in a single day.

8848 metres!

Watch this space for more details

Donate now by going to: http://www.justgiving.com/LandsEndtoJohnOGroatsERGOChallenge

The Challenge:  To ride 1400km (the distance of Lands End to John O Groats) in 11 hours on 4 ERGO bikes at Fitness First – Keighley on Saturday 8^th May 2010.

 Why?  To raise as much money as possible for Manorlands Hospice.  Our initial target is £1400 (£1 per kilometre), but the more the better, so please don’t hold back, ask everyone you know to sponsor you for as much as possible.

 Who is doing it:  Tim, David, Matt, Sara and as many others as we can rope in to help us to:

a)    ride the distance (it’s a very long way)

b)    raise as much money as possible to help us meet our target

 Why Manorlands Hospice?  From mine & David’s point of view its very personal as I am sure many of you are aware, but places like Manorlands Hospice rely very heavily on charity in order to provide the palliative care that is so desperately needed for so many people within our community.

Click here for the Telegraph & Argus article about the event.

Click here for the Yorkshire Post article about the event.

Our Team So Far! 

Our team’s personal distances were:

Thanks very much for all your hard work, as a team we managed to ride 1407.42km in 10 hours and 5 minutes and have currently raised £1050, we are still hoping to hit our target of £1400, so please keep giving if you can or badger others that you know to reward you for the hard work you put in.

Our team on the day:

12►

Day camps at HA

Can anyone give me some advice on taking a residential, what do I need to make sure the Outdoor Education Centre has in terms of insurance, fire certificate and the like. Also any tips would be welcome.

Answers:

Being a party leader for the first time can seem like a daunting prospect, I used to teach and I took many residentials before starting High Adventure with two teaching colleagues so I know where you are coming from. The following are points to check on when selecting an Outdoor Education Centre:

• AALA Licence – Following the Lyme Bay disaster the Adventurous Activities Licencing Authority was set up as a kind of OFSTED for Outdoor Education Centre’s. The Authority has recently come under the HSE banner, anyone working with under 16’s in the outdoors has to have a licence.
• Public Liability Insurance for £5,000,000 or more
• Fire Risk Asessment – Outdoor Education Centres will not usually have a fire certificate because fire certificates are for establishments which will take overnight guests without booking, hotels etc. They will however have risk assessment that should be completed with advice from the local fire officer
• Activity Risk Assessments – You may need to request these from the Outdoor Education Centre as part of the hoops that Manchester and any other LEA will make you jump through. These are working documents and should be site specific. High Adventure has it’s AALA Licence, public liability insurance and all risk assessments available in pdf format on the website to make life easy for you.
• Qualified Minibus drivers – Any commercial Outdoor Ed Centre have to have an operators licence and PCV qualified drivers. It is only commercial centres who are required to use professional drivers. Charities and LEA centres operate on a section 19 licence which means anyone over 25 can drive on their car licence with provisional D1. Check that Midas or similar LEA in-house minibus qualification are used.
• Qualified and experienced instructors – Check that any off-site activities are led by appropriately NGB qualified staff and that the Centre has a good training procedure for staff running in-house activities.
• Secure premises
• Friendly staff – the centre staff will have a marked affect on the success of your trip, an established centre with good staff retention in all departments usually means a happyish workforce.
• Location, Location, Location – rising transport costs may make this a bigger concern than in the past, make sure you check the cost to get to the centre before confirming your booking.

The vast majority of Outdoor Education Centres will have everthing you require for your paperwork and lots of patience for those taking their first trip, if they tick the boxes highlighted above then you are well on the way.

High Adventure is happy to help you with your booking of course!

Got a question of your own? Send us an email.

I’m a teacher from Manchester LEA, I am organing a trip to an Outdoor Education Centre in Yorkshire and caving is on their list of activities. Some parents have expressed concerns because of the recent accident. I would like them to do it but I need to convince the parents. Can you tell me anything that might set their minds at ease?

Answer:

I understand the parents concern but I think that most of it will stem from their own misconception of what caving involves. With regards to general safety young people are much safer down a cave than they are in the car, at home, at school or on any transport you care to mention. A very sad but unforseable accident has occured but that should not result in caving being labelled dangerous. It does of course have inherent dangers but an excellent and thorough instructor scheme, risk assessment and good practice makes the risks extremely managable.

Caving is not all crawling, sometimes it’s simply a very interesting and unusual walk. The Outdoor Centre you are visiting will choose a cave based on your needs and the weather on the day.

Caving does not neccessaily mean water, not all caves have water running through them but most will see some water during heavy and prolonged rain, which means we don’t go!

Caving is excellent for team building, has high levels of activity and enjoyment and is often the favourite activity for the youngsters at High Adventure.

I hope this gives you something to convince the parents with

Got a question of your own? Send us an email.