This is an international visitation and scientific study programme we run in conjunction with one our partners, The British Schools Exploring Society (BSES). The programme is designed to challenge and develop young people aged 16-20. The project runs over 10 months and culminates in a 6 week-long expedition to countries such as Madagascar and the Amazon Rain Forrest in Peru to collect scientific data for the Royal Geographic Society. Our members undertake various training weekends leading up to the main trip, including climbing Mount Snowdon. This is a long-term, intensive programme that delivers a very high quality and lasting interaction with our members. The experience they gain broadens their horizons, develops their social and academic skills and teaches teamwork, self-discipline and self-motivation.

This is a fantastic opportunity to develop and practice leadership skills in an expedition context with the support of experienced wilderness leaders and management trainers. A key component of the programme is the recognition of the link between expedition leadership skills and career leadership roles. The programme combines management, sports coaching and leadership training models to provide the young people with a solid grounding in leadership theory and the chance to practice their soft and hard skills of leadership. All the training is extremely practical, incorporating real and role-play projects that relate to expedition planning, the delivery of scientific fieldwork and the safe running of adventure activities in an expedition environment. The initial training weekends take place in the UK and the expedition phase is run in a choice of destinations.

THE SNOWDONIA WEEKEND – written by Saskia Moynihan
The weekend was the beginning of the young explorers training and to introduce them to life outdoors, experience different challenges, such as navigation skills and camp craft. The climax of this trip was to make the ascent of the great Mount Snowdon.

On the Friday, we set off for Wales at about 6:30pm and travelled by mini bus. We arrived at Snowdonia at 1:30am and were all so tired we just dropped our bags in the barn, rolled out our sleeping bags and bedded down for the night. On the following day, we woke up at 7:00am to have breakfast, which consisted of dehydrated food from our ration packs…very tasty! We then began our camp craft where the young explorers learned how to light a camp fire and cook on an open fire. They also learned the art of navigation and had a chance to use them when we went on a navigation exercise. This was really enjoyable as we walked and climbed hills and mountains, ran through streams, got completely soaked but thoroughly felt the benefit and loved every minute of it.

On returning to the camp, we started to set up our tents for the main night of camping which the Young Explorers did in record time with the help of Gesi and Carl who were last year's explorers and came along this year as helpers. We then made ourselves another slap up gourmet dinner from our ration packs, and bedded down for the last night.

THE BRECON BEACONS WEEKEND – written by Saskia Moynihan
The purpose of the weekend was to build on the skills that had already been obtained by the Young Explorers such as setting up tents and general camp craft and the skills of wild camping. They were also building up their physical fitness and resilience to cope with different situations.

We left London at 6:00pm and arrived at Brecon Beacons at 12:30am where we changed into our waterproof clothing and boots and packed our survival rucksacks with our  delicious ration packs in hand. We made our way through the woods with our tents and walked for about 20-25mins until we found a patch of flat ground, which was suitable to set up our camp site for the night.

The Young Explorers took charge and snapped into action by putting their tents up in a record time.

We woke up at 7:00am and the YEs started up their camp cookers to make tea. We had a group brief from Neil about what the day would entail.

We were informed about a hiking navigation and how we were going to take turns in leading the group. We commenced our hike up hills and mountains which was enjoyable; however it rained really hard throughout the whole weekend which made it even more of a challenge.

We walked for 5hrs then stopped for lunch which proved hard as the rain was so heavy. We had to find our campsite for the night so we headed off back into the forest until we got to our patch which was to be our home for the night.

That night, we struggled to build and light our camp fire but eventually managed to make a flame.

The Brecon Beacons weekend was very tough and demanding on everyone’s endurance skills, but we got through it and many felt prepared to tackle their big trip ahead