Feature: Boulder Adventures
11/08/2003

Business name: Boulder Adventures

Location: Bryn Du, Llanberis

Type of business: Outdoor Activity Centre with onsite accommodation facilities.

Article by: Simon Panton

Walking up the drive to Bryn Du I was struck by the pleasant ambience of the wooded grounds that surround the large Victorian era stone building. The building itself was attractive and well finished with new windows and freshly painted woodwork.

At the front entrance I was greeted by David Crombie, the operations director and Andy Pearce the business manager. We stepped inside and I began to quiz David on how he came to be running a new outdoor business in Snowdonia.

Having been a keen canoeist since the age of 14, David had progressed into a series of instructor jobs with various Local Authority and PGL centres in the flatlands of Shropshire and Cambridgeshire; he even spent time working in the Ardeche region of France. However, his dream was always to head for the majestic mountains and coast of North Wales and pursue his passion for watersports.

David’s original concept was to run a simple bunkhouse offering basic accommodation for outdoor orientated visitors, whilst supplementing his income by working as a freelance instructor. However during his search for a suitable property to develop, the notion of running a fully-fledged residential activity centre began to grow. In the end he decided to go into business with his dad Michael (a retired Chartered Engineer who had worked in the brewing industry), setting up and running such a centre. The main problem was finding an available property that fitted their criteria. After a largely fruitless search, an existing outdoor activity centre in Llanberis came on the market.

Mountain Ventures/Bryn Du had been something of an institution in Llanberis for many years. In fact many ex Mountain Venture employees still live and work in the area. However a number of factors - the negative impact of the Foot and Mouth crisis being the most pressing - lead to the previous owners deciding to sell up and cease trading in Llanberis. After a customary round of negotiations a deal was cut and the purchase went ahead.

“We decided to completely overhaul and renovate the property. This entailed a complete redesign of certain sections of the building to fit our vision of how we felt the space would best suit our needs.”, commented David.
It was already late March and the aim was to be open and ready for business by the late May Bank Holiday.

The race to make this deadline lead to something of a mammoth struggle over the following 2 months, with David and Michael often working 14 hour days, with as many as 25 additional contractors on site on some days. All the hard work paid off though and when the dust had settled they were left with a thoroughly modern facility, complete with disabled access, a working capacity of 40 beds and onsite accommodation for staff.

The main focus of the business is school groups, but David is keen to develop other potential growth areas, such as the accommodation and more technical training courses. (A bed for the night costs only £11, with an upgrade to a non-cooked breakfast available £12.50, and packed lunch and an evening meal at £19.50.)

“We have already started picking up passing accommodation trade and we are providing training courses for university club groups. I’m sure these aspects of the business will grow as the word spreads. The aim is to attain a year round consistency. The outdoor trade is often perceived as being overly seasonal, but I believe it is possible to smooth out the peaks and troughs by diversifying”, he added.

With regard to marketing, the company name and logo is refreshingly modern and the website www.boulderadventures.co.uk is both informative and pleasing to the eye.
Yet David was keen to point out that he felt personal contacts in the trade, coupled with word of mouth recommendations had so far opened a lot of doors. Working in the Outdoor scene for a number of years has certainly paid dividends in terms of distributing promotional leaflets both locally and nationally.

Nonetheless, you may have noticed some eye catching half page adverts in Climber, Canoe and Canoe Focus in the last few months. Obviously these are an expensive outlay for a new business, and David assured me that he would be monitoring feedback from customers and enquirers before committing again to a similar expenditure.

Mailshots targeted at schools were also another tactic that was being used with some degree of success already noticeable. Plans are already afoot to update and fine tune the current promotional leaflet and the website.

The company structure is simple enough, with Michael holding the financial reins as Managing Director and David being the onsite Operational Director. David shares the burden of the day-to-day logistics with Andy Pearce, an ML who has lived in the area for several years, with Andy looking after the climbing and walking activities whilst David oversees the watersports.

There is one other full time instructor, but in a typically busy week there may be as many as 6 other instructors working a couple of days each.
During quieter periods David and Andy do the cooking and laundry, but they do use cleaners and cooks to help out when the large groups are booked in.

I was curious to know what David felt was the key issue affecting the growth and development of his business, and he immediately replied, canoeing access, in particular, the Seiont. "It would be fantastic if we could sort out an agreement for shared use of the Seiont." He pulled a copy of “The Welsh Rivers” from the bookshelf and quoted the tales of warning and woe described under the Seiont section.
“Imagine what message that gives out to visitors to this area; it’s hardly good PR for Snowdonia is it?!”

We discussed the access issue for a while, but I had to leave David to take out a group of clients; another busy day for a young business. With David’s drive and energy it is obvious that Boulder Adventures has a bright future, and I am sure it will grow to become one of the top providers in the area.

(NB Snowdonia-Active is lobbying hard on the difficult issue of access to inland waters in Snowdonia. There are still significant problems barring a quick solution, but we believe that access agreements to rivers such as the Seiont are a feasible outcome within the next 2 years.)

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