27th February 2019

The current unseasonably warm weather, and the resulting impact on the extremely limited winter conditions, continues to affect the planned provision of Winter Mountain Leader courses. The weather outlook for next week, whilst becoming stormier and colder, is not expected to appreciably alter the conditions sufficiently to make running Winter Mountain Leader training or assessment courses authentic or viable that week.

Therefore, after consultation and discussion with the providers involved it was agreed to cancel the three Winter Mountain Leader courses (one training and two assessments) being run by Pete Hill, Phill George and Glenmore Lodge next week (week beginning 3rd March 2019).

We, Mountain Training Scotland and all the Winter Mountain Leader providers, will continue to monitor and consider the current conditions and review the viability of running courses on a week by week basis. The long term forecasts are looking positive for a return to colder conditions. Our hope is that this return to colder weather will be sufficient to see a return to something looking like winter conditions in which we can run Winter Mountain Leader courses.

Any decision to not run Winter Mountain Leader courses will be taken by ALL providers in conjunction with Mountain Training Scotland at a national, rather than a local level. Any candidates who have concerns regarding their course going ahead should contact the Winter Mountain Leader provider directly.

George McEwan
MTS Executive Officer

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20th February 2019

This season, the very dramatic weather swings (both in temperature, winds, and type of precipitation) coupled with unhelpful underfoot snow conditions have made running Winter Mountain Leader courses very challenging for both providers and their associated course directors. Behind the scenes there has been a great deal of communication between all Mountain Training Scotland Winter Mountain Leader providers and course directors via the Mountain Training Scotland Executive Officer, to constantly assess the prevailing (and future) winter conditions to ensure that we can provide viable training/assessments for candidates that reflect the unique challenges of operating as a Winter Mountain Leader whilst maintaining the integrity of the scheme.

We are about to enter another significant warm weather period (temps expected in high teens at sea level by the weekend with summit temperatures around +6-8 degrees) through the latter part of this week and into the end of next week. This combined with the current paucity of suitable and appropriate Winter Mountain Leader conditions has meant some tough decisions regarding three assessments run by three different MTS providers - Pete Hill, Glenmore Lodge, and Plas y Brenin - next week, have had to be made.

After discussion with the three providers, the decision has been taken to cancel all three Winter Mountain Leader assessments that were due to run next week.

Unfortunately, the longer term outlook is not looking very hopeful either. Several weather models are indicating the possibility of the return of some colder air moving into the eastern part of the UK around the beginning of March. However, the view from many weather forecasters is guarded and cautious about this air mass becoming established and bringing sustained cold. In any case, our main concern would be the lack of conditions if/when this air mass arrives and that this may be a case of too little too late. It’s worth keeping an eye on but at this stage, it is questionable how much of a game changer this will be.

Given the current state of the mountain conditions as we go into March, Mountain Training Scotland, in collaboration with our Winter Mountain Leader providers, think it prudent to advise candidates that we are facing very unpredictable mountain conditions, so much so that providers are not in a position to provide firm guarantees about whether to run planned Winter Mountain Leader training/assessment courses. This means lead in times to making decisions about whether a course will run, or not, will be within a week or so timescale and will heavily rely on Mountain Training Scotland Winter Mountain Leader providers making a last minute decision based on ‘week ahead’ weather forecasts and the current winter conditions “on the hill”.

Any decision to not run Winter Mountain Leader courses will be taken by ALL providers in conjunction with Mountain Training Scotland at a national, rather than a local level.

Any candidates who have concerns regarding their course going ahead should contact the provider of your Winter Mountain Leader course directly.

Our collective experience operating in Scottish winter has shown that no matter how bleak the weather and conditions prospects, “keeping the faith” is very often rewarded with a surprising and welcome return to winter, especially at this stage in the season. Fingers crossed.

George McEwan
MTS Executive Officer