Apex Extreme 2011

Over the course of a fantastic weekend weather wise, five teams from Helios ESU took part in the Apex Extreme Challenge, one of the UK’s biggest and most popular events for the 14 – 18 year old section of the Scout movement.

They started Friday night with the Apex Super Sprint, where teams had twenty minutes to located cunningly hidden control points.

The main event on Saturday included adventurous activities throughout Otley Chevin, and an urban zone based in Otley town centre. Activities included climbing, abseiling, high ropes courses, archery, and grass sledging to name but a few.

The final event on Sunday was the Apex Apocalypse, an two part event which included finding ‘fugitives’ hidden throughout Otley Chevin, and the Apex Eliminator, a gruelling assault course with team members encouraged by members of the Army.

All five did very well, with Still Sofa King Awesome being the highest of our teams, coming in at 12th out of 82 teams.

Some quote from our Explorers show just how much fun they had…

“Had the awesomest weekend ever at Apex Challenge!:) absolutely shattered! But It was so worth it:)”

“Had a great time but absolutely shattered:D”

Our teams’ results are all on the Apex website:

[12th - Still Sofa King Awesome]
[17th - The Three Cs And There's Dan]
[44th - The Buff 4]
[47th - The Mong Whisperers]
[74th - I Could Murder Cabbage Yoghurt]

More details can be found on the [Apex website] and the full set of photos can be found on the [Apex Facebook page].

If you met us there then don’t forget to become a fan of us on our [Facebook page]

Back from Summer Camp 2011

Well, that’s it, the main event is over. We’re back from Summer Camp already. 4 days and 3 night of insomnia, swimming, archery, 3G swing, zipwire, climbing, kayaking, rafting, Danish longball, orienteering, geocaching, volleyball and burning things at Blackwell Adventure have flown by.

Some of the highlight of the weekend include:

• Swinny getting some way towards conquering his fear of height, and taking swearing to a whole new level in the process on the 3G swing
• A 4 hour game of 10-a-side volleyball played right through until it was beyond pitch dark.
• The inevitable disintegration of the East Side team’s ‘raft’.

Our thanks go out to all of the staff at Blackwell Adventure for helping us to have an awesome weekend. We’re sure that we’ll be back there in future.

Next Adventure: D of E practice expedition

Back from The Roaches

Slightly later than planned (due to the ice cream taking 45 minutes to serve 27 of us on the way back from the crag), we safely returned 20 tired, grumpy, exhausted, insect bitten, lobster-looking Explorers to their parents yesterday evening after a weekend of rock climbing at The Roaches, and camping at Gradbach.

Over the course of the 2 days at the classic gritstone climbing venue the Explorers got to climb many routes from ranging from Diff all the way up to VS 4c. There was also the opportunity to complete a 25m abseil, watch a mini climbing movement masterclass from Jonny, and for some of the more experienced ones, start learning to lead climb.

Most Explorer Facebook statuses this morning were based around needing more sleep, so I think we tired them out enough!

Huge thanks to Adam and team for helping us pull it off; we couldn’t have done it without them.

For the full set of photos, check out our Facebook fan page

Next Adventure: Summer Camp!

Trent Lock…

So we survived without sinking too many people. Ok, I lied. We sank a lot. Just ask Ben “Uncle Albert” Laverick and Caitlyn “abandon ship” Hagin!

After 2 years, Helios finally returned to the place where the idea was born – Trent Lock Scout Water Activity Centre.

The weather held out for us on Saturday and we had a lovely summer’s day of kayaking, canoeing, rafting (if paddling round on some vaguely connected bits of wood counts as rafting) and sailing. Sunday was a bit wetter (ie it tipped it down) but we still got in a second session of sailing and kayaking.

For the full set of photos, check out our Facebook fan page

Next Adventure: Rock climbing at The Roaches

Back from Apex…

Helios have just returned from the fantastic Apex Overnight Challenge 2011. Over the course of the night we got to take part in archery, caving ladders, high ropes adventure, assault courses, bouncy castles, challenges, puzzles and much more in the wonderful setting of Sherwood Pines Forest Park. We also got to meet many new friends, and catch up with old ones.

Well done to all of our teams, coming 20th, 25th, 31st and 35th out of 77 Explorer teams. their results are all on the Apex website:

[20th - Sofa King Awesome]
[25th - Lobster]
[31st - I Like Trains!!!]
[35th - Super Lobster!!!]

More details can be found on the [Apex website] and the full set of photos (taken by the utterly brilliant official Apex photographers who just happen to be our very own ESL Padge and AESL Tony) can be found on the [Apex Facebook page]

If you met us there then don’t forget to become a fan of us on our [Facebook page]

We’re already looking forward to Apex Extreme in October and desperately hoping we’re lucky enough to get a place!

Upcoming camps

Helios have returned, fresh from their camp at Hesley Wood, where for once the weather was nice to us. As ever, a great weekend was had by all, including crate stacking, climbing, orienteering, danish longball, football (well, something approaching it) and a big fire till the early hours of the morning (which some Cubs invaded for a while). Photos will follow soon, but for a sneak peek, check out the crate stacking video on our Facebook page.

Whilst we’re still planning for Apex Challenge in a few weeks, it’s also time to start getting ready for our other two weekend camps of the summer – the water activity weekend at Trent Lock, and the rock climbing weekend at Gradbach / The Roaches. If you want to go, make sure you hop along to the members area to add you name to the list, and bring your deposits in ASAP (or [pay online]).

We’re off to Apex!

After a epic panic to get our teams in on time, ‘SUPER LOBSTER’, ‘I LIKE TRAINS’, ‘Lobster’, and ‘Sofa King Awesome’ are off to the Apex Overnight Challenge in April. Only another 47 days to go!

Extra huge thanks to Hannah, Catherine and Debbie for sorting out our entry.

Apex overnight challenge 2011

Entries will be opening soon, and as ever the places will go very quickly. So, to be sure that your team gets a place first head over to [here] to enter you team, then you can either pay online, or bring the money to Explorers. It’s likely to be £12.50 like last year UPDATE – it’s £16.25 (plus a fiver if you want a t-shirt), but we can sort out the difference closer to the time. I can’t enter the teams until I’ve had your payment.

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Recent(ish) photos…

Dec 10: Win Hill Pike hike

Oct 10: Halloween in Sheffield

Sep 10: 1st Birthday Party

Sep 10: Joint Camp at Linnet Clough

Winter Camp 2011

Here is the first bit of info for the first event of 2011. If you wish to go, then you can either pay online, or bring the £10 deposit to Explorers with a note saying what it’s for.

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