Over the May bank holiday, (1 st -4 th May) cadets from 2030 Sqn took part in an advanced navigation course in the Snowdonia National Park . After the long 3 ½ hour drive, cadets struck camp and on the evening took part in lessons on mountain walking and rucksack packing.

ICdt Sgt Hanna commenting on how useful the lecture was and was surprised as to how much there was to learn with regards to packing a rucksack correctly. 

Saturday saw the cadets on their first walk of the weekend. After an early 06:00 wake up call, cadets traveled to Llyn Ogwen to begin their walk of the Glyders mountain range. The cadets learnt and took part in micro navigation exercises which tested their navigation skills to the extreme, this required them to pinpoint their position on the map to within a matter of meters.

They accurately navigated and conducted ‘leg' times, height gain, distance traveled, bearing and ETA with backstops and description of route rigorously throughout the day while reaching the two peaks of Glyder Fach (994m) and Glyder Fawr (999m) before descending the mountain.

Sunday saw the potential highlight of the weekend with the attempt to reach the summit of the highest peak in England and Wales , Snowdon . The planned route was the miners and the Pyg track, but even at 08:00hrs no parking spaces were available, which meant a trip up to Llanberis and the Llanberis Path. Weather was overcast but visibility good with cloud cover at 1000m. This is the longest route up Snowdon and near the summit, very steep and demanding. Cadets continued to navigate highly accurately and relocated along the way. With 900m to go cadets caught their first glimpse of the summit (1085m) and within 20 minutes had reached the top. Cdt Sgt Everett Commented by saying ‘It was very steep and hard work in places but to reach the top was a fantastic feeling'.

With a quick stop at the second highest peak Garnedd Ugain (1065m), cadets begun their descent, learning how quickly weather on a mountain can change. The group faced hail, 50-60mph winds, very poor visibility due to thick cloud cover and a wind chill of touching -10°c, but all pulled through in classic 2030 determination and completed the day on a high.

Cadets learned what to do in various mountain emergencies, ranging from bad weather to people involved in cliff failures in that evenings activities. CWO Wakeman commenting on how interesting and more importantly useful knowledge it was.

The final day was a wind-down with cadets visiting the waterfalls of Swallow falls and Angel falls around the Betws-y-Coed area of Snowdonia in the morning before traveling back to the Squadron in the afternoon. It was a good end to a fantastic weekend for all those involved in the camp. Special thanks to the squadrons former Commanding Officer, Flt Lt Allwood for organizing the camp.